Abstract
The upsurge in higher education is considered a key determinant for enhancing green growth. Moreover, ICT development is also the main catalyst of green growth. This research explores the role of higher education and ICT on green growth for China from 1995 to 2020. The study employs auto-regressive distributive lag (ARDL) approach for short-run and long-run estimates of green growth. The effect of higher education and ICT on green growth is significantly positive in the long run and short run. The outcomes of the empirical models reveal that financial inclusion is positively associated with green growth in both long run and short run. Moreover, renewable energy consumption is found to have a positive impact on green growth. The findings thus point to the need for policies that promote human capital and ICT infrastructure as a way of accelerating green growth.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
UNESCAP 2011, “Green Growth Approach: Experiences in mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation” Published by United Nation ESCAP. http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/CDR2-INF6.pdf.
References
Bahmani-Oskooee M, Usman A, Ullah S (2020) Asymmetric J-curve in the commodity trade between Pakistan and United States: evidence from 41 industries. Eurasian Econ Rev 10(2):163–188
Barro RJ (1991) Economic growth in a cross section of countries. Q J Econ 106(2):407–443
Bastida L, Cohen JJ, Kollmann A, Moya A, Reichl J (2019) Exploring the role of ICT on household behavioural energy efficiency to mitigate global warming. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 103:455–462
Caporale GM, Rault C, Sova AD, Sova R (2015) Financial development and economic growth: Evidence from 10 new European Union members. Int J Financ Econ 20(1):48–60
Chen J, Rojniruttikul N, Kun LY, Ullah S (2022) Management of green economic infrastructure and environmental sustainability in one belt and road enitiative economies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 1–11
Chibba M (2009) Financial inclusion, poverty reduction and the millennium development goals. Eur J Dev Res 21(2):213–230
Erumban AA, Das DK (2016) Information and communication technology and economic growth in India. Telecommun Policy 40(5):412–431
Erumban AA, Das DK (2020) ICT investment and economic growth in India: an industry perspective. In Digitalisation and Development (pp. 89–117). Springer, Singapore
Frankel JA, Romer DH (1999) Does trade cause growth? Am Econ Rev 89(3):379–399
Galor O, Tsiddon D (1997) The distribution of human capital and economic growth. J Econ Growth 2(1):93–124
Girouard N (2010) The OECD green growth strategy: key lessons so far. OECD Obs 279:53–55
Greenwood J, Jovanovic B (1990) Financial development, growth, and the distribution of income. J Polit Econ 98(5, Part 1):1076–1107
Halkos GE, Polemis ML (2017) Does financial development affect environmental degradation? Evidence from the OECD countries. Bus Strateg Environ 26(8):1162–1180
Hao LN, Umar M, Khan Z, Ali W (2021) Green growth and low carbon emission in G7 countries: how critical the network of environmental taxes, renewable energy and human capital is? Sci Total Environ 752:141853
Hofmann C, Strietska-Ilina O (2014) Skills for green jobs: gearing up education and training for green growth
Jabbour CJC, Jugend D, de Sousa Jabbour ABL, Gunasekaran A, Latan H (2015) Green product development and performance of Brazilian firms: measuring the role of human and technical aspects. J Clean Prod 87:442–451
Jian L, Sohail MT, Ullah S, Majeed MT (2021) Examining the role of non-economic factors in energy consumption and CO2 emissions in China: policy options for the green economy. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28(47):67667–67676
Jiang H, Jiang P, Wang D, Wu J (2021) Can smart city construction facilitate green total factor productivity? A quasi-natural experiment based on China’s pilot smart city. Sustain Cities Soc 69:102809
King RG, Levine R (1993) Finance and growth: Schumpeter might be right. Q J Econ 108(3):717–737
Le TH, Le HC, Taghizadeh-Hesary F (2020) Does financial inclusion impact CO2 emissions? Evidence from Asia. Financ Res Lett 34:101451
Li W, Ullah S (2022) Research and development intensity and its influence on renewable energy consumption: evidence from selected Asian economies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 1–8
Li X, Ullah S (2021) Caring for the environment: how CO2 emissions respond to human capital in BRICS economies?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 1–11
Li X, Ozturk I, Ullah S, Andlib Z, Hafeez M (2022) Can top-pollutant economies shift some burden through insurance sector development for sustainable development? Econ Anal Policy 74:326–336
Pesaran MH, Shin Y, Smith RJ (2001) Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships. J Appl Economet 16(3):289–326
Tripathy N (2019) Does measure of financial development matter for economic growth in India. Quant Financ Econ 3:508–525
Usman A, Ozturk I, Hassan A, Zafar SM, Ullah S (2021a) The effect of ICT on energy consumption and economic growth in South Asian economies: an empirical analysis. Telematics Inf 58:101537
Usman A, Ozturk I, Ullah S, Hassan A (2021b) Does ICT have symmetric or asymmetric effects on CO2 emissions? Evidence from selected Asian economies. Technol Soc 67:101692
Wang M, Xu M, Ma S (2021) The effect of the spatial heterogeneity of human capital structure on regional green total factor productivity. Struct Chang Econ Dyn 59:427–441
Wei L, Ullah S (2022) International tourism, digital infrastructure, and CO2 emissions: fresh evidence from panel quantile regression approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 1–8
Wu L, Zhang Z (2020) Impact and threshold effect of Internet technology upgrade on forestry green total factor productivity: evidence from China. J Clean Prod 271:122657
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
This idea was given by Xiaoyan Li. Xiaoyan Li and Sana Ullah analyzed the data and wrote the complete paper, while, Parvez Ahmed Shaikh read and approved the final version.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent participate
The corresponding author is free to contact any of the people involved in the research to seek further clarification and information.
Consent for publication
Not applicable
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Nicholas Apergis
Publisher's note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, X., Shaikh, P.A. & Ullah, S. Exploring the potential role of higher education and ICT in China on green growth. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 64560–64567 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20292-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20292-0