Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Exploring the effect of human capital on carbon emissions: evidences from 125 countries

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Human capital (HC) plays a crucial role in economic growth, and also has a considerable effect on environmental performance, including carbon emissions (CEs). Existing studies have drawn inconsistent conclusions on whether and how HC affects CEs, and most of them conduct case studies of a certain country or several countries with similar economic backgrounds. In order to accurately determine the effect and the influence mechanism of HC on CEs, this research conducted an empirical study by applying econometric method and the panel data of 125 countries over the period 2000–2019. The empirical results indicate that there is an inverted U-shaped nexus between HC and CEs of full sample countries, revealing that HC will increase CEs before turning point and decrease CEs after turning point. From a heterogeneity perspective, this inverted U-shaped nexus only exists in high and upper-middle income countries, while is not supported in low and lower-middle income countries. This study further disclosed that HC can affect CEs by the mediating effects of labor productivity, energy intensity, and industrial structure from a macro perspective. Specifically, HC will increase CEs by promoting labor productivity, while decrease CEs by reducing energy intensity and the proportion of secondary industry. These results can provide important references for governments of different countries to make tailored carbon reduction policies according to the mitigation effect of HC on CEs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data and materials are available from the authors upon request.

References

  • Acheampong AO, Amponsah M, Boateng E (2020) Does financial development mitigate carbon emissions? Evidence from heterogeneous financial economies. Energy Econ 88:104768

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmad A, Zhao Y, Shahbaz M, Bano S, Zhang Z, Wang S, Liu Y (2016) Carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth: an aggregate and disaggregate analysis of the Indian economy. Energy Policy 96:131–143

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed Z, Nathaniel SP, Shahbaz M (2021) The criticality of information and communication technology and human capital in environmental sustainability: evidence from Latin American and Caribbean countries. J Clean Prod 286:125529

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akram V, Jangam BP, Rath BN (2019) Does human capital matter for reduction in energy consumption in India? Int J Energy Sector Manag 13(2):359–376

  • Balaguer J, Cantavella M (2018) The role of education in the environmental Kuznets curve. Evidence from Australian data. Energy Econ 70:289–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bano S, Zhao Y, Ahmad A, Wang S, Liu Y (2018) Identifying the impacts of human capital on carbon emissions in Pakistan. J Clean Prod 183:1082–1092

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumann F (2021) The next frontier—human development and the anthropocene: UNDP human development report 2020. Environ Sci Policy Sustain Dev 63:34–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker GS (1962) Investment in human capital: a theoretical analysis. J Polit Econ 70:9–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker GS (2009) Human capital: a theoretical and empirical analysis, with special reference to education. University of Chicago press

    Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin NI, Lin B (2020) Quantile analysis of carbon emissions in China metallurgy industry. J Clean Prod 243:118534

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blackman A, Kildegaard A (2010) Clean technological change in developing-country industrial clusters: Mexican leather tanning. Environ Econ Policy Stud 12:115–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Çakar ND, Gedikli A, Erdoğan S, Yıldırım DÇ (2021) Exploring the nexus between human capital and environmental degradation: the case of EU countries. J Environ Manag 295:113057

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carneiro PM, Heckman JJ (2003) Human capital policy. NBER Working Paper, (w9495)

  • Chengliang L, Qingbin G, Rui Z (2017) The dynamic effects of endogenous technological advancement on carbon emissions in China. China Int J 15:192–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dietz T, Rosa EA (1997) Effects of population and affluence on CO2 emissions. Proc Natl Acad Sci 94:175–179

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Du X, Shen L, Ren Y, Meng C (2022) A dimensional perspective-based analysis on the practice of low carbon city in China. Environ Impact Assess Rev 95:106768

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du X, Shen L, Wong SW, Meng C, Yang Z (2021) Night-time light data based decoupling relationship analysis between economic growth and carbon emission in 289 Chinese cities. Sust Cities Soc 73:103119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du Z, Lin B (2018) Analysis of carbon emissions reduction of China's metallurgical industry. J Clean Prod 176:1177–1184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dumitrescu E-I, Hurlin C (2012) Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels. Econ Model 29:1450–1460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engelman R, Macharia J, Zahedi K, Jallow B, Boncour P (2009) Facing a changing world: women, population and climate. The state of world population.

  • ESRC, 2011. When it comes to the environments, the education affects our actions. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110321093843.htm (accessed 12 December 2021).

  • Feenstra RC, Inklaar R, Timmer MP (2015) The next generation of the Penn World Table. Am Econ Rev 105:3150–3182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedlingstein P, O'sullivan M, Jones MW, Andrew RM, Hauck J, Olsen A, Peters GP, Peters W, Pongratz J, Sitch S (2020) Global carbon budget 2020. Earth Syst Sci Data 12:3269–3340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fullerton D, Ta CL (2020) Costs of energy efficiency mandates can reverse the sign of rebound. J Public Econ 188:104225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganda F (2021) The environmental impacts of human capital in the BRICS Economies. J Knowl Econ:1–24

  • Gennaioli N, La Porta R, Lopez-de-Silanes F, Shleifer A (2013) Human capital and regional development. Q J Econ 128:105–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman GM, Krueger AB (1995) Economic growth and the environment. Q J Econ 110:353–377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hao L-N, 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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hassan T, Song H, Khan Y, Kirikkaleli D (2022) Energy efficiency a source of low carbon energy sources? Evidence from 16 high-income OECD economies. Energy 243:123063

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh C-T, Klenow PJ (2009) Misallocation and manufacturing TFP in China and India. Q J Econ 124:1403–1448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang C, Zhang X, Liu K (2021) Effects of human capital structural evolution on carbon emissions intensity in China: a dual perspective of spatial heterogeneity and nonlinear linkages. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 135:110258

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2021) Climate Change 2021: The physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press In Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Jahanger A (2021) Impact of globalization on CO2 emissions based on EKC hypothesis in developing world: the moderating role of human capital. Environ Sci Pollut Res:1–21

  • Jiang L, Hardee K (2011) How do recent population trends matter to climate change? Popul Res Policy Rev 30:287–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan Y, Hassan T, Tufail M, Marie M, Imran M, Xiuqin Z (2022) The nexus between CO2 emissions, human capital, technology transfer, and renewable energy: evidence from Belt and Road countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29:59816–59834

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan Z, Ali S, Dong K, Li RYM (2021) How does fiscal decentralization affect CO2 emissions? The roles of institutions and human capital. Energy Econ 94:105060

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komal R, Abbas F (2015) Linking financial development, economic growth and energy consumption in Pakistan. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 44:211–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lan J, Munro A (2013) Environmental compliance and human capital: evidence from Chinese industrial firms. Resour Energy Econ 35:534–557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langnel Z, Amegavi GB, Donkor P, Mensah JK (2021) Income inequality, human capital, natural resource abundance, and ecological footprint in ECOWAS member countries. Resour Policy 74:102255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin B, Ma R (2022) Green technology innovations, urban innovation environment and CO2 emission reduction in China: fresh evidence from a partially linear functional-coefficient panel model. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 176:121434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin B, Tan R (2017) Sustainable development of China’s energy intensive industries: from the aspect of carbon dioxide emissions reduction. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 77:386–394

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin X, Zhao Y, Ahmad M, Ahmed Z, Rjoub H, Adebayo TS (2021) Linking innovative human capital, economic growth, and CO2 emissions: an empirical study based on Chinese provincial panel data. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18:8503

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu X, Zhang X (2021) Industrial agglomeration, technological innovation and carbon productivity: evidence from China. Resour, Conserv Recycl 166:105330

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Y, Sohail MT, Khan A, Majeed MT (2021) Environmental benefit of clean energy consumption: can BRICS economies achieve environmental sustainability through human capital? Environ Sci Pollut Res:1–11

  • Lucas RE Jr (1988) On the mechanics of economic development. J Monet Econ 22:3–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manderson E, Kneller R (2012) Environmental regulations, outward FDI and heterogeneous firms: are countries used as pollution havens? Environ Resour Econ 51:317–352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mi Z, Sun X (2021) Provinces with transitions in industrial structure and energy mix performed best in climate change mitigation in China. Commun Earth Environ 2:1–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muhammad S, Long X, Salman M, Dauda L (2020) Effect of urbanization and international trade on CO2 emissions across 65 belt and road initiative countries. Energy 196:117102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pablo-Romero MP, Sánchez-Braza A (2015) Productive energy use and economic growth: energy, physical and human capital relationships. Energy Econ 49:420–429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasban M, Nojedeh SH (2016) A review of the role of human capital in the organization. Procedia Soc Behav Sci 230:249–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pata UK, Caglar AE (2021) Investigating the EKC hypothesis with renewable energy consumption, human capital, globalization and trade openness for China: evidence from augmented ARDL approach with a structural break. Energy 216:119220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pedroni P (2004) Panel cointegration: asymptotic and finite sample properties of pooled time series tests with an application to the PPP hypothesis. Economet Theory 20:597–625

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH (2004) General diagnostic tests for cross section dependence in panels (IZA Discussion Paper No. 1240). Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH (2007) A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence. J Appl Economet 22:265–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piesse J, Thirtle C (1997) Sector-level efficiency and productivity in Hungarian primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, 1985–1991. East Eur Econ 35:5–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romer PM (1990) Endogenous technological change. J Polit Econ 98:S71–S102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sapkota P, Bastola U (2017) Foreign direct investment, income, and environmental pollution in developing countries: panel data analysis of Latin America. Energy Econ 64:206–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarkodie SA, Adams S, Owusu PA, Leirvik T, Ozturk I (2020) Mitigating degradation and emissions in China: the role of environmental sustainability, human capital and renewable energy. Sci Total Environ 719:137530

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz TW (1960) Capital formation by education. J Polit Econ 68:571–583

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sehrawat M (2021) Modelling the nexus between human capital, income inequality, and energy demand in India: new evidences from asymmetric and non-linear analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28:3632–3643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheraz M, Deyi X, Ahmed J, Ullah S, Ullah A (2021) Moderating the effect of globalization on financial development, energy consumption, human capital, and carbon emissions: evidence from G20 countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res:1–19

  • Sohag K, Begum RA, Abdullah SMS, Jaafar M (2015) Dynamics of energy use, technological innovation, economic growth and trade openness in Malaysia. Energy 90:1497–1507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ulucak R (2020) How do environmental technologies affect green growth? Evidence from BRICS economies. Sci Total Environ 712:136504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNDRR, 2020. The human cost of disasters: an overview of the last 20 years (2000-2019). https://www.preventionweb.net/publication/human-cost-disasters-overview-last-20-years-2000-2019 (accessed 11 March 2022).

  • Wang F, Shackman J, Liu X (2017) Carbon emission flow in the power industry and provincial CO2 emissions: evidence from cross-provincial secondary energy trading in China. J Clean Prod 159:397–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang J, Xu Y (2021) Internet usage, human capital and CO2 emissions: a global perspective. Sustainability 13:8268

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang JF, Wu YQ, Zhao Y, He ST, Dong ZF, Bo WG (2019) The population structural transition effect on rising per capita CO2 emissions: evidence from China. Clim Policy 19:1250–1269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Q, Li L (2021) The effects of population aging, life expectancy, unemployment rate, population density, per capita GDP, urbanization on per capita carbon emissions. Sustain Prod Consump 28:760–774

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Bank dataset (2021) World development indicators. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator. Accessed 15 May 2022

  • Yao Y, Ivanovski K, Inekwe J, Smyth R (2020) Human capital and CO2 emissions in the long run. Energy Econ 91:104907

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • York R, Rosa EA, Dietz T (2002) Bridging environmental science with environmental policy: plasticity of population, affluence, and technology. Soc Sci Q 83:18–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang J, Lyu Y, Li Y, Geng Y (2022) Digital economy: an innovation driving factor for low-carbon development. Environ Impact Assess Rev 96:106821

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang L, Godil DI, Bibi M, Khan MK, Sarwat S, Anser MK (2021) Caring for the environment: how human capital, natural resources, and economic growth interact with environmental degradation in Pakistan? A dynamic ARDL approach. Sci Total Environ 774:145553

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao S (2008) Application of human capital theory in China in the context of the knowledge economy. Int J Hum Resour Manag 19:802–817

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu B, Zhang M, Huang L, Wang P, Su B, Wei Y-M (2020) Exploring the effect of carbon trading mechanism on China’s green development efficiency: a novel integrated approach. Energy Econ 85:104601

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (Project No. “2021CDJSKZD03” and “2020CDJSK03PT18”) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. “72101237” and No. “72101238”).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management Science and Real Estate, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Jun Xiao & Liyin Shen

  2. International Research Centre for Sustainable Built Environment, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Jun Xiao & Liyin Shen

  3. School of Spatial Planning and Design, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou, 310015, China

    Liyin Shen

  4. School of Management Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Xiaoyun Du

Authors
  1. Jun Xiao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Liyin Shen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xiaoyun Du
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Jun Xiao and Xiaoyun Du. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jun Xiao. Supervision, funding acquisition, and review were performed by Liyin Shen. And all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jun Xiao.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: V.V.S.S. Sarma

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 8 Cross-sectional dependency test
Full size table
Table 9 Unit root test
Full size table
Table 10 Pedroni panel cointegration
Full size table
Table 11 Sample countries and its classification according to income
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Xiao, J., Shen, L. & Du, X. Exploring the effect of human capital on carbon emissions: evidences from 125 countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 85429–85445 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28381-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28381-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation