The Impact of Financial Development, Renewable Energy Consumption, and ICT-oriented Strategies on Inclusive Growth of Asian Economies

Abstract

This study aims to accentuate the role of financial development, renewable energy consumption, and ICT-oriented strategies to achieve inclusive growth in 21 Asian economies from 1995-2019. The long-run findings of panel linear ARDL reveal positive but insignificant responses in inclusive growth to financial development. Whereas, the estimates of panel NARDL depict that financial development’s positive and negative movements boost inclusive growth significantly. Interestingly, both techniques provide significant but contradictory outcomes for the effects of renewable energy on inclusive growth. Moreover, the results confirm that the individual impact of financial development and ICT increases but their interaction decreases inclusive growth. It indicates that ICT fails to complement the financial sector in enhancing inclusive growth. Therefore, the study recommends improving ICT infrastructure through the appropriate investment so that it could complement the financial sector effectively to achieve inclusive growth. It implicates for the stakeholders to boost the efficiency of the financial intermediaries and equitable access to digital finance and clean energy to attain inclusive growth.