Do the asymmetric effects of eco-digitalization amidst energy transition make or mar the strides toward environmental sustainability in the USA?

ABSTRACT

The present era faces adverse effects of the strides recorded in economic advancements of the prior generations thus leading the present generation to growth dilemma. Consequently, there is a conscientious consideration for the ecological effects of economic growth. To resolve the preceding issue, due consideration must be given to harmless growth of which eco-digitalization, green financing, green technology, energy transition, and regularity quality are key determinants. Despite the aforesaid importance, empirical studies advancing this nexus are scarce. Hence, this study contributes to environment empirics by providing empirical evidence for the impacts of the highlighted indicators on sustainable environment in the USA. The study explores quarterly data from 1996Q1 to 2019Q4 based on the novel non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The pretests' outcomes show that long-run nexus exists among the variables, whereas the Zivot-Andrew uncovers breakpoint years in the observations. The main findings show that eco-digitalization, green financing, green technology, and renewable energy promote sustainable environment. On the flip side, non-renewable energy and regulatory quality hinder the pathways to sustaining the environment in the USA. Robustness analyses conducted based on FMOL, DOLS, and CCR provide substantial support and validity for the main results. Furthermore, the causality nexus lends empirical support for the existence of bidirectional and unidirectional causalities in the empirical model. Policy insights that drive the paths to sustainability in the US are suggested based on the findings.