Caring for environment sustainability: how human capital, natural resources and economic growth interact with ecological footprint in Morocco?
Management of Environmental Quality
ISSN: 1477-7835
Article publication date: 10 November 2023
Issue publication date: 19 March 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This study attempts to come in help for Morocco by investigating rigorously the linkage between environmental degradation, measured by ecological footprint (EF), and the gross domestic product growth (EG), the human capital (HC) index and the natural resources (NR) depletion over the period of 1980:Q1 to 2021:Q1. The paper examines the validity of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the Moroccan context.
Design/methodology/approach
Unlike previous studies, which are based only on the autoregressif dynamic linear (ARDL) model, this paper investigates two recent models: the novel DYNARDL simulation approach and the Kernel-based regularized least squares (KRLS) technics and uses in addition the frequency domain causality (FDC) test.
Findings
Models output say a significant and negative association between HC and the EF and a significant and positive interplay between economic growth and environmental quality in the long term. In the short term, findings reveal a significant and negative association between NR and the EF. Based on the FDC test, results conclude about a unidirectional causality from NR to the EF in short-, medium-, and long-term. Moreover, results validate the EKC hypothesis for the Moroccan environment sustainability.
Originality/value
In this study, the researchers use the “ecological footprint” as dependent variable to obtain more accurate and comprehensive assessment of environmental deterioration. Based on time series data investigations, this study is the first paper, which validates the EKC hypothesis and develops important policy implications for Morocco context to achieve sustainable development targets.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Prof. Malin Song the Associate Editor of the International Journal: Management of Environmental Quality for coordinating the simultaneous submission and review of this article.
Citation
Neifar, M., Ghorbel, A. and Bouaziz, K. (2024), "Caring for environment sustainability: how human capital, natural resources and economic growth interact with ecological footprint in Morocco?", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 525-546. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-06-2023-0193
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited