Carbon footprints and development: Unraveling the puzzle in belt and road economies.

Nearly all developing countries actively seek capital and technology from the advanced countries. Although private direct foreign investment (mainly in the form of multinational enterprise) is viewed with ambivalence by many developing countries, it is nonetheless true that direct investment remains a substantial source of capital and is sometimes the only source of specific technologies. Indeed, given the slow growth in official external assistance, developing countries are becoming more, not less, dependent on direct foreign investment. While disbursements of official development assistance by the OECD countries rose 43% from 1961 through 1970, direct investment flows rose almost 90% over the same period. In the later year, the flow of direct investment was more than two-fifths of all official assistance, $3.2 billion compared to $7.8 billion.1 Furthermore, the United States and other major capital exporting countries would prefer, for economic as well as ideological reasons, to channel more of their capital outflows to developing countries through private investment. It is highly probable, therefore, that developing countries will continue to rely on direct foreign investment in the foreseeable future to carry out their development programs. It is against this background that the present study seeks to identify the empirical determinants of direct foreign-investment flows in the manufacturing sectors of developing countries. Our purpose is to select from the many economic, social, and political features of a developing country those features that are critical to making that country attractive or unattractive to private foreign investors. Available empirical studies are limited

Exploring the role of biomass energy consumption, ecological footprint through FDI and technological innovation in B&R economies: A simultaneous equation approach

Financial development has recently been captured the attention of researchers as in important element of economic prosperity. As foreign direct investment can have an important role in the economic achievements, this study investigates the role of financial development in attracting FDIs. Unlike earlier studies, it considers the most comprehensive proxy of financial development which overcomes the shortcomings due to ignorance of many economic components by earlier researchers. In this connection, this study uses panel of 39 countries from One Belt One Road (OBOR) economies. The empirical findings provide evidence in favor of financial sector reforms so as to benefit from foreign investment. The results are robust to the alternative measures of financial deepening under instrumental variable estimation. Therefore, the research specifically suggests countries to concentrate on developing their financial systems. Proper policy formulation can be done to reconstruct the weaker systems and to ensure wider and safer public access to the financial systems.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, many African countries experienced a profound slowdown in economic growth. The growth rate of real per capita GDP fell from 0.4% per year during the 1973-80 period to 1.2% per year during the 1980-89 period.' The causes-internal and external-of Africa's economic decline and the strategies for restoring economic growth are much debated. Nevertheless, broad consensus has emerged on the importance of (i) increasing total investment and (ii) promoting private-sector development and increasing its share of total investment for long-term growth.2 It is widely recognized that gross domestic investment fell substantially in Africa during the 1980s and remains severely depressed across the region. The proportion of total domestic investment in GDP fell from 20.8% per year during 1973-80 to 16.1% per year during 1980-89. In some countries, investment has fallen to less than 10% of GDP-a level that is insufficient even to replace depreciated capital. In Africa, the minimum investment needed to replace depreciated capital is estimated at 13% of GDP.3 In recent years, there has also been a growing recognition among many African leaders, faced with new realism and pragmatism, that the private sector could play a significant role in economic development. The focus in the longer term of structural adjustment programs and sectoral reforms adopted by these countries is on creating more appropriate incentives and a framework for private-sector development as the basis for achieving sustainable economic growth. In addition, multilateral and bilateral institutions have developed new initiatives with priorities for private-sector development. In 1989, the International Finance Corporation, an affiliate of the World Bank, es-

ABSTRACTGiven the pressing need for economies to mitigate climate change and champion carbon neutrality, this study investigates the threshold effects of financial development and foreign direct investment (FDI) on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) bloc, taking into account the moderating role of the regulatory environment. Drawing on the environmental Kuznets curve and the pollution haven hypothesis, the study utilizes the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) modeling, proposed by Arellano and Bover, to analyze panel data from 37 SSA countries spanning 1990–2022. The findings reveal that financial development in the banking, financial, and private sectors, along with FDI outflows, is associated with a reduction in CO₂ emissions. Conversely, FDI inflows are linked to increased CO₂ emissions. A curvilinear relationship is observed, where initial increases in financial development and FDI correlate with higher emissions, which decline beyond a certain threshold. Stronger regulations enhance the positive impact of financial development on reducing CO₂ emissions. Finally, the findings show a significant heterogeneous effect across the SSA regional blocs. These findings underscore the critical need for implementing stringent environmental regulations and promoting sustainable financial practices to mitigate negative environmental impact. This research provides both theoretical and practical insights into fostering a carbon neutrality agenda and advancing Sustainable Development Goal 13.

This study focuses on the effect of financial development, natural resource rent, human development, and technological innovation on the ecological and carbon footprints of the G-10 countries between 1990 and 2022. This study also considers the impact of globalization, trade openness, urbanization, and renewable energy on environmental degradation. The study uses Kao and Westerlund DH cointegration tests, FMOLS and DOLS estimators, and panel Fisher and Hatemi-J asymmetric causality tests to provide reliable results. Long-run estimates confirm an inverted U-shaped linkage between financial development and ecological and carbon footprints. Natural resource rent and technological innovation increase ecological and carbon footprints, while human development decreases them. Furthermore, globalization, trade openness, and renewable energy contribute to environmental quality, while urbanization increases environmental degradation. The Fisher test findings reveal that financial development, natural resource rent, human development, and technological innovation have a causal link with the ecological and carbon footprint. The results of the Hatemi-J test show that the negative shocks observed in the ecological and carbon footprint are affected by both negative and positive shocks in financial development, natural resource rent, and technological innovation. Moreover, positive and negative shocks in human development are the main drivers of negative shocks in the carbon footprint, while positive shocks in human development lead to negative shocks in the ecological footprint.

Indeed, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plays an increasingly important role in global economic and climate change mitigation. However, scientists have insufficient attention to the issues related to the elements that contribute to justifying these impacts and bolstering its response in BRI nations. Accordingly, the existent study executed an in-depth examination of the spatial direct and spillover effects of foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) and biomass energy consumption (BEC) on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for 57 BRI countries (1992-2012). We applied the spatial lag model (SLM), the spatial error model (SEM), and the spatial Durbin model (SDM) with five different weights matrices to verify the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH), the pollution halo hypothesis (P-HH), and the N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). We linked the study results with the implementation level of the sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The findings of local Moran's I (LMI) and Lagrange Multiplier (LM) tests confirm the existence of spatial autocorrelation (SAR). The empirical results revealed that FDI has a positive direct and spillover influence on GHG emissions, which supports the presence of PHH. Also, the nexus between economic growth and GHG emission is an N-shaped curve. The results revered that BEC has a negative sign for direct and spillover effects. In contrast to BEC, Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption (FFEC) and population positively sign for direct and indirect impact. Some policy proposals and future research directions are discussed for BRI countries.

Investigating the impact of multi-dimensional urbanization and FDI on carbon emissions in the belt and road initiative region: Direct and spillover effects

Financial footsteps and carbon footprints: Analyzing the relationship between financial development and carbon inequality in China.

Clean energy development can bring numerous benefits, such as decreased greenhouse gas emissions, improved air quality, and increased job opportunities in the green industry. These advantages can be achieved through the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders involved. Ultimately, adopting clean energy can lead to a healthier planet and economy. Energy availability and scarcity influence the aggregated economy. The present study explores the interrelationships between financial openness, trade openness, gross capital formation, urbanization, financial development, education, and energy within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) nations. A panel of 56 nations has considered empirical investigation for 2002–2020. The coefficients extracted from CS-ARDL revealed a catalyst role of openness in the energy mix, especially the inclusion of clean energy both in the long run and short. The asymmetric evaluation revealed that positive negative shocks in openness lead to a positive association with energy consumption. Moreover, the asymmetric association was also exposed through the execution of a standard Wald test. The study findings show that FO, TO, and GCF are critical in energy sustainability in BRI nations. It implies that clean energy inclusion in the energy mix might be amplified, and energy sustainability may be ensured. The energy transition of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) nations is significantly affected by financial, trade, and domestic capital adequacy. The success of sustainable energy policies is determined by several factors, which play a crucial role in countries participating in BRI projects; the findings provide insight into the complex interdependencies among the variables above and their effects on the energy dynamics within the BRI region. Furthermore, the research findings hold considerable significance for policymakers as they offer valuable insights into the possible synergies and trade-offs among these factors that can facilitate sustainable energy transitions in the BRI economies.

The role of state policy in the industrialization of Third World nations has become the subject of increasing interest in recent years. In the past, the debate over economic development has either focused on the traditional modernization approach' or the dependency theory of underdevelopment.2 Dependency theorists base their model of development on the belief that foreign investment from core countries is harmful to developing nations' long-term economic growth. Economic relationships between the core and the periphery are structurally detrimental for the latter because of the inherent dynamics of international capitalism. Yet, despite the claims of dependency theory, the recent experience of the East Asian newly industrialized countries suggests a wider range of development possibilities which include government policies specifically designed to attract foreign investment. These countries appear to have structured their domestic economies in order to mitigate the pernicious effects of dependent relationships with core countries. This raises new questions about the development process and the role of policy and foreign investment in the economic transactions between core and peripheral countries. Dependency theory, a neo-Marxist predecessor of world-systems research, claims that First World nations become wealthy by extracting surplus labor and resources from the Third World. Capitalism perpetuates a global division of labor which causes the distortion of developing countries' domestic economies, declining growth, and increased income inequality.3 Those countries on the periphery cannot become fully modernized as long as they remain in the capitalist world

Environmental pollution comes from several sectors of activities. It is almost conceivable that the education sector subsidies to the disruption of the environmental quality. The study employs panel cointegration techniques and method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) to inspect the influence of income, education (scholarly enrollment and expenditure), and foreign direct investment on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for a panel of 46 Belt and Road initiative (BRI) countries spanning the period 1996–2016. The estimation shows that the hypothesis of environmental Kuznets is established for both the models. Using fully modified ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects OLS and dynamic OLS, long-run elasticities show that real income increases the emissions. At the same time, foreign direct investment and education contribute toward decreasing the emissions in the long run. Using the approach of MMQR, the estimated coefficients confirm that only economic growth positively affects pollution. However, education and foreign direct investment negatively influence CO2 emissions with different quantile levels. As policy recommendations, governments of the BRI region should improve the educational services by installing new technologies, equipment, and supplies, which leads to mitigation of the emission levels.

L'A. s'efforce de mesurer l'impact economique de la penetration du capital et de l'investissement etranger sur l'economie des pays en voie de developpement. Il examine et critique le mode d'evaluation de la production propose par W. J. Dixon et T. Boswell. Il estime qu'il convient de distinguer investissement local et investissement etranger. Il presente les differents types d'interpretation et etudie un certain nombre de donnees collectees concernant le Panama, la Jamaique, le Liberia, la Guinee et enfin Trinidad et Tobago. Il se demande, d'une part, si l'investissement local et preferable a l'investissement etranger et, d'autre part, si ce dernier appauvrit les pays en voie de developpement. Il s'interroge sur le bien-fonde de la theorie de la dependance

This study aims to analyze the impact of financial development, foreign direct investment, economic growth, electricity consumption, and trade openness on environmental quality for a panel of 59 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries, over the period of 1980-2016. The presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is investigated. The cross-sectional augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF) and cross-sectional Im, Pesaran, and Shin panel unit root test; the Westerlund cointegration test, the dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR) approach; and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (Econ Model 29:1450-1460, 2012) panel causality approach are employed. It is found that the analyzed variables are stationary at first differences and are cointegrated. It is also found that an increase in financial development, foreign direct investment, and trade openness enhance environmental quality, while the increase in economic growth and electricity consumption degrade environmental quality. The presence of the EKC hypothesis for the selected panel countries is validated. Furthermore, the Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) panel causality test result confirmed the presence of bidirectional causality among economic growth, foreign direct investment, financial development, electricity consumption, and trade openness with environmental quality.

China's Going Global Strategy and Belt and Road Initiative gained great attention among scholars. Moreover, it is believed that Chinese investments abroad cause serious social and environmental externalities. Hence, in this paper, we examine how China's foreign direct investments influence the carbon emissions of 35 Belt and Road Initiative countries from 2000 to 2019. To do so, we use a panel model that accounts for heterogeneity and country cross-section dependence. Our results show that while other countries' foreign direct investments have contributed to the deterioration of the environment in these countries, Chinese investments have not. This substantiates the hypothesis of the halo effect influence of China's foreign investments as opposed to other countries' investments which may seek a haven for its carbon emissions. These results highlight the importance of source and destination regulations of foreign direct investments in terms of their environmental impact and carbon emissions in the Belt and Road Initiative countries. It also provides a fresh finding on the efficacy of China's foreign investment management policies and regulations in producing the desired environmental outcome in hosting countries.