The Nexus of Human Capital, Information Communication Technologies and Research and Development Expenditure in Promoting Environmental Sustainability: Does Financial Development Matter?

Abstract

The present study shows that environmental degradation and environmental sustainability (ES) are two distinct domains of environmental quality. Regrettably, existing researchers interpret the impact of different factors on ES as their findings are based on the explicit measure of the environment (CO2 or GHG emissions). Therefore, this study contributes to the ongoing environment debate by analyzing the role of human capital (HC), information communication technologies, and research and development expenditures on ES. The study further tests financial development’s (FDs) moderating role concerning HC, information communication technologies, R&D expenditures, and ES. The study collects the annual time series data from the panel of four South Asian Economies (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal) from 1996 to 2018 from WDI and Penn world databases. The findings of DOLS show that HC, information, communication technologies, and R&D expenditures positively contribute to ES and FD, further intensifying the relationship between HC and ES, information and communication technologies, and R&D expenditures ES. The study recommends that increasing HC, information, and communication technologies, R&D expenditures, and FD play a significant role in promoting ES.