Does exports diversification and environmental innovation achieve carbon neutrality target of OECD economies?

Achieving carbon neutrality is of great importance to many developed and developing countries around the globe. Global warming is one of the leading issues caused by human activities. To cope with environmental challenges, and to achieve carbon neutrality, fiscal decentralization and eco-innovation are promising strategies that can also enable countries and local governments to pursue visible economic growth. This study investigates the role of export diversification, environment-related technological innovation, and fiscal decentralization in effectively achieving carbon neutrality target for 37 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) economies from 1970 to 2019. For empirical analysis, it uses second-generation tests that deal with heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence issues. To this end, this study employs updated cointegration techniques. The augmented mean group (AMG) approach is used to examine the long-run dynamic equilibrium among the variables of interest. The findings indicate that export diversification and fiscal decentralization followed by GDP growth affect carbon dioxide emission positively. While renewable energy consumption and environment-related technological innovation assure environmental improvement. Additionally, short-run causal and unidirectional links are found running from fiscal decentralization, export diversification, and environment-related technological innovation to carbon emissions. Our findings suggest that OECD partner countries need to be careful while devising fiscal decentralization and export diversification policies. They should increase the share of renewable energy, and expand environment-related technological innovation. Such strategic efforts would direct the OECD countries to meet the climate change mitigation agenda of sustainable development goals.

Role of trade openness, export diversification, and renewable electricity output in realizing carbon neutrality dream of China.

Since climate change mitigation is the central debate of modern literature, the realization of carbon neutrality in response to diversified macroeconomic variables is the most crucial concern of international economies. However, the critical role of trade and renewable electricity output in export diversification-environmental nexus is missing. Therefore, this study investigates the combined influence of trade openness, exports diversification, and renewable electricity output on carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) in China from 1989 through 2019. Applying novel time series econometric techniques robust to structural breaks, following new outcomes are obtained. Firstly, long-run equilibrium cointegration existed among the under-analysis variables. Secondly, export diversification and renewable electricity output are predicted to decelerate CO2, supporting carbon neutrality in the long run. Thirdly, trade openness and gross domestic product accelerated the CO2, delaying carbon neutrality accomplishment. Most importantly, significant structural break dummy interacting with trade openness implicated that during the post-2001 era, China's trade openness extensively deteriorated the environmental quality in the face of trade liberalization obtained after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). Based on empirical results, export diversification and renewable electricity production policies should be mutually non-exclusive and closely coordinated. Further, to counter the carbon emission acceleration impact of trade openness, increasing the share of green tradable products is suggested. Finally, bilateral trade restructuring is recommended to realize the long-term dream of economic sustainability and carbon neutrality.

Are eco-innovation and export diversification mutually exclusive to control carbon emissions in G-7 countries?

Most of the member countries of COP21 have been struggling to devise relevant policies in order to control carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions since the Paris agreement in 2015. In our view, without analyzing the role of two extremely important variables i.e., ecological innovation and export diversification, in the whole chain of carbon emissions, expecting significant results from such policies would be far fetched. This study, therefore, is aimed to explore the effect of export diversification (ED) and ecological innovation (EI) on carbon emissions for G-7 countries from 1990 to 2017, along with renewable energy consumption (REC) as an important control variable. The results show that export diversification (ED) increases carbon emissions; however, ecological innovation (EI) helps reduce carbon emissions, and similarly, renewable energy consumption (REC) also controls carbon emissions. More important, however, is the realization that the negative impact of export diversification on the CO2 emissions gets weakened as the degree of environmental innovation increases. Based on our findings, the promotion of renewable energy, along with the adoption of environmentally friendly technology, is strongly recommended for G-7 countries. Our results also highlight that Government policies regarding export diversification (ED), ecological innovation (EI), and renewable energy consumption (REC) approximately take more than a year to be able to deliver the results effectively.

What drives cross-country differences in export variety? A bilateral panel approach.

A worldwide event like the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak can only reinforce the interest in modelling trade diversification as a key factor in countries' vulnerability to external shocks. This paper adopts a detailed relative framework to study the determinants of product-level export variety in a large bilateral panel of developing and developed economies (16,770 country pairs in the period 1988-2014). We find that country pairs characterized by large differentials in productivity and in the makeup of the labour force differ in export variety patterns. This result holds after controlling for other endowments and for trade costs. Further, productivity plays a significant role in the reduction of export variety dissimilarities between countries belonging to different income groups. Hence, without successful technological convergence the low-income economies will not be able to reduce their exposure to export risk.

Green growth path dependence momentum under the prism of COP26: the role of financial deepening, ICT development, and export diversification.

Financial deepening is important in resource allocation for more productive enterprises, leading to sustainable green growth. Moreover, rapid development in the digital economy and export diversification significantly affect green growth. From this perspective, our study explores the impact of financial deepening, ICT development, and export diversification on green growth in China's economies from 1996 to 2021. The study explores the linkage between financial deepening, ICT development, export diversification, and green growth by employing the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) approach. The results obtained in the long run are as follows: positive shock in financial deepening brings positive change in green growth, whereas negative shock in financial deepening reduces green growth. In the long run, positive shock in ICT enhances green growth, but negative shock in ICT does not impact green growth. Moreover, positive shock in export diversification brings positive change in green growth, whereas negative shock in export diversification reports an insignificant impact on green growth. Based on findings, it is suggested that financial deepening, ICT development, and export diversification are conducive to sustainable green growth.

Reshaping energy horizon of Iran: investigating economic sanctions, export diversification, and environmental resilience.

Employing robust methodologies, including principal component analysis, autoregressive moving average, Fourier bootstrap dynamic autoregressive distributed lag, error correction model, and the Breitung-Candelon spectral Granger causality test, this study scrutinizes the impact of export diversification (EXD) on Iran's ecological footprint (EF) from 1997 to 2020, considering economic sanctions (ESI), trade openness (TOP), energy consumption per capita (ECpc), globalization (KOF), and real GDP per capita (RGDPpc). Findings consistently affirm a positive environmental impact of EXD, revealing a nuanced temporal pattern. Notably, the short-term impact (- 0.645) is more pronounced than its long-term counterpart (- .020). Increased industrial activities due to globalization (10% rise) lead to 4.26% and 1.64% EF degradation in the long and short term. Conversely, due to Iran's heavy reliance on fossil fuels, a 10% rise in ECpc correlates with 1.63% and 3.81% long- and short-term environmental quality reduction. ESI demonstrates a dual impact, improving short-term environmental quality but contributing to long-term degradation. Frequency-domain causality analysis highlights EXD and KOF as short- and long-term causes of EF, ESI, and TOP as medium- to long-term causes and RGDPpc as a long-term cause. These findings emphasize the need for sustainable policies, stringent environmental standards, and a balanced approach to fostering economic growth while preserving the environment.

Exploring the role of economic and institutional indicators for carbon and GHG emissions: policy-based analysis for OECD countries.

Most of the developed countries across the globe have targeted to attain sustainable economic growth. With this focus, the current study evaluated 29 OECD countries over the time period of 1990 to 2018 to analyze the influence of economic and environmental indicators, i.e., export diversification, institutional quality, macrocosmic variables on carbon dioxide, and greenhouse gas emissions. The current study used the quantile regression and generalized method of moments approach on the selected panel. Our comprehensive econometric approach allows us to reveal that export diversification negatively affects carbon emissions but promotes greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly, institutional quality, economic growth, financial development, and economic growth helps to reduce carbon emissions but increase greenhouse emissions. In comparison, trade openness exhibits a positive influence on carbon emissions but a negative on greenhouse gas emissions. Besides, urbanization is found one of the major reasons for environmental degradation. In light of empirical fact findings, this study commends some innovative policy insights for scholars, governors, and policymakers.

Role of financial inclusion and export diversification in determining green growth: evidence from SAARC economies.

This study quantifies the impact of financial inclusion and export diversification in attaining the target of green growth for SAARC economies during the period 2000 to 2019. For the analysis purpose, this study employed second-generation econometric techniques that deal with heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence issues. To this end, CUP-FM and CUP-BC are used to investigate the long-run dynamic equilibrium relationship among the variables of interest. The outcomes show that financial inclusion and institutional quality are eco-friendly variables and play a vital role in attaining green growth. In contrast, export diversification and FDI are inversely related with green growth in SAARC economies. Furthermore, a unidirectional causality running from financial inclusion to green growth and financial inclusion to export diversification is observed. On the basis of investigated outcomes, this research suggests essential policy recommendations to attain green growth.

Exploring the linkage between export diversification and ecological footprint: evidence from advanced time series estimation techniques.

In recent literature, scholars discussed the role of export diversification in environmental quality. However, most studies analyzed the role of export diversification in influencing carbon dioxide emissions with mixed results. However, since carbon dioxide emissions specifically capture the environmental effects of energy utilization, a change in the level of carbon dioxide emissions cannot be regarded as a comprehensive measure of environmental deterioration. Also, many previous studies use the original form of the Theil index to measure export diversification, and during the interpretation of the results, they disregard the fact that the lower value of the Theil index indicates higher diversification and vice versa. In this context, to address these gaps in the literature, a study on the contribution of export diversification in ecological footprint is necessary to understand the ecological impacts of export diversification. Therefore, this study analyzes the contribution of export diversification in ecological footprint covering the period between 1965 and 2017 using the STIRPAT model in the context of India which is required to fulfill the demands for resources of over 1.3 billion people. The study relied on the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis framework to understand the role of export diversification in ensuring environmental sustainability. Using the newly developed Augmented ARDL test, the study established that variables of interest are cointegrated. In the long-run estimation, export diversification reduces the ecological footprint of India and helps establish the inverted-U-shaped nexus between ecological footprint and economic growth. Thus, the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis was evidenced to hold for India. This important finding divulges that India can control the level of environmental footprints, and therefore decrease environmental degradation by continuously increasing export product diversification. Also, India is on the right path to achieve a reduction in ecological footprint associated with more development when accounting for export diversification in the model. Moreover, energy intensity boosts environmental deterioration, while population density reduces it. Finally, the study discusses strategies to achieve environmental sustainability through increasing export diversification.

Polymeric membranes for environmental remediation: A product space model perspective.

The development of polymeric membranes from polymers such as polystyrene (PS), polyvinylchloride (PVC), and their associated family has brought great momentum to the environmental remediation universe, mainly due to their surprisingly diverse and multi-purpose nature. Their usage has surged 20 times in the last half-century and is likely to double again in the coming 20 years. As a result, the polymeric materials economy and commercialization of research become increasingly important as a possible option for a country to boost prosperity while decreasing its reliance on limited raw resources and mitigating negative externalities. This transformation demands a systematic strategy, which involves progress beyond improving the existing models and building new avenues for collaboration. In this work, a sophisticated system, i.e., product space model (PSM), has been presented, explicitly appraising the opportunity space for United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, India, Canada, Indonesia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Colombia for their potential future industrialization and commercialization of polymeric membranes for environmental remediation. The results revealed that UK, Italy, Poland and India are at advantageous positions owing to their close proximity of (distance<2) and their placement in Parsimonious policy, which is the most desired quadrant of Policy Map of PSM, Canada and Indonesia have medium level opportunities, while Russia and Saudi Arabia have opportunities with more challenges to fully exploit the unexploited polymers products in terms of membranes for environmental remediation and prove favorable for export diversification, sustainable economic growth, and commercialization.

The weak rupiah: catching the tailwinds and avoiding the shoals.

The Indonesian rupiah depreciated 50% between July 2011 and February 2020. Blanchard et al. (Are capital inflows expansionary or contractionary? Theory, policy implications, and some evidence. NBER Working Papers 21619, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, 2015) showed that capital outflows from emerging markets can reduce output by increasing the cost of financial intermediation and can increase output by increasing net exports. Regression results indicate that Indonesian banks are exposed to depreciations, but that exports are not stimulated by depreciations. The findings also indicate that Indonesia's export price index is positively correlated with commodity prices and negatively correlated with manufactured goods prices. Exporting more manufactures would reduce Indonesia's exposure to volatile commodity prices and allow depreciations to stimulate exports. This paper considers several steps that Indonesia could take to increase its manufacturing exports.

Examining the nexus between export diversification and environmental pollution: evidence from BRICS nations.

In recent years, industrial growth has enabled the BRICS nations to increase their export earnings from both traditional and new products. However, in terms of modernization of industries, these nations can be considered as laggards, because the present production processes appear to be carbon-intensive and energy-inefficient. In this backdrop, the present study, by using the second-generation econometric procedures, is intended to examine the impact of industrialization, export diversification, technological innovation, income inequality, and resource rents on the carbon dioxide emissions in the BRICS nations from 1990 to 2018. The long-run coefficients revealed that the industrial expansion, reduction in export diversification, low concentration on traditional exports, and high concentration on new exports exacerbated the air quality in the BRICS nations. On the other hand, technological advancement contributed to restoring environmental quality during the study period. Furthermore, it is observed that the present research endeavors in the BRICS nations are insufficient in circumventing industrial pollution, as the value of the joint coefficient of technological advancement and industrialization is found insignificant but negative. Hence, based on the computed results, a multipronged policy framework is proposed, so that these nations can achieve the targeted sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the coming years.