فهرست مطالب homeyra shahveisi

Environmental sustainability as an approach to development; It makes it possible to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations. This approach helps to preserve natural resources, biodiversity, reduce negative effects on the environment, improve the quality of human life and develop a sustainable economy. Simply put, environmental sustainability means a balance between economic development, social sustainability and environmental preservation. Achieving environmental sustainability requires identifying and determining the factors affecting it. Therefore, the main objective of the present study is to examine the effect of political freedom and human development on environmental sustainability according to three indicators of Ecological footprint (EFP), carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and Environmental Performance Index (EPI) in Iran over the period of time (1990 - 2022) using the Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS). Also, in this research, the human development index (HDI), which includes the economic and social dimensions of development, has been used to investigate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). The research results show that human development index (HDI) has a negative effect and political freedom (FPI) has a positive and significant effect on environmental sustainability. On the other hand, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis test also showed that the square of the human development index has a positive and significant effect on environmental sustainability; As a result, based on this hypothesis, the inverted U relationship between human development index (HDI) and environmental sustainability is confirmed in this study. Other results of this research show that energy consumption (EC) has a negative effect, urbanization rate (URB) and commercial openness (OPE) have a positive and significant effect on environmental sustainability in the long term.

In recent decades, the environment has become one of the most important concerns of societies and governments. Achieving economic growth and development is costly and leads to an increase in the consumption of ecological capital. The efforts of countries to increase per capita income and prosperity, if not accompanied by environmental considerations, will bring irreversible losses, including rapid climate change and environmental destruction. Thus, comprehensive investigation and determination of economic and non-economic effective factors on the environment is of particular importance, to the extent that it has forced governments to adopt short- and long-term policies and programs to protect the environment.The existing economic literature on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis indicates that at a threshold level of per capita income, countries reach a level of development where environmental improvements are achieved, but these studies have a serious flaw. Because they only focus on GDP per capita as a key variable to achieve environmental improvements and ignore the social dimension which is considered the pillar of sustainable development. Since the human development index includes the simultaneous description of social development and economic development, therefore, in this research, the Human Development Index is used instead of GDP per capita to investigate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis and the relationship between HDI and the quality of the environment. Furthermore, political institutions can have a long-term direct impact on the environment and its sustainability. Therefore, investigating whether the indicators of human development, political and civil liberties can affect the quality of the environment, can be important.

In the present study, the effects of human development, political and civil liberties indicators on the environmental performance index (Ecological Footprint) in developing countries and developed countries are investigated using the System Generalized Method of Moments method (GMM-SYS). Then the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis is investigated in selected countries. Likely, a country that has benefited from more ecological capital for its needs in the past will be more prone to environmental destruction and use of ecological resources in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the impact of the variable interruption of the ecological footprint on its value in the current year. Accordingly, in this research, the method of the System generalized moments is used, which helps to solve the possible problems of endogeneity caused by the existence of an interval of the ecological footprint variable as an independent variable by using instrumental variables.
The Generalized Moments' estimator is used in cases where the independent variables of the model are not completely exogenous. This estimator controls for the endogeneity problem by using instruments from the intercept of the dependent variable or the intercept of any other endogenous variable that is assumed to be uncorrelated with the fixed effects. The validity of the tools used in the model can be measured using the j-Hansen (1982) and Arellano and Bond AR (2) tests.

The results of the research indicate that the Human Development Index in selected developing and developed countries has a significant and negative effect on the ecological footprint, and a higher human development index is useful for improving the quality of the environment and reduces of pollutant emissions. Therefore, when the level of income, education, and health services in a country improves, the awareness of the importance of a safe and quality environment will increase. Similarly, according to the results of the Kuznets hypothesis, the relationship between the Human Development Index and the ecological footprint in the studied countries, confirms the hypothesis of Kuznets and the inverted U.The index of political development and civil liberties has a negative and significant effect on the ecological footprint in both developing and developed countries. It seems that the increase in civil liberties, higher democracy, and improvement of political rights will reduce the damage to the environment.The results suggest that with the increase in the consumption of fossil fuels, more pollutants are released into the environment, which leads to the destruction of the environment and harming it. Based on the results of the research, it can be said that trade liberalization and active international trade allow the transfer of newer technologies to developing countries that produce fewer pollutants. In addition, increasing urbanization in developing countries has a negative impact on the quality of the environment, but countries that focus more on economic development and scale can improve the quality of the environment by promoting the use of advanced technologies in parallel with urbanization.

The findings of the research indicate that policymakers are more likely to achieve sustainable economic development by improving the level of the human development index. Therefore, providing education and a health care system for all members of society can lead to the reduction of environmental degradation through the improvement of the human development index; Thus, increasing democracy, clarifying laws and regulations, freedom of assembly, freedom of the media and awareness can control corruption and prevent the personal use of natural and environmental resources by officials and powerful people.Policies such as pollution tax, green tax, development of energy-saving vehicles, and replacing them with worn-out vehicles can reduce energy consumption and reduce the emission of pollutants in the environment. Furthermore, increasing the degree of trade openness allows the entry of advanced and improved technologies that produce less pollution. Therefore, policymakers in developing countries are advised to import clean and renewable energy technologies to their country by increasing active international trade.

The existence of efficient financial institutions, proper allocation of resources and financial development are the prerequisites for achieving desired economic growth and development. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the factors affecting the financial development of countries. This study examines the impact of natural resources and institutional quality on the financial development of developing countries over 2000-2016 using systemic GMM In this study, we used three indexes for financial development: the Financial Development Index (FDI) developed by IMF, the total credit provided by banks to the private sector as a share of GDP, and the Z-score index. The rent of natural resources is measured as a weighted average of income flows from oil, gas and minerals and Good Governance Indicators are used as measures of institutional quality. The results suggest that natural resources rents have a positive and significant effect on credit provided to the private sector and Financial Development Index, but threaten the stability of the banking sector. In addition, Institutional quality indicators also show a positive effect on three indicators of financial development.

Since the Financial development through direct and indirect channels helps to economic growth and development, and achieving optimal economic growth is one of the goals of countries; therefore, the present study seeks to identify the factors affecting financial development in developing countries.  In this study using the System GMM method, the impact of institutional quality on financial development in two groups of selected developing countries in during 2000-2019 has been investigated. The index used for financial development of the first group is the domestic credit provided to the private sector as a ratio of GDP and the index of financial development used for the second group is the Stock market capitalization to GDP. Also, six Good Governance Indicators have been used as a measure of institutional quality. The result shows that the Good Governance indicators have a positive effect on credit except for the voice and accountability. In addition, Control of Corruption, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality and Rule of Law have a positive effect on the stock market capitalization. Therefore, enhancing institution quality would encourage the development of financial markets in the country studies, and policymakers must adopt appropriate policies to improve the quality of institutions