Modelling the Macroeconomic Determinants of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the G-7 Countries: The Roles of Technological Innovation and Institutional Quality Improvement

The group of seven (G-7) countries are seven of the most advanced global nations. Yet, these nations have not been able to achieve environmentally sustainable economic growth (EG) in the past. Consequently, despite growing economically, the environmental quality in the G-7 countries has persistently deteriorated. Hence, the present study examined the environmental impacts associated with EG, technological innovation, institutional quality (IQ), renewable energy consumption (RENE) and population using the carbon dioxide emission figures to measure environmental quality in the G-7 economies for the period 1996-2018. The econometric analyses involved the application of different estimation techniques that control the cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity issues in the data. Overall, the results indicated that greater EG and higher population size increase environmental pollution by boosting the carbon dioxide emission levels. In contrast, technological innovation, IQ improvement, and greater RENE were found to impede the carbon dioxide emission levels. In line with these key findings, several environmental development-related policies are recommended.

Automated summary

The environmental quality in the G-7 economies has deteriorated despite economic growth, with factors such as technological innovation, institutional quality, and renewable energy consumption playing key roles in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Population growth and high economic growth, on the other hand, contribute to increased environmental pollution.