Cogitating the role of Technological Innovation and Institutional Quality in Formulating the Sustainable Development Goal Policies for E7 Countries: Evidence from Quantile Regression

Abstract

After the approval of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations, all the countries have tried to achieve these goals. But unfortunately, the emerging economies are still far away from this ideal track. Because, mostly, the prime focus of emerging economies is just to increase the economic growth, while ignoring its environment-related negative externalities. Following this, the present study highlights the importance of designing the SDG framework for seven emerging (E7) economies, which can be used as a benchmark for other developing and emerging economies. For this purpose, this study uses quantile regression to scrutinize the heterogeneous impact of technological innovation, institutional quality, per capita income, trade openness and population on CO₂ emission by using the data of E7 countries from 1996 to 2018. The empirical outcomes confirm that technological innovation and institutional quality have performed a major role in reducing CO₂ emissions. Results also reveal that the current patterns of economic growth in E7 countries are environmentally unsustainable. Based on the results, this study suggests a comprehensive policy framework for attaining SDG 8, SDG 9, SDG 16 and SDG13.