The human well-being and environmental degradation nexus in Africa

Environmental degradation continues to attract interest from academics, policymakers, and other stakeholders. However, empirical studies have been limited in the choice of human well-being indicators. Therefore, this study extends the literature by broadening the nexus between human well-being and environmental degradation in 29 African countries from 1970 to 2019. Preliminary tests adaptable to effects of cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity in panel dataset were adopted, alongside the cross-sectional auto-regressive distributed lag model. Findings from the study showed that the adopted human well-being indicators such as globalisation, life expectancy, and human capital development were environmentally enhancing both in the short and long terms. In contrast, income growth was environmentally degrading in the short and long terms. At the same time, urbanisation was only environmentally detrimental in the long term with no significant short-term effect. Natural resource rent which served as a control variable was environmentally degrading both in the short and long terms. Consequently, this study confirms the synergy approach between the environment and human well-being and the trade-off hypothesis in African countries. Thus, African countries' general resource management policy significantly determines the impact their path to human well-being enhancement has on the environment.

Automated summary

This study extends the existing literature by examining the relationship between human well-being and environmental degradation in African countries. The findings suggest that globalization, life expectancy, and human capital development have positive effects on the environment, while income growth and natural resource rent have negative effects. Urbanization has a long-term negative impact on the environment with no significant short-term effect. Therefore, resource management policies in African countries play a crucial role in balancing the environment and human well-being.