The development model adopted by Latin American countries has been increasingly questioned due to the sustained deterioration of environmental quality. The region has experienced a significant increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with resource-intensive production structures. This study analyzes the impact of economic growth, governance quality, green energy, financial efficiency, human capital, and natural resource rents on total GHG emissions in seventeen Latin American economies during 1990–2021. Unlike research focused exclusively on carbon dioxide, this study uses total GHG emissions to more comprehensively capture regional environmental dynamics. The results confirm a long-term cointegration relationship in the presence of structural breaks, demonstrating the persistence of environmental pressures associated with structural factors. Quantile regressions based on moments identify a nonlinear, U-shaped relationship between economic growth and emissions, suggesting that the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis does not hold for the region. Green energy does not fully replace fossil fuels, while institutional quality and human capital show heterogeneous impacts across the emissions distribution; in contrast, financial efficiency exhibits a mitigating effect. The results are robust under specifications that control for heterogeneity and cross-cutting dependencies. Consequently, achieving SDG 13 requires a structural transformation of the region’s production and energy matrix, as well as the integration of binding environmental criteria into natural resource governance.

The Ecological Footprint (EF) is a vital metric for assessing the evolution of global sustainability, but its underlying factors are complex and interwoven. This study employs bibliometric analysis to map the vast academic landscape exploring how socioeconomic and institutional factors may influence the EF. By analyzing 929 publications from 1992–2025 using VOS Viewer and RStudio software, we visualize the evolution of key themes, major contributing countries, leading authors, and core journals. Results show that while research on economic drivers like GDP and energy use is prevalent, the role of institutional factors, such as governance quality and political stability, is increasingly recognized as fundamental yet requires greater attention. The findings provide a clear roadmap for academic scholars, highlighting the need to integrate institutional analyses with traditional economic models to better understand and mitigate ecological degradation.

This research examines the effect of gender inequality, quality of government, female political empowerment, and engaged society on sustainable development in 19 Latin American countries. The study covers the period from 1990 to 2022 and employs advanced panel data techniques to explain the dynamics of sustainable development within the framework of the endogenous growth model. We employ a suite of advanced panel data techniques including cointegration techniques with structural breaks, MMQR regressions, and mediator regressions. Our results indicate that green growth has a cointegrating relationship with gender inequality, the quality of government, female political empowerment, and an engaged society in the presence of structural breaks. It is found that the human capital index, the quality of government, and an engaged society have a positive effect on green growth, while gender inequality and female political empowerment limit it. Policymakers should consider economic, institutional, cultural, and financial aspects to promote sustainable development in Latin America.

In a context of increasing economic volatility and recurrent policy adjustments, economic policy uncertainty (EPU) has intensified, raising questions about its impact on environmental sustainability. This study investigates how EPU reshapes the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality in 16 OECD economies during 1995–2021, incorporating the mediating role of environmental policy stringency (EPS) and green energy (GE) within a theoretical framework based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Complementary panel techniques, such as Pooled OLS, FGLS, and System GMM, are used to control for endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, and time dynamics. The results show that EPU significantly reduces the ecological footprint, indicating that, in contexts of high institutional quality, uncertainty can be associated with environmental improvements. This effect is not direct but operates through institutional and technological channels, by strengthening environmental regulation and reallocating investment toward clean technologies. Furthermore, the existence of an inverted U-shaped ecological footprint (EKC) and an inertial component is confirmed, while economic globalization contributes to its reduction, whereas environmental taxes are not individually significant. Robustness analyses, including Lewbel-type instruments and alternative measures of variables such as the load capacity factor, as well as the findings themselves, confirm the stability of the results. Overall, the findings indicate that the environmental impact of uncertainty is associated with institutional quality and technological development, suggesting that policies aimed at strengthening environmental regulation and promoting the energy transition can channel their effects toward improved environmental sustainability.

In developed countries, there is growing uncertainty regarding the trade-off between deepening environmental sustainability and increasing production to maintain employment and income levels. This research aims to examine the mediating effect of environmental policy stringency and green energy on the nexus between economic policy uncertainty and environmental sustainability in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The nexus between economic policy uncertainty and environmental sustainability was moderated by economic growth, population density, economic globalization, and environmental taxes. We employed a set of panel data techniques: Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS), Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS), and the System Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM). Specifically, we propose that the mechanism transmitting the effect of economic policy uncertainty to environmental sustainability is due to the environmental policy stringency and the ongoing search for clean energy sources. The findings show that environmental sustainability has structural inertia due to the organization of production and energy systems and the level of economic development in this group of countries. We also found that population density, economic policy uncertainty, and trade globalization have a negative effect on environmental sustainability. The findings are consistent when using the urban primacy index as an alternative measure of population density. Furthermore, we applied Lewbel's (2012) instrumental variables strategy to reduce the potential endogeneity between economic policy uncertainty and environmental sustainability. Finally, we used the load capacity factor as a proxy for environmental sustainability, and the findings are robust. In addition, the findings show that the environmental policy stringency and green energy act as mediators in the link between economic policy uncertainty and environmental sustainability in developed countries. Environmental policymakers should promote environmental quality by implementing stricter regulations and encouraging the adoption of green energy.

Recent research highlights the influence of early psychological and social factors in shaping sexual violence (SV) in adulthood. This study examines the effect of childhood violence within the family and social environment on SV against women. Microdata from the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Ecuador for 2010 (5,879 observations) and 2019 (12,600 observations) were used, applying chi-square tests and discrete choice models. The estimates included traditional coefficients and marginal effects to capture the probability of victimization. The results indicate that women whose partners experienced violence in childhood are between 11% and 16% more likely to suffer SV. These findings demonstrate that childhood violence is a significant predictor of sexual aggression in adulthood and reinforce the theory of the intergenerational transmission of violence, underscoring the need for early interventions and effective preventive policies.

The present study investigates the influence of green energy, technological innovation, financial development, natural resources, trade, and economic growth on environmental quality in four technologically innovative economies in Asia using data from 1990 to 2021. By adopting a holistic approach, it addresses gaps in the literature that often focus on isolated factors or regions. The findings provide actionable insights for policymakers to reconcile economic growth with ecological sustainability, offering a blueprint for sustainable development in Asia’s technological hubs. The Panel ARDL approach is used to evaluate the impacts in both the long and short term. Furthermore, we performed robustness tests using panel least squares, panel FMOLS, and panel DOLS techniques. The study’s findings indicate that technological innovation, financial development, and trade all have a long-term positive impact on environmental quality in Asia’s technologically innovative economies. However, green energy, natural resources, and economic progress had a negative impact on CO2 emissions. The findings from panel least squares, panel FMOLS, and DOLS also showed that technological innovation, financial development, and trade enhance the environmental quality. This investigation aims to assist policymakers in creating comprehensive plan that promotes environmental sustainability via technological improvements and renewable energy sources, with an emphasis on economic growth. First publihed online 05 June 2025

This study analyses the influence of environmental taxes, renewable energy, economic growth, green innovation and financial development on environmental sustainability in G-20 countries from 1990 to 2022. To this end, the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) was applied to obtain the reference results, complemented with Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Driscoll-Kraay techniques to perform a comparative analysis. Our results confirm a negative relationship between environmental taxes and sustainability in all quantiles, although this relationship is only significant in the middle and upper quantiles. Furthermore, it is evident that economic growth significantly improves environmental sustainability, supporting the “double dividend” hypothesis, which argues that revenues generated by environmental taxes can be used to finance tax reductions in other areas while contributing to the regulation of environmental degradation. Our findings also show that renewable energy and green innovations play a key role in improving environmental sustainability, underlining the relevance of such variables as fundamental pillars for the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG-7. On the other hand, a positive relationship between financial development and environmental sustainability is identified in the lower quantiles. In contrast, in the upper quantiles, this relationship becomes negative, although not significant. These findings are consistent with the robustness tests performed, which incorporate the use of FMOLS and Driscoll-Kraay standard error estimators.

Policies encouraging green energy adoption promote environmental sustainability, particularly in developing countries where the remittances boost household consumption. This research aims to empirically examine the impact of green energy, output, uncertainty, remittances, and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on the ecological footprint in Ecuador during 1990-2023. The research contributes to the green energy-environmental sustainability nexus debate by capturing the effect of external and internal shocks in the series and assessing the time-frequency dimension. This research is pioneering in examining the causal relationship between green energy, the uncertainty index, and the ecological footprint using combined cointegration and the multiple wavelet approach in the context of a remittance-dependent country. Notably, cointegration techniques with structural breaks, long-run elasticities using Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS), Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), and Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR) models, partial and multiple wavelet analysis, and Fourier causality are used for estimation purposes. Accordingly, the results confirm cointegrating relationships in the presence of structural breaks among green energy, GDP, uncertainty, remittances, FDI, and environmental sustain-ability. Besides, it is found that output and uncertainty increase the ecological footprint, while remittances, FDI, and green energy reduce it. Hence, policymakers should consider remittances, FDI, and green energy as mechanisms to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda so that environmental sustainability can be promoted in Ecuador. (c) 2025 China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Geosciences (Beijing). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Protecting watersheds and conserving life in terrestrial ecosystems is associated with the presence of native forests. Forest conservation is an urgent environmental objective that promotes countries' sustainable development. This study empirically examines the impact of agricultural employment, Gross Domestic Product per capita, the informal economy, and institutional quality on forest cover in Ecuador. The research covers the period from 1990 to 2022. We employ advanced time series data techniques, which can accommodate time and frequency to determine the trajectory of forest cover. We provide robust empirical evidence demonstrating that agricultural employment, Gross Domestic Product per capita, the informal economy, institutional quality, and forest cover cointegrate when structural breaks, time, and frequency are considered. In the long term, agricultural employment and institutional quality have a positive impact on forest cover, whereas Gross Domestic Product per capita and the informal economy have a negative impact. Furthermore, agricultural employment and institutional quality have a Fourier causality relationship with forest cover. Environmental policymakers in Ecuador should encourage the regulation of informal economic activities and actively promote forest conservation.

Forests play a critical role in achieving environmental sustainability because they absorb polluting waste from anthropogenic activities and produce biomass. However, the forest load capacity of developing countries has deteriorated due to the overload of unregulated economic activities. This study examines the determinants of environmental sustainability, as measured by the forest load capacity factor, in countries of the Global South. The factors considered are GDP per capita, governance, gender inequality index, women's political empowerment, youth unemployment, and the informal sector. The study covers the period 1991-2022, and we employ a suite of advanced panel data models. The econometric strategy includes cointegration techniques with structural breaks, long-run elasticities, quantile regressions, and causality models. The findings show that environmental sustainability exhibits a cointegrating relationship with the regressors when considering structural breaks in the series resulting from external and internal shocks. We also show that the regressors have a heterogeneous effect on environmental sustainability across the distribution. The estimators differ between sustainable and nonsustainable countries in the Global South. The results of the causality test show that environmental sustainability has a structural relationship with GDP per capita, governance, women's political empowerment, and informal sector This research contributes to the debate on environmental sustainability by covering a large sample of developing countries, and we consider the role of gender in the pursuit of Sustainable Development Goals 13 and 15.

Geopolitical risks and uncertainty negatively affect the economy and environmental quality. High geopolitical risks and high uncertainty increase carbon emission intensity by increasing dependence on fossil fuels. However, research in this area is still in its infancy and more empirical evidence is needed to justify the causal link. This research examines the causal mechanism linking geopolitical risk, uncertainty, financial development, renewable energy, and carbon intensity in a sample of eighteen countries with high geopolitical risk between 1985 and 2021. The selected countries have a high intensity of geopolitical risks due to internal and external conflicts that have worsened in recent years. We employ cointegration techniques from Hatemi-J [1] and Maki [2] in the presence of structural breaks, fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), canonical cointegration regression (CCR) models, and static time-variant Granger causality (1969) test. We find robust empirical evidence that geopolitical risk, financial development, renewable energy, uncertainty, and carbon intensity have a cointegrating relationship in the presence of structural breaks. Results from FMOLS and CCR models indicate that carbon intensity responds differently to changes in geopolitical risk, renewable energy, uncertainty, and financial development. Environmental and energy policymakers should mitigate carbon intensity through long-run rather than short-run mechanisms to achieve SDG12 and SDG13.

As a green industry, forestry plays a pivotal role in economic and ecological development. Green Total Factor Productivity (GTFP) is a crucial indicator of forestry progress. This paper employs the Non-Radial Distance Function (NDDF) model to measure forestry GTFP in forestry comprehensively. Additionally, it utilizes fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore pathways for enhancing forestry GTFP across technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) dimensions. The study reveals the following outcomes: Government financial support and six additional antecedent conditions offer three distinct avenues to boost forestry GTFP in forestry. Regional disparities emerge, with technology-driven pathways predominantly found in eastern provinces, dual-driven routes centered on average forest land size and forestry carbon sinks (FCS) taking precedence in central provinces, and dual-driven paths driven by government support and FCS coming to the forefront in western provinces. Under specific circumstances, government financial support and foreign investment exhibit potential interchangeability, facilitating the attainment of elevated forestry GTFP in forestry. However, a constraint arises from operating entities' low average forest land size. Ultimately, this study equips policymakers with a nuanced understanding of the factors shaping forestry GTFP in forestry, enabling them to craft compelling, regionally tailored policies that foster adaptability and contribute to the sustainable development of the forestry sector, recognizing that a one-size-fits-all approach may not be suitable for all regions.

This research examines the impact of oil prices, economic globalization, and inflation on the economic output in oil-producing countries in Latin America. We employ advanced time series techniques to achieve precision in findings and reliability of policy inferences. We use cointegration techniques with and without structural breaks because oil prices are highly volatile, and the economies analyzed are unstable in the face of political and social changes. Additionally, we performed a sensitivity analysis using standard quantile and the newly developed quantile-on-quantile regressions to measure the impacts of the covariates on real per capita output. Finally, we use causality Fourier techniques to identify the direction of causal relationships between the series. We found that the oil price, economic globalization, inflation, and output have a long-term equilibrium relationship in the presence of structural breaks. Likewise, quantile models show that the impacts of inflation, economic globalization, and oil prices on economic output are extensively non-linear across the quantile distribution. We found a negative connection between inflation and economic output in the surveyed territories. We propose that those responsible for energy policy in the countries studied should rethink crude oil policies to maximize the benefits of oil exploitation under stagnant globalization and growing inflation.

Policymakers and academics are interested in identifying mechanisms that promote environmental sustainability due to their relationship with climate change. This research evaluates the channels that transmit the effect of technology and financial efficiency on environmental quality. The relationship is moderated by real production per capita, foreign direct investment, natural resource rents, and institutional quality in the context of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. The research covers the 1996–2021 period for a sample of 88 economies classified into three groups according to the World Bank Atlas Method. We use second-generation cointegration techniques with structural breaks and quantile regression models. The findings offer sufficient evidence to conclude that the impact of technology and financial efficiency on environmental quality is heterogeneous throughout the distribution. Our findings suggest that technology is more associated with maximizing production than mitigating or restoring environmental deterioration. A policy implication derived from our research is to encourage the generation of carbon-free technology and promote financial efficiency in upper-middle-income countries to achieve environmental sustainability.

Previous literature has been aimed at evaluating the economic factors that determine pollution, omitting the role of governments. This research aims to evaluate the impact of government stability on environmental pollution index in 96 countries worldwide. This relationship is moderated by globalization, knowledge, and economic progress between 1990 and 2019. Unlike previous research, we classify countries following a convergence criterion and propose environmental mitigation policy lessons for each convergent club. Specifically, we use convergence models, second-generation cointegration techniques, quantile regressions, and panel data causality techniques. The results show that government stability and knowledge are the fundamental pillars to mitigate environmental deterioration. Globalization and economic progress have heterogeneous impacts on environmental sustainability. Policymakers should promote long-term government stability as a novel environmental mitigation strategy. Likewise, government stability and knowledge can be used to promote Sustainable Development Goals 11 and 13.

We examine the relationship between income inequality and tourism earnings in Fiji between 1980 and 2020 using the multivariate quantile-on-quantile regression (QQR) methodology. Unlike traditional approaches, the QQR methodology provides a comprehensive and detailed estimate of the dependency structure between inequality and tourism earnings. To strengthen the reliability of our findings, we include control variables such as per capita GDP, FDI-GDP ratio, real exchange rate, and trade openness. Our analysis reveals a complex and unstable relationship between income inequality and tourism earnings in Fiji. We establish that tourism earnings have a direct positive relationship with income inequality in several quantiles of inequality and tourism earnings for this country. However, we find an inverse relationship between tourism earnings and inequality in other quantiles. Similar asymmetries are detected in the relationships between inequality and the control variables.

Previous literature does not incorporate the spillover effects of institutional factors in the analysis of the determinants of energy intensity. This research aims to empirically examine the impact of institutional and economic factors on energy intensity using spatial panel data models. Specifically, the institutional factors included are civil liberties, political corruption, and women's political empowerment. We find robust evidence that there are spillover effects from regressors on the energy intensity of countries. We find that the index of civil liberties, political corruption, and women's political empowerment reduce energy intensity. In addition, we find robust evidence that real output per capita and oil price reduce energy intensity, while manufacturing industry increase it. Our results indicate that manufacturing activity requires greater attention from policymakers and academics to mitigate the harmful aspects of energy intensity. Likewise, our results constitute a new look at the approach to mechanisms to reduce energy intensity to achieve sustainable economic development consistent with Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 12.

One of the most serious problems facing modern society is income inequality. The richest 10% of the world's population currently takes home 52% of income and 71% of the world's population lives in countries where inequality has increased (World Economic Forum). In recent years, globalization and the technological progress have promoted the consolidation of globalization in most countries, generating a direct and indirect impact on people's quality of life. Sustainable Development Goal 10 (SDG10) states that reducing inequalities should be a policy of governments' priority to achieve sustainable development. This research examines the impact of informational and cultural globalization, research and development, and urban concentration on income inequality using the theoretical framework of Kuznets' equity-income hypothesis (1955). In the methodological strategy, we use linear and non-linear methods: threshold regressions and second-generation cointegration techniques of panel data. The results show a threshold effect in real per capita output, informational and cultural globalization. The cointegration results demonstrate an equilibrium relationship between the five series at the different levels of development. The FMOLS model results show that informational and cultural globalization, R&D, and urbanization have a heterogeneous impact on income inequality. Policymakers can take advantage of the opening of markets to adopt new technologies and promote job creation in urban areas to achieve SDG 10.

Over the last three decades, Ecuador has shifted from being one of the most violent countries in Latin America to being one of the safest countries. Recently, however, it became a country with high rates of intentional homicides again. This research aims to examine the impact of social (economic progress and unemployment) and institutional (corruption and government efficiency) indicators on the rate of intentional homicides in Ecuador during the 1990–2020 period. We use cointegration techniques with structural breaks and single-frequency Fourier cumulative causality models. The findings of the Hatemi (ME 35, 497–505) and as reported by Maki (ICJR, 30, 10–29) cointegration model show a long-term equilibrium relationship between five series. The structural breaks coincide with the application of public security policies and structural changes in this economy. In addition, we find a unique Fourier cumulative frequency causal relationship between the analyzed series. To reduce violent deaths, policy-makers must execute strategies that aim to improve the population's quality of life, implement corruption control mechanisms, and promote government efficiency.