Estimating the Role of Globalization, Technological Development and Household Consumption on Ecological Footprint in Visegrad Countries

Environmental quality is a crucial topic both for developed and developing countries. In particular, along with globalization, developing countries strive to catch up with developed countries. However, the globalization process in developing countries may also cause environmental effects. Hence, the current paper aims to analyze the impact of globalization, technological development (TD), and household consumption on the ecological footprint (EF) in Visegrad countries (V4), Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia over the period 1996-2021 through controlling economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and CO emissions. In order to achieve this aim, we perform the augment mean group (AMG) estimator that takes into consideration cross-sectional dependence (CSD). The empirical findings reveal that globalization, renewable energy consumption, and CO emissions significantly positively affect EF. However, economic growth (EG) is insignificantly positive, and TD and household consumption have insignificantly negative impacts on EF in the whole panel. In addition, the country-specific results provide mixed results. For example, EG has a significantly positive effect on EF in Slovakia and Hungary and an insignificantly positive effect on EF in Poland and Czechia. Globalization significantly positively influences EF in Czechia and Slovakia and insignificantly positively affects EF in Poland and Hungary. Technological development (TD) has significantly negative effects on EF in Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia, and insignificantly positive effects in Hungary. Household consumption has a negative significant effect on EF in Hungary, an insignificant negative effect in Slovakia, and a positive insignificant effect in Poland and Czechia. Moreover, renewable energy consumption positively affects EF in Czechia and Hungary and has insignificantly positive effects in Poland and Slovakia. Finally, CO emission has a significantly positive influence on EF in Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia and an insignificantly positive influence in Hungary. Consequently, empirical findings can help policymakers develop new policies for combating environmental degradation by considering the role of globalization, technological improvement, and CO emissions.