Sustainable Economic Growth and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Empirical Evidence from Low & Lower Middle-Income Countries

Abstract

Based on World Bank’s country classification scheme, this study has examined the contribution of the people category of SDGs towards sustainable economic growth (SEG) of 22 low and lower-middle-income countries of the Asian region during the period ranging from 2001 to 2019. The results showed that the measure of SDG-01 (No Poverty) proxied as “employed poverty rate” has a significantly negative impact on SEG by around 0.75%. The second SDG aims for zero hunger proxied as “percentage of the stunted child” is found to have an insignificant impact on SEG. Moreover, SDG-03 (good health and well-being) measured as “government’s per capita health expenditure” and SDG-04 (quality education) proxied as “government’s per capita education expenditure” have been proven to have a positive significant impact on SEG are likely to improve by 50.27% and 36.19% respectively. Last among the SDGs from the people category is focused on (gender equality) which is proxied as “percentage of women member of national assembly” is turned up with statistically significant but negative impact on SEG, estimating around 0.57% improvement. FDI inflow as a control variable was found to have a statistically insignificant impact on SEG in low and lower-middle-income nations of Asia.