The heterogeneous impact of the environmental policy stringency on premature indoor and outdoor deaths from air pollution in the G7 countries: Do economic complexity and green innovation matter?

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of green innovation initiatives, environmental policy stringency, and economic complexity on mortality from air pollution. The G7 countries during 1990–2019 and the moments' quantile regression econometric method were applied. The results support that CO2 emissions per capita and economic complexity positively impact the death rates from indoor and outdoor air pollution. Furthermore, green innovation initiatives, environmental policy stringency, real GDP per capita, renewable energy consumption per capita, and urbanization mitigate/reduce the deaths caused by indoor and outdoor air pollution. The impact of green innovation initiatives decreases as quantiles go up, but only the 10th, 25th, and 50th quantiles are statistically significant. Likewise, environmental policy stringency decreases as quantiles go up, but only the 25th and 50th quantiles are statistically significant. Finally, economic complexity increases as quantiles go up and are statistically significant except for the 10th quantile. The results support that policymakers should wisely consider the strength of environmental policy stringency and stimulate efficient green innovation initiatives to reduce mortality by air pollution. They also should monitor economic complexity evolvement, identify the activities that most contribute to the mortality caused by air pollution, and intervene accordingly.