Nexus Between Financial Development, FDI, Globalization, Energy Consumption and Environment: Evidence From BRI Countries

Abstract

This study explores the nexus between foreign direct investment, financial development, energy consumption, economic growth and globalization for a selected panel of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries over the period 1990–2016. After employing appropriate panel unit root tests, the Westerlund co-integration test, the DSUR long-run panel estimation approach and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test, the results reveal a significant long-run relationship among the analyzed variables. The DSUR results show that energy consumption is boosted by 0.023 and 0.790% when a 1% rise occurs in foreign direct investment and economic growth. A 1% increase in financial development and globalization reduces energy consumption by 0.049 and 0.621%, respectively. We also found bidirectional relationships of energy consumption with financial development and foreign direct investment with globalization for the selected sample of our study. A unidirectional causal relationship exists, moving from energy consumption towards both financial development and foreign direct investment. An increase in FDI, the introduction of energy-efficient technology, and development of the financial sector lead to sustainable economic growth. The findings reveal the need to formulate policies that promote energy efficiency among Belt and Road (BR) countries. The policy implications of this study are presented in the Conclusion.