Income inequality, human capital, natural resource abundance, and ecological footprint in ECOWAS member countries
Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Resources Policy
Abstract
The growing human demand for economic and social development is resulting in a state of ecological overshoot.
This paper investigates the heterogeneous effect of income inequality, human capital, and natural resources on
the ecological footprint for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member countries.
Having accounted for cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity, the findings from the Augmented
mean group (AMG) estimation reveal that income inequality improves the quality of the environment in Burkina
Faso, Nigeria, and Senegal, but deteriorates the environment in Benin. Moreover, human capital accumulation is
important for environmental sustainability by exerting a reducing effect on the level of the ecological footprint
for Burkina Faso and The Gambia. We further observe that natural resource abundance is not environmentally
friendly for Cameroon and Nigeria. Evidence from the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) panel causality test shows
that LGINI, LHC, and LNR stimulate the ecological footprint. Some policy recommendations are offered based on
these findings.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Inequality, Natural resources, Human capital