What drives resource sustainability in Asia? Discovering the moderating role of financial development and industrialization

The substantial escalation in resource depletion, especially in Asian countries, impedes sustainable development. The process of financial development augmented with industrialization is crucial to understand their impact on natural resources sustainability. Therefore, the current study examines the effects of industrialization, financial development, and technological innovation on resource sustainability of selected Asian countries from 1990 to 2020. The Cross-Sectional Augmented Distributive Lags model is utilized for empirical analysis. The long-run outcomes revealed that financial development and technological innovation helps to curb resource utilization while industrialization and economic growth accelerates the resource footprint. Interestingly, the moderating role of financial development and industrialization depicts that the negative consequences of industrialization are defused if financial development is augmented with technological innovation. The study's outcomes offer several implications for resource sustainability for Asian countries. The positive long-run association between financial development and technological innovation suggests strengthening the regulations related to industrialization as an innovative mode of manufacturing enhances the quality of environment.

Automated summary

The substantial escalation in resource depletion, especially in Asian countries, impedes sustainable development. The study examines the effects of industrialization, financial development, and technological innovation on resource sustainability of selected Asian countries from 1990 to 2020 using the Cross-Sectional Augmented Distributive Lags model. The long-run outcomes reveal that financial development and technological innovation help to curb resource utilization while industrialization and economic growth accelerate the resource footprint. The moderating role of financial development and industrialization suggests that combining financial development with technological innovation can mitigate the negative consequences of industrialization.