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Abstract The United Nations, through its subsidiary agency United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), has put in such resources to curb infant mortality in pursuit of the Sustainable development goals (SDG). Nevertheless, the issue of under-five mortality is still persistent in so many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this study investigated the long-term and short-term impacts of solid waste, urbanization, and pollution on under-five mortality, employing the Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and the dynamic Autoregressive distributed lag (DARDL) models for the empirical investigations and robustness checks, respectively. The study found that there is significant cointegration between the interest variables. While key findings from the DARDL results revealed that pollution, urbanization, and solid waste have long-term significant positive impacts on under-five mortality in Nigeria, the short-run outcome shows that urbanization and solid waste had a significant positive impact on under-five mortality, while pollution was statistically insignificant. Moreover, lead exposure showed a significant long-term positive and short-term negative impact on under-five mortality in Nigeria. Furthermore, the DARDL simulations show higher long-run shocks and variations as compared to the short run. Thus, CO2 emissions, urbanization, and solid waste encourage under-five deaths in Nigeria. The study recommends, among other things, the enactment of environmental laws that will curb CO2 emissions in the country while also strengthening the existing ones, discourage indiscriminate solid waste disposal, and encourage investment in clean technologies and modern healthcare facilities in urban areas of Nigeria.

Abstract This study examined the interconnectedness and volatility correlation between cryptocurrency and traditional financial markets in the five largest African countries, addressing concerns about potential spillover effects, especially the high volatility and lack of regulation in the cryptocurrency market. The study employed both diagonal BEKK-GARCH and DCC-GARCH to analyze the existence of spillover effects and correlation between both markets. A daily time series dataset from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2021, was employed to analyze the contagion effect. Our findings reveal a significant spillover effect from cryptocurrency to the African traditional financial market; however, the percentage spillover effect is still low but growing. Specifically, evidence is insufficient to suggest a spillover effect from cryptocurrency to Egypt and Morocco’s financial markets, at least in the short run. Evidence in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya indicates a moderate but growing spillover effect from cryptocurrency to the financial market. Similarly, we found no evidence of a spillover effect from the African financial market to the cryptocurrency market. The conditional correlation result from the DCC-GARCH revealed a positive low to moderate correlation between cryptocurrency volatility and the African financial market. Specifically, the DCC-GARCH revealed a greater integration in both markets, especially in the long run. The findings have policy implications for financial regulators concerning the dynamics of both markets and for investors interested in portfolio diversification within the two markets.

Based on the perspective of industrial agglomeration, this paper employs a dynamic panel model and mediating effects model to investigate the impact of digital economy’s development on air pollution in 274 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2019. The main findings include: (1) The development of the digital economy reduces air pollution emissions in Chinese cities, and the elasticity of pollution reduction is greater in central and western China than in eastern China. (2) The nexus between industrial agglomeration and air pollution is inverted-N-shaped. (3) Mechanism tests show that the digital economy can effectively promote the degree of industrial agglomeration in each area, and it plays a positive role in abating pollution in eastern and central China through the positive externalities of industrial agglomeration, but the mediating effect of industrial agglomeration on pollution reduction is not significant in western China. (4) Diversified agglomeration is an active mediator of the digital economy’s pollution reduction effect in eastern and central China. Accordingly, some policy implications are put forward for simultaneously promoting the development of the digital economy and reducing air pollution, impelling industrial agglomeration, and accelerating the green transformation in China.

The carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) is an important measure to implement China’s “double carbon” strategy.We use “China’s carbon emission trading pilot policy” as a quasi-natural experiment to identify theeffect of this market-based environmental regulation on a firm’s export and its impacting mechanisms.Based on the Propensity score matching and difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) method, we observe robust evidence that the carbon emissions trading pilot policy significantly increases the export of regulated firms. And also find that this policy positivelyaffects the exports of both SOEs and non-SOEs. Considering enterprise heterogeneity, the policy positivelyimpacts the exports of FDI firms, large firms, and low industrial concentrations. Moreover, we examine how environmental regulation could affect firmexport through technological innovation, productivity, and product research. The observable evidence leads us to cautiously conclude thatmarket-based environmental regulations in even developing countries could achieve export growth.Based on our findings, we suggest that: 1) policymakers should limit CO2 emissions quotas to ensure an appropriate increase in the price of CO2 emissions; 2) to design a unified carbon ETS market, researchers should explore ways to activate market-oriented environmental regulation tools based on the carbon emission price.

As is glaringly apparent, the world is now bedeviled with environmental challenges and ecological complications. This may not be unconnected with the persistent ecological challenges emanating from fossil fuel consumption and changing lifestyles. This is why various attempts are ongoing to advance the course of renewable energy and economic growth as a response to environmental change. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the dynamic effect of external debt, energy usage, and real income on the ecological footprint in Turkey, covering the period 1985–2017. To achieve the stated objective, the study used the newly developed Bootstrap Autoregressive Distributed Lag (BARDL) test and the Granger causality test to unravel the co-movement as well as the direction of causality among the variables. The results revealed that external debt influences environmental quality in both the short and the long run. However, energy consumption and real income have been found to have retarded environmental quality in both the short and the long run. The Granger causality test results revealed that the causal flow direction runs from external debt, economic growth, and energy usage to environmental quality. Therefore, the study argues that for the Turkish government to achieve a long-term plan of environmental sustainability, there is a need for the government to venture into debt consolidation programs such as implementing tax increases and cutting public spending in order to increase fiscal space that would finance long-term environmental protection policies.

First and foremost, the present study seeks to traverse the informal sector characterized by a shadow economy in the presence of financial development, economic growth, and stock market performance on environmental pollution in Nigeria from 1981 to 2019. The dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (DARDL) approach was used to measure the short- and long-run elasticities, while spectral causality is applied to categorize the causal directions. Findings from the study revealed that the structural break unit root test revealed that all variables are stationary at first difference. The ARDL bound test confirmed the existence of long-run association among the used variables. The ARDL long-run results reveal that economic growth, financial development, and stock market performance are significantly responsible for carbon emission in Nigeria, while the shadow economy significantly improves environmental quality in Nigeria. Findings from the spectral causality results show a unidirectional causal relationship between financial development, economic growth, trade, stock market performance, and shadow economy to carbon emission in Nigeria. The empirical findings of this study provide some perceptive policy recommendations to overcome the adverse effect of carbon emissions in the environment.

The purpose of the startup approach is to find an appropriate course of action that adds value to the economy’s development. This study is aimed to determine the effect of the lean startup approach with mediating effect of business coaching to foster innovative work behavior in women entrepreneurs. Additionally, the study also examines the moderating effect of age on the lean startup approach and innovative work behavior. A quantitative approach was employed. The findings show that the relationship between the lean startup approach and innovative work behavior is significant. Moreover, the findings also revealed a significant mediating effect of business coaching and moderating effect of age. This research encourages practitioners and scholars to deal with women entrepreneurship incubation initiatives in the lean startup methodology. Furthermore, this study also leads to a deeper understanding of women’s ideas for business exploration, growth, and implementation. The study contends that guidelines and directives are critical for creative entrepreneurial behavior.

The present study investigates the impact of economic growth, hydropower generation, and urbanization on Malaysia’s CO 2 emissions. This study applies Quantile Autoregressive Lagged (QARDL) technique for the period of 1965Q1 to 2018Q4. The Granger-causality in quantiles is applied to confirm the causal nexus among the modeled variables. The outcomes demonstrate that hydropower generation decreases the detrimental effects of CO 2 emissions at the range of high quantile levels. Furthermore, urbanization, except for higher quantiles, exhibits negative impacts on CO 2 emissions. Also, the QARDL coefficients confirm the presence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis from median to higher quantiles. Besides, the Granger-causality test confirms the two-way causality among CO 2 emissions and hydropower generation in Malaysia’s economy and the same for the other series. The policymakers should enhance the market attractiveness of hydropower generation projects through incentives for the investors.

In the modern era of globalization, information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs) have become an important factor influencing carbon dioxide (CO2) emission; however, the specific effect produced by ICTs is still not clear. Therefore, the study examines the nexus between ICTs, foreign direct investment, globalization, and CO2 emission in 77 developing countries. The novel attribute of this research is the ICTs with financial development and the international trade interaction term. The results of this study are based on the pooled regression and generalized method of moment (GMM) techniques from 1990 to 2016. The subsequent empirical findings are established as follows: first, the ICTs positively contribute to reducing CO2 emission. Second, globalization significantly increases the CO2 emission; third; the interaction between ICTs and financial development increases CO2 emissions, and the moderating effect of ICTs and international trade performs the similar role. Fourth, the empirical finding verifies the presence of the pollution haven hypothesis. Fifth, our robustness tests confirmed that our empirical results were consistent. We suggest that policymakers should be using ICTs as a policy tool to mitigate CO2 emission and should invite such investments in ICT sectors, which help maintain the environment quality.

The Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey (MINT) countries have practiced significant levels of economic growth over the years. However, these countries have not managed to protect their environmental quality in tandem. Thus, the aggravation of environmental indicators traversing these countries radiates a shadow of uncertainty on their achievement of economic growth sustainability. In this regard, green investment and technological innovations are commonly considered as an effective aspect geared to minimize CO2 emissions, as these increase energy efficiency and involve cleaner production. Thus, this study investigates the effect of green investment, economic growth, technological innovation, non-renewable energy use, and globalization on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in MINT countries from 2000 to 2020. After checking the stationary process, this study applied fully modified ordinary least square and dynamic ordinary least square methods to estimate the long-run elasticity of the mentioned regressors on CO2 emissions. The outcomes show that non-renewable energy and technological innovations significantly increase environmental degradation. In contrast, the globalization process and green investment significantly reduce it in the long run. Moreover, the interaction effect of green investment and globalization significantly overcomes the pressure on the environment. Similarly, the moderation effect of technological innovation and globalization significantly reduces the emission level in the region. Moreover, the U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis was observed between economic growth and carbon emission across the MINT countries. Furthermore, the findings of the Dumitrescu and Hurlin’s panel causal test disclose that bidirectional causality exists between green investment, globalization, technological innovations, non-renewable energy, and CO2 emissions. This study also recommends some valuable policy suggestions to governments in general and to policymakers specifically which are aimed to endorse environmental sustainability in the MINT countries.

The study explores the association between economic complexity, globalization, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on the ecological footprint in the case of India from 1990–2018. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) is applied to measure the long-run elasticity, while the vector error correction model (VECM) is applied to classify the causal path. The empirical findings demonstrate that economic complexity, globalization process, and renewable energy consumption play a dominant role in minimizing environmental degradation. In contrast, economic growth and non-renewable energy consumption are more responsible for increasing the pollution level in both the short and long run. Furthermore, the VECM outcomes disclose that there is long-run causality between ecological footprint and economic complexity. Moreover, the empirical outcomes are robust to various robustness checks performed for analysis to the consistency of our main results. The Indian government/policymakers should encourage a more environmentally friendly production process and eco-friendly technologies in exports to minimize environmental degradation.

The G-7 economies comprise a few of the global, mainly economically developed countries. On the other hand, in conjunction with these high economic development performances, the ecological behaviors in G-7 anions have concurrently provoked to elevate deep apprehensions among the stakeholders. Therefore, the present research aims to empirically investigate the environmental influences of nuclear energy, industrialization, fossil fuel energy, and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the G-7 nations between 1991 and 2018. After checking the cross-sectional dependency, this study employed the first-generation ((full modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS)) and second-generation (Driscoll and Kraay (D-K), feasible generalized least square (FGLS)) approaches for robust and reliable findings. The findings explore that nuclear energy production is ineffective in curbing the figure of ecological footprints in the long-run. Moreover, the industrialization process and fossil fuel energy consumption reduce environmental quality in the G-7 economies. More to the point, the empirical findings recommend that these nations can renovate their industrial production procedures in an eco-friendly behavior they can experience an unsoiled deployment of the energy transition. Similarly, the FDI also degrades environmental eminence in the long-run. This validates the pollution haven hypothesis in the G-7 countries. Based on these results, this study suggests the G-7 nations should reduce the production of nuclear energy levels, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy production in the industrial sector, reduce fossil fuel-based foreign investment, and assimilate ecological welfare strategies within their development planning.

Most countries, notably those that signed the Paris Climate Agreement, prioritize achieving the zero carbon or carbon neutrality aim. Unlike earlier studies, this one assesses the contribution of environmental policy, clean energy, green innovation, and renewable energy to the E7 economies’ achievement of carbon neutrality goals from 1990 to 2019. Findings emanating from the study show that the EKC hypothesis is valid in E7 countries. Implying that emissions in the E7 countries increased with the kick-off of development but declined later due to possible potent environmental regulatory policies put in place. Similarly, across all models, renewable energy (REN), green innovations (GINNO), environmental tax (ETAX), and technological innovations (TECH) were found to exert a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions in the E7 countries both in the short and long run. On the other hand, economic expansion (GDP) positively impacts environmental deterioration. Furthermore, the country-specific result shows that, on average, Brazil, India, China, Russia, Mexico, and Indonesia have significant environmental policies aiding carbon abatement. Except for Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia, the income growth in the rest of the countries does not follow the EKC proposition. Furthermore, the causality result revealed a unidirectional causal relationship between GDP, REN, and GINNO to CO2 emission. No causality was found between ETAX with CO2, while a bi-directional causality exists between technology and CO2 emissions. Based on the finding, policymakers in the E7 countries should move away from fossil fuels because future electricity output will not be sufficient to reduce emissions considerably. Environmental regulations, encouraging technological innovation, adopting green and sustainable technology, and clean energy sources, among other things, demand radical and broad changes.

China’s rapid industrialization has led to massive resource consumption, and the country has recently been highlighted as the World’s top carbon emitter. To pursue a sustainable economy via environmental upgrading, reductions in carbon emission levels are of great concern. The carbon emission reduction policy (CETP) is an environmental regulation aimed at cutting emissions and achieving environmental protection. Based on panel data of pilot and non-pilot regions, this study investigated the policy impact of the CETP on carbon emission reduction through difference-in-differences (DID). The findings, based on pooled OLS (ordinary least squares) and LSDV (least square dummy variable) regressions, revealed that the carbon emissions of the pilot regions (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong, Chongqing, and Hubei) had reduced by 12 percent more than the non-pilot regions. Thus, this implies that the CETP causes environmental upgrading. The results were further verified using a number of robustness checks, including parallel trends, placebo test, Granger causality test, and DID regression with a longer sample period. Based on the study findings, it was concluded that to achieve higher upgrade levels related to the environment, the CETP needs to be encouraged and improved for nationwide implementation. Furthermore, sustainable economic development in China also needs strict environmental regulations and policy measures.

Can Pakistan’s environmental-related technologies (ERT) and nuclear and renewable energy mitigate environmental pollution? As global warming and climate change rise dramatically, economies shift to friendly energy substitutions and eco-friendly technologies, contributing to the mitigation of environmental contamination. In this scenario, policy and academic analysts have paid more concentration to renewable and nuclear energy deployment with ERT installation. To achieve this goal, the present study scrutinizes the asymmetric effects of nuclear energy, renewable energy, and ERT on the ecological footprint of Pakistan. The current research applies a novel non-linear autoregressive distributive lag method from 1991 to 2020. The results of the current analysis show that negative changes in nuclear energy increase emissions levels in the long run, while positive and negative changes in renewable energy deployment significantly overcome the burden on the environment. Similarly, positive and negative changes in ERT reduce pollution levels in the long run. Moreover, these long-run outcomes are analogous to short-run findings for Pakistan. Therefore, there is a dire requirement to increase the consumption of renewable and nuclear energy sources and take advantage of the noteworthy impact of an uncontaminated atmosphere through clean ERT potentials.

Fiscal policy is a crucial government tool for influencing and managing the national economy and creating a strong incentive for low carbon investment. Previous literature has reputable evidence that improving fiscal policy enhances environmental quality. However, the literature fails to classify the exact turning level (threshold point) below/above which the association may be negative or positive. In this regard, this research investigates the nexus between fiscal policy, foreign direct investment, financial development, trade openness, urban population, gross capital formation, labour force, and CO2 emissions in the era of globalization. The panel data set contained 105 countries over the period from 1990 to 2016. The empirical findings are estimated through linear and nonlinear panel data approaches such as fully modified ordinary least square and panel threshold regression. The subsequent findings are established: first, fiscal policy and globalization significantly increase environmental pollution. Second, the empirical results confirm the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHV). Third, financial development and gross fixed capital formation are also considered some of the most crucial indicators to increase pollution levels. Fourth, trade openness, urban population, and labour force improve environmental quality. Fifth, panel threshold regression discovers that countries maintain a minimum level of fiscal policy at −1.2889. Based on these empirical findings, this study suggests that policymakers and governments of these countries should take steps to restructure their industrial sector and design macroeconomic-level carbon-free policies to support the implementation of low-energy-intensive and lower carbon production technologies.

Concerns regarding environmental sustainability have generally been an important element in achieving long-term development objectives. However, developing countries struggle to deal with these concerns, which all require specific treatment. As a result, this study explores the interaction between financial development, renewable energy consumption, technological innovations, and CO2 emissions in India from 1980 to 2019, taking into account the critical role of economic progress and urbanization. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is used to quantify long-run dynamics, while the Vector Error Correction Model is used to identify causal direction (VECM). According to the study’s conclusions, financial development has a considerable positive impact on CO2 emissions. The coefficient of renewable energy consumption and technical innovations, on the other hand, is strongly negative in both the short and long run, indicating that increasing these measures will reduce CO2 emissions. Furthermore, economic expansion and urbanization have a negative impact on environmental quality since they emit a significant amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. The results of the robustness checks were obtained using the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and the Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR) approaches to verify the findings. The VECM results reveal that there is long-run causality in CO2 emissions, financial development, renewable energy utilization, and urbanization. A range of diagnostic tests were also used to confirm the validity and reliability. This study delivers new findings that contribute to the existing literature and may be of particular interest to the country’s policymakers in light of the financial system and its role in environmental issues.