The role of remittance inflow and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in the environment: Accounting ecological footprint indicator for top remittance-receiving countries

This study examines the impact of remittance inflow and foreign direct investment on ecological footprint in top ten remittance-receiving counties in the presence of economic growth and renewable and non-renewable energy under the framework of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis over the period of 1990-2018 by employing the continuously updated fully modified (CUP-FM) and the continuously updated bias-corrected (CUP-BC) estimators. The results show that remittance inflow, foreign direct investment, and non-renewable energy utilization affect the ecological footprint positively while renewable energy utilization negatively impacts on ecological footprint. This study also supports the pollution haven hypothesis and inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis. The turning point obtained from long-run regression was found to be approximately $1368.65 outside of the sample period. Besides, the results are robust to various robustness analyses that we have executed for inspection of the reliability of our main findings. Finally, this study presents important policy implications with respect to the top remittance-receiving countries.

Automated summary

The study found that remittance inflow, foreign direct investment, and non-renewable energy utilization have a positive impact on ecological footprint, while renewable energy utilization has a negative impact. The results support the pollution haven hypothesis and the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis.