Transforming capital: The role of human capital structure in modulating environmental outcomes across economic transitions

Abstract

Based on the perspective of new structural economics, this study builds a theoretical framework of human capital structure and environmental pollution. Human capital structure on pollution has different manifestations at different stages of development, the effect of pollution based on human capital structure follows the environmental Kuznets curve. Using multinational panel data (1990–2015) and provincial panel data for China (2004–2020), examined the dynamic relationship between human capital structure upgrading and pollution by introducing an interaction term between human capital and economic development level, applying random-effect, fixed-effect models, and a dynamic model test. The results support our theoretical analysis.