Driving human development through ecological impact for emerging economies: the role of trade openness.

The growing discourse on the role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in promoting sustainable human capital development has attracted significant scholarly attention, yet there remains a lack of systematic mapping of research patterns in this domain. This study addresses this gap by conducting a bibliometric analysis to examine global research trends, thematic structures, and collaboration networks on FDI and sustainable human capital development. Using the Scopus database, we applied an advanced search strategy, which retrieved a total of 385 documents published between 2021 and 2025. The data were first cleaned and harmonized using OpenRefine to ensure consistency and reliability, after which the Scopus Analyzer was employed to generate descriptive statistics and publication trends across years, countries, and subject areas. VOSviewer software was then used to construct and visualize co-occurrence networks of author keywords, citation relationships, and international collaborations. The analysis revealed a notable increase in publications during 2023–2025, reflecting growing scholarly and policy interest in aligning investment flows with sustainable human capital outcomes. Economics, Social Sciences, and Environmental Studies emerged as the dominant subject areas, indicating the multidimensional nature of this research field. Co-occurrence mapping identified four main clusters centered around FDI, human capital, economic growth, and sustainable development, highlighting the thematic interconnectedness between investment policies, labor productivity, and long-term development goals. China, the United States, and Malaysia were among the most influential contributors in terms of both output and citation impact, suggesting strong research leadership in both developed and emerging economies. Overall, this study not only provides a comprehensive overview of the intellectual structure and global collaboration in this field but also contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying emerging themes and gaps for future research on the nexus between FDI and sustainable human capital development.

This study examines the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow, trade openness, and the influence of FDI on economic growth. The threshold methodology and GMM estimation are employed to analyze panel data from 60 developing countries in the period between 1995 and 2019. This study demonstrates the positive impact of FDI on economic growth in developing countries. However, the study also finds a significant threshold of FDI inflow relative to GDP that changes the impact of inward FDI on GDP growth. Regarding the role of trade openness, a significant threshold is found, which also indicates the absorptive capacity of the host countries. Moving from below to above this threshold, an increase in FDI inflow leads to a lower increase in economic growth. An increase in FDI relative to GDP stimulates growth only when the host country has sufficient absorptive capacity with regard to trade openness above the threshold. We suggest developing countries tighten the coherence of trade liberalization and FDI attraction policies to obtain the benefits of FDI and make changes to attract new investors when they succeed in attracting massive FDI inflows.

There is a synergistic potential between heritage and tourism which can offer a type of special interest tourism. However, despite the potential, it also brings out conflicts that result in negative socio-cultural impacts. Therefore, sustainability issues should be considered in developing heritage tourism. There are three dimensions incorporate in Sustainable Development, which are environment, economic, and social. As sustainable tourism was derived from sustainable development, thus the three dimensions of sustainable development are also applied in sustainable tourism development, especially in sustainable heritage tourism. Generally, the relationships between the three aspects of sustainable development are assumed to be compatible and mutually supportive. However, among the three dimensions of sustainable development, social sustainability is the least developed and often is proposed in relation to ecological or economic sustainability. There have been efforts to address and incorporate the social dimension of sustainability into standard setters, planners, and practitioners in many diverse areas such as forest certification, organic agriculture, conventional agriculture, urban and regional planning, corporate social and environmental management, reporting, and responsibility and fair-trade certification. However, there are still few studies of the social dimension in tourism development. To achieve sustainable tourism development, we cannot neglect the social dimension and only focuses on the economic and environmental dimensions. Social sustainability is not absolute or constant which has to be considered as a dynamic concept, which will change over time in a place. The purpose of this study exploring the key aspects of sustainable tourism development social dimension which is linked to theoretical and on how we should define and understand the fluid concept of the social dimension in tourism sustainability that can also be applied in heritage tourism. This research is using a systematic literature review to identify social dimension aspects or themes of sustainable development, sustainable tourism development, and sustainable heritage tourism. The preliminary findings show that there are few studies of the social dimension of sustainable tourism development. Therefore, it is rather difficult to obtain related articles of the social dimension, especially in the tourism subject fields. To this point, 160 works of literature were obtained and after screening, assessing, and selecting against the criteria for eligibility, there were 19 pieces of literature selected. Selected literature was reviewed to explore how the social dimension aspect in sustainable development debates is variously understood and how it constructs a social pillar. This research compiles a cross-disciplinary major theoretical concept from sustainable development, sustainable tourism development, heritage tourism, political sociology, economic theory, social theory, governance, and urban development to build a new multi-dimensional inquiry into the subject of social sustainability. Thus, this research gives a comprehension of the aspects of social sustainability which contributes to the improvement of the fluid concept of social tourism sustainability, especially in heritage tourism.

Part 1: History and Evolution of the Concept of Sustainable Development 1. Introduction: History and evolution of the concept Delyse Springett and Michael Redclift Part 2: Institutional Dimensions of Sustainable Development 2. Does illegality enable or undermine the sustainability of the globalising economy? Ray Hudson 3. Global Change, Islands and Sustainable Development: Islands of Sustainability or Analogues of the Challenge of Sustainable Development? Michael Hall 4. 'Uncertainty' in the professionalization of sustainable development - The case of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Annika Skoglund and Tommy Jensen 5. Population Health, a Fundamental Marker of Sustainable Development Tony McMichael 6. Education for Sustainable Development: Challenges of a critical pedagogy Delyse Springett Part 3: Environmental Dimensions Of Sustainable Development 7. Biodiversity and Sustainable Development Stewart Lockie and Hedda Ransan-Cooper 8. Water and Sustainable Development Naho Mirumachi 9. Sustainable Architecture Keith Bothwell 10. Sustainable Design: Concepts, methods and practices Martina Maria Keitsch 11. Is managing ecosystem services necessary and sufficient to ensure sustainable development? Mark Mulligan and Nicholas Clifford 12. Conservation, Sustainability and Economic Growth William Adams Part 4: Social Dimensions of Sustainable Development 13. Sustainable Development: Joining Sustainability and Environmental Justice Robin Morris Collin and Robert W. Collin 14. Indigenous Perspectives: Non-Anthropocentric Sustainable Development and the Right to Self-Determination Oscar Forero 15. The Politics of Sustainable Consumption Emma Hinton 16. Advances in Sustainable Tourism Development Tony Johnston 17. Food and Sustainable Development Colin Sage Part 5: Economic Dimensions Of Sustainable Development 18. Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development: Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature Robert Costanza, Gar Alperovitz, Herman Daly, Joshua Farley, Carol Franco, Tim Jackson, Ida Kubiszewski, Juliet Schor and Peter Victor 19. Sustainable development and the economic crisis under austerity: the experience of the United Kingdom Michael Redclift and Emma Hinton 19. Indicators for Sustainable Development Joachim Spangenberg 21. Sustainable Business: A Critique of Corporate Social Responsibility Policies and Practices Tim Luke 22. Urban Transport and Sustainable Development Peter Newman, Annie Matan and James McIntosh 23. Chinese Sustainability in Transition: Which direction to take? Arthur Mol Part 6: Sustainable Development - Future Challenges 24. Agroecology as post-development discourse and practice Graham Woodgate 25. The social and political dimensions of sustainable development in climate change Marco Grasso 26. Sustainable Development or the Creeping Incubation of Disaster? Raymond Murphy 27. Women's 'right to sustainable development': integrating religion and a rights-based approach Yamini Naranayan 28. From Sustainable Development to Governance for Sustainability Ashwina Mahanti and David Manuel-Navarrete

Achieving economic development is one of the most important economic goals of every country. Identifying the determinants of economic growth, is a useful tool for adopting appropriate economic policies. This study, therefore, empirically examines the impact of trade openness, foreign direct investment, and financial development on economic growth, across 62 countries over the period 1995–2016. These countries are divided into two groups: low-income and high-income countries. We employ the pooled mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effect (DFE) estimation techniques on the cross-country panel data. The findings show a positive long run association between trade openness, foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development, labor, government expenditure, and economic growth in low-income countries, with a positive and negative short run effect from capital and government expenditures, respectively. For high-income countries, a positive long run association between trade openness, FDI, capital, and economic growth exist. The short run estimates indicate a positive effect on trade openness and capital as well as a negative effect on government expenditure. Our study shows that the adoption of policies that improves access to skilled labor and international trade, affect the attainment of a sustainable economic development.

Co-development of East African regional water scenarios for 2050

The long run trade orientation of an economy is measured in this article by an index which measures the extent to which the real exchange rate is distorted away from its free trade level by the trade regime. The technique for estimating a cross country index of real exchange rate distortion uses the international comparison of prices prepared by Robert Summers and Alan Heston. Resource endowment constitutes the norm and real overvaluation or undervaluation relative to this norm reveals whether incentives are directed to the domestic or international market. The index is constructed based on data for GDP/capita average price level in US dollars 1976-85 and GDP growth rate/capita 1976-85. Other sections are devoted the comparison of the procedure for 117 countries between 1976-85 and an examination of the empirical relationship between outward orientation and economic growth and sensitivity analysis. The results indicate that Latin America generally was overvalued by 33% relative to Asia and Africa was overvalued by 86%. The real exchange rate distortion index supports the view that Asian countries are more outward oriented. Asian economies have lower price levels which reflect relatively modest protection and incentives oriented to external markets. Latin American countries with moderately high price level and African countries with very high price levels reflect strong protection and incentives directed to production for the domestic market. An alternative specification which eliminates the dummy variables for Africa yields similar results with slightly lower magnitude; i.e. overvaluation is 60% instead of 86% for Africa and Latin America is overvalued by 39% instead of 33% over Asia. A table is provided which indicates by country the distortion and variability of the real exchange rate the GDP growth the 1976 GDP/capita and the investment rate. Another finding was that there is a significant negative relationship between distortion of the real exchange rate and growth of GDP/capita after controlling for the effects of real exchange rate variability and investment level with both the original specification and the alternative. The growth rate/capita of Latin American and African countries would increase 1.5-2.1% with a shift to move outward oriented trade policies. This gain as well as devaluation of the real exchange reate trade liberalization and maintenance of a stable real exchange rate would contribute to positive growth rates. In the analysis of the poorest 24 countries the result was that only rate distortion and not variability and investment rate explained the growth rate. The gain for Ghana for example of adopting the trade policies and exchange rate of Bangladesh would be 5% to its growth.

This study investigates the causal relationships between foreign direct investment (FDI), remittances, institutional quality (political rights and civil liberties), and economic growth in Nigeria. Utilizing Pairwise Granger Causality Tests and an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, the research offers a comprehensive analysis of both short-term and long-term impacts of these variables on economic growth. Key findings reveal bidirectional causality between political rights and economic growth, and between civil liberties and economic growth, indicating that improvements in these institutional qualities can drive economic growth and vice versa. The study also finds a unidirectional relationship where economic growth Granger causes remittances and FDI, suggesting that better economic conditions attract more remittances and FDI. Additionally, the interaction between political rights and remittances indicates that worsening political rights combined with remittances reduce economic growth, while improving civil liberties with remittances boosts growth. Similarly, better political rights enhance the positive impact of FDI on economic growth, though the effects of civil liberties on FDI are mixed. These findings highlight the importance of strengthening political rights and civil liberties to create a stable environment conducive to economic growth. Economic policies should focus on leveraging domestic conditions to attract remittances and FDI, emphasizing the role of a strong domestic economy. The complex interactions between these variables underscore the need for in-depth research to tailor policies for sustainable economic development. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers aiming to harness the potential of institutional quality, remittances, and FDI for fostering economic growth in Nigeria. Key Words: Economic Growth, FDI; Institutional Quality JEL Classification: O40, Q43 DOI : 10.7176/JESD/16-1-06 Publication date : January 30th 2025

In recent years, sustainable development has represented one of the most important policy goals at the global level. How to design specific policy actions and how to measure performance and results continue to present a challenge. The aim of this paper is to identify a numerical measure of ‘sustainable human development’ by enlarging human development with more specific environmental aspects. The sustainability condition has been directly analysed on the well‐being side. Building a complex Sustainable Human Development Index may be a hard task because of data availability. European countries represent a useful pilot area for testing the methodology. The key factors of effective sustainable human development are emphasized, comparing a Sustainable Human Development Index with existing traditional indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product and the Human Development Index.

Motivation Institutional quality and its impacts on economic growth are crucial in fragile states like Somalia, where weak governance, corruption, and political instability hinder effective policy implementation and economic development. This study is motivated by the need to understand how improving institutional frameworks can foster sustainable economic growth in Somalia despite these challenges. Purpose This study examines the impact of institutional quality on economic growth in Somalia from 1989 to 2023. The research focuses on how institutional quality, trade openness, foreign direct investment (FDI), inflation, and government expenditure influence Somalia's economic growth. In particular, the study investigates the relationship between these variables in both the short and the long run. Approach and methods To address the research question, the study employs an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, using time‐series data from 1989 to 2023. The model explores both short‐term and long‐term relationships between institutional quality and economic growth. The study also considers variables such as trade openness, FDI, government expenditure, and inflation, employing various diagnostic tests to ensure the robustness of the results. Findings The study finds a significant positive long‐term relationship between institutional quality, trade openness, FDI, and government expenditure with economic growth. In contrast, inflation negatively affects growth. Both institutional quality and government expenditure have a negative effect on growth in the short run, emphasizing the transition costs associated with reforms. The error correction term indicates a swift adjustment to long‐run equilibrium. Policy implications The findings suggest that improving institutional frameworks, prioritizing trade liberalization, and controlling inflation are essential for fostering sustainable growth in Somalia. Additionally, Somalia should focus on increasing its FDI by means of regulatory reforms and improved infrastructure to further boost its economic growth prospects.

Do market-supporting institutions promote sustainable development? Evidence from developing economies

This study investigates the relationship between sustainable economic growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Saudi Arabia from 1980 to 2023. The ARDL approach and VECM technique are employed to analyze the short-run and long-run dynamics. The short-run results show mixed effects. Sustainable economic growth has a positive impact on current and one-period lagged FDI but a negative impact on the two periods lagged. Trade openness and infrastructure negatively affect FDI in the short run. Interestingly, oil rents and real economic growth also have negative short-run impacts on FDI, but these effects become positive with a longer lag. Long-run analysis reveals a negative relationship between trade openness, infrastructure, and oil rents with FDI, suggesting a potential crowding-out effect. Trade openness has a positive long-run impact on most variables, including sustainable growth, FDI, real growth, and CO2 emissions. Oil rents also have a positive long-run impact on these variables. This study finds six bidirectional causal relationships in the short run, primarily between trade openness, infrastructure, oil rents, and FDI. Unidirectional causality runs from oil rents, trade openness, exchange rate, sustainable growth, and real growth to FDI and infrastructure. Additionally, CO2 emissions cause FDI, and trade openness causes sustainable growth. While sustainable economic growth benefits FDI in the long run, short-term policies regarding trade openness and infrastructure require reevaluation. Oil revenue and real economic growth may initially deter FDI, but this reverses in the long term. To attract sustainable FDI, policymakers should focus on long-term economic growth strategies and consider reforms in trade and infrastructure policies. A comprehensive FDI strategy that moves beyond oil dependence and leverages trade openness is crucial to long-term economic diversification.

ABSTRACTSustainable development and economic growth have long been recognized as important goals for many nations worldwide. Efforts are being made to achieve these goals through various initiatives, including promoting green growth, green technology, clean energy, and foreign direct investment. This study examines the impact and synergy of these factors on the sustainable development and economic development of the 38 member states of the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) from 2000 to 2020. Empirical analysis is conducted using advanced econometric methodologies. The results explain that green growth, technology, tax revenue, and clean energy promote sustainable and economic development in these countries, with few exceptions. The measure of sustainable development is based on the progress made toward accomplishing 17 SDGs' objectives, expressed as a percentage. The highest percentage reflects the highest level of achievement and vice versa. Similarly, human development, measured as mean years of schooling and foreign direct investment, has negatively affected sustainable and economic development. The negative effect of human development is probably because a very narrow definition has been used for human development because of data constraints. OECD countries can pursue several policy measures to promote sustainable and economic development, including green growth, technology advancements, effective taxation strategies, and transition to clean energy. By implementing these policies, countries can enhance their progress toward the SDGs while improving human development indicators. Study limitations and future research directions are discussed.

The issue of compatibility of sustainable development policies, institutional quality, and economic growth gains on importance as the world races towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This paper aims to examine the relationship between sustainable development, institutional quality, and economic growth between the years 2012 and 2021 in 116 countries. The quantile regression method has been employed in this study to capture various relationship nexuses in different quantiles of growth. The common 15th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 95th quantiles have been selected. The official Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index is applied to proxy the holistic conceptualization and policy achievement of the United Nation’s SDGs. The findings show a negative relationship between sustainable development and economic growth, indicating that achieving sustainable development goals will harm the economic growth. Increasing negative coefficient values from lower to higher quantiles imply increasing opportunity cost of degrowth towards increasing sustainable development. Besides, institutional quality did not affect economic growth, either directly or indirectly. The study suggests the necessity to review the existing policies, institutional structures, and strategies to foster compatibility between sustainable development, institutional quality, and growth.

Over the past two decades, Morocco has been able to develop a political and strategic vision which has gradually considered the environment as a prerequisite for any public policies. The new approach aims to make the environment the cornerstone of sustainable development, and therefore, ultimately, of the birth of a new "green and inclusive" economy. This vision benefits from an exceptional impetus from His Majesty the King Mohammed VI. Morocco has therefore put in place a national environmental and sustainable development policy which breaks down into several priority areas, namely: strengthening the legal and institutional framework; environmental upgrading through programs dedicated to the preservation of the environment and providing financial instruments and systems in the service of environmental monitoring. In addition, Morocco, with its strategic north-south status, is actively engaged in the environmental diplomacy and multilateral cooperation. On the road to an integrated and sustainable human development, Morocco continues to deploy ambitious efforts in environmental communication, awareness and education. Based on the bidimensional classic model, Morocco has therefore developed a tridimensional/pyramidal model for the sustainable development. This, by integrating governance in the summit, and putting human being at the center of the new form, as an actor and a beneficiary at the same time. This manuscript presents an overview of the Moroccan model in all aspects of preserving the environment and establishing the second generation of the sustainable development.