Exploring the impact of social capital, institutional quality and political stability on environmental sustainability: New insights from NARDL-PMG

Abstract

The social aspect of sustainable development is often considered the least strong component, particularly in terms of its analytical and theoretical foundations. Although there has been a recent increase in focus on social sustainability, the relationship between the environmental aspect and social capital is still not well understood. This research seeks to explore initial concepts on frameworks for analyzing the interface between environmental and social capital. However, to demonstrated the core connection of social capital, institutional quality, income and renewable energy consumption with sustainability level (CO2 emissions) in the BRICS economies from 1996 to 2021. Specifically, this study uses advanced techniques such as Non-ARDL, Pooled Mean Group, the Augmented Mean Group and Common Correlated Effect Mean Group. However, under the linear outcomes, social capital, law & order, government stability, political stability and income decline the emissions levels. However, renewable energy consumption shows the positive association with rising emissions in BRICS countries. Interestingly, under the non-linear form, study outcomes describe social capital, and law & order contribute to environmental quality, while government & political stability spur the level of emissions in the long-run. Also, this study provides some core implications to meet the desired sustainability level.

Keywords

• Social capital
• Institutional quality
• Environmental sustainability
• BRICS economies
• Heterogeneous analysis