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Towards achieving environmental sustainability: environmental quality versus economic growth in a developing economy on ecological footprint via dynamic simulations of ARDL

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Abstract

Studies have shown that factors like trade, urbanization, and economic growth may increase the ecological footprint (EFP) since ecological distortions are mainly human-induced. Therefore, this study explores the effect of economic growth and urbanization on the EFP, accounting for foreign direct investment and trade in Nigeria, using data from 1977 to 2016. This study used the EFP variable as against the CO2 emissions used in the previous studies since the former is a more comprehensive and extensive measure of environmental quality. We apply the novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) simulations for model estimation, the Bayer and Hanck J Time Ser Anal 34: 83–95, (2013) combined cointegration, and the ARDL bounds test for cointegration. Although the results affirmed the presence of long-run relationship among the variables, economic growth deteriorates the environment in the short run, while urbanization exacts no harmful impact. In the long run, FDI and trade deteriorate the environment while economic growth adds to environmental quality. It is recommended that policymakers strengthen the existing environmental regulations to curtail harmful trade and provide rural infrastructures to abate urban anomaly.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

ADF:

Augmented Dickey–Fuller

PP:

Phillips–Perron

ZA:

Zivot and Andrews

BH:

Bayer and Hanck

ADRL:

Autoregressive distributive lag

DADRL:

Dynamic autoregressive distributive lag

GHG:

Greenhouse gas

CO:

Carbon monoxide

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

GDP:

Gross domestic product

ECT:

Error correction term

FDI:

Foreign direct investment

OLS:

Ordinary least square

UN:

United Nations

KPSS:

Kwiatkowski–Phillips–Schmidt–Shin

UECM:

Unrestricted error correction model

AIC:

Akaike information criterion

SIC:

Schwarz information criterion

HQ:

Hannan Quinn information criterion

FPE:

Final prediction error

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Semenyih, Selangor, 43500, Malaysia

    Sakiru Adebola Solarin

  2. Department of Economics, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria

    Solomon P. Nathaniel

  3. School of Foundation, Lagos State University, Badagry, Nigeria

    Solomon P. Nathaniel

  4. Faculty of Economics Administrative and Social Sciences, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Festus Victor Bekun

  5. Department of Accounting, Analysis and Audit, School of Economics and Management, South Ural State University, 76, Lenin Aven, Chelyabinsk, Russia, 454080

    Festus Victor Bekun

  6. Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria

    Akinbode Michael Okunola

  7. Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, Eastern Mediterranean University, via Mersin 10, Famagusta, North Cyprus, Turkey

    Abdulkareem Alhassan

  8. Department of Economics, Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa, Nigeria

    Abdulkareem Alhassan

Authors
  1. Sakiru Adebola Solarin
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  2. Solomon P. Nathaniel
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  3. Festus Victor Bekun
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  4. Akinbode Michael Okunola
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  5. Abdulkareem Alhassan
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Contributions

SS edited and revised the manuscript. SN conceived the idea, reviewed the literature, discussed the results, and provided relevant policy recommendations/directions. FB wrote the methodology section and collected the data required for the study. KO wrote the introduction. AA analyzed the data, and interpreted the results. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Festus Victor Bekun.

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Solarin, S.A., Nathaniel, S.P., Bekun, F.V. et al. Towards achieving environmental sustainability: environmental quality versus economic growth in a developing economy on ecological footprint via dynamic simulations of ARDL. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 17942–17959 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11637-8

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