موضوعات
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
The increasing use of natural resources and materials raises significant concerns, including economic issues—such as the rising costs of resource and materials management, inefficient usage, and unsustainable development—as well as environmental effects like carbon dioxide emissions, global warming, and climate change. Key factors such as resource productivity, economic growth, and business activities are closely related to the dynamics of domestic material consumption (DMC). Empirical research indicates that trade increasingly influences global resource use. Rising global demand for exports and imports fosters greater production of goods and services, which in turn places pressure on the use of natural resources and materials. Moreover, globalization expands the scale of economic activities such as trade and transportation, leading to increased resource use and pollution. While international organizations and policymakers have historically emphasized economic development and employment in discussions on human progress, recent attention has shifted toward inequality and environmental sustainability. This study addresses this shift, examining the significant role globalization plays in influencing environmental quality and sustainable resource use.
Aim and Introduction
The optimal and sustainable use of natural resources is critical for mitigating environmental risks and preventing resource depletion. While most studies on resource consumption assume a linear relationship between economic growth, population, and resource use, this research explores the often-overlooked nonlinear relationships between consumption and factors such as globalization, urbanization, and total factor productivity (TFP).
Globalization—encompassing social, political, and economic dimensions—plays a pivotal role in shaping production, consumption, and environmental outcomes. This study employs the Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) model to analyze how globalization influences the relationship between economic growth and domestic material consumption. The PSTR model, which accounts for regime shifts, enables the examination of nonlinear interactions and offers more precise empirical insights into these relationships. By allowing parameters to vary over time and across countries, the model captures the heterogeneous effects of economic development on resource consumption.
The primary objective is to investigate the nonlinear effects of globalization on gross domestic product (GDP) and resource consumption at different globalization stages. By leveraging the PSTR model, this study provides a nuanced understanding of the complex and dynamic relationships among economic growth, globalization, and environmental sustainability.
Methodology
This study hypothesizes that domestic material consumption responds differently to varying levels of globalization. Specifically, it posits that the effect of economic growth changes across different globalization stages, implying a nonlinear globalization threshold in the relationship between economic growth and DMC. The PSTR method is well-suited to capturing nonlinearities, whether they involve steep or gradual regime transitions.
The corresponding PSTR model is specified as follows:
LDMCit=μi+δ0Xit+δ1Xit*GSit;γ;c+εit with γ>0 (1)[A1]
where I[A2] = 1, 2, ..., n and t = 1, 2, ..., t[A3] represent the number of cross-sections and time periods, respectively. LDMC denotes the logarithm of domestic material consumption. Xit= (X1t، X2t) includes per capita GDP and other control variables such as urbanization, total factor productivity growth, and industrial value-added. GSit;γ;c is the smooth transition function, where Sit denotes the globalization index.
A simplified version of the model is:
LDMCit=μi+δ0LGDPit+δ1LGDPit*GSit;γ;c+εit γ>0 (2)
Following Gonzales et al. (2005), the transition function is assumed to be logistic:
GSit;γ;c= 1+exp-γj=1nSit-cj-1 (3)
here, γ is the slope parameter, and cj , j=1, 2, …, n is an n-dimensional location vector representing the threshold values. Depending on the degree of globalization, the effect of economic growth on DMC changes. In the first regime (where G.=0 ), the elasticity of DMC with respect to economic growth is δ0 . In the second regime, this elasticity becomes δ0+δ1 . The estimation procedure for the PSTR model involves the following steps:
(i) The null hypothesis of linearity is tested against the alternative of a smooth transition. If linearity is rejected, the appropriate threshold variable Sit is selected. To address the issue of unidentified nuisance parameters under the null hypothesis (as discussed by Luukkonen et al., 1988), the transition GSit;γ;c is approximated around γ = 0 using a first-order Taylor expansion. The linearized form of the model is:
LDMCit=μi+δ0Xit+δ1XitLKOFit+…+δmXitLKOFitm+εit (4)
The linearity test between LDMC and LKOF is equivalent to testing the null hypothesis H0: δ0=δ1=δm in equation (4). This test can be performed using an LM test, which follows an F distribution:
LMF=SSR0-SSR1/mKSSR0/TN-N-mK~FmK,TN-N-K-mK+1 (5)
where SSR0 and SSR1 represent the panel sum of squared residuals under H0 and H1 , respectively. Here, K denotes the number of explanatory variables, T is the number of years, N is the number of countries, and m is the order of the logistic transfer function in equation (5).
(ii) The number r of transition functions and the number of extreme regimes, equal to r + 1, must be specified. For example, r = 1 indicates the presence of two regimes associated with the threshold variable in the PSTR model. When globalization is used as the threshold variable, the effect of economic growth on LDMC varies across different levels of globalization, which are defined according to the estimated threshold.
(iii) The parameters of the selected PSTR model are estimated using nonlinear least squares after data reduction, following the procedures outlined by Hansen (1999) and Gonzalez et al. (2005, 2017).
(iv) The validity of the estimated PSTR model is assessed by testing for the absence of residual heterogeneity. Accordingly, this study examines the indirect effect of globalization on environmental impact assessment and sustainable resource management in selected countries worldwide.
Results and Discussion
The results indicate that the null hypothesis of linearity is rejected, confirming that the effects of economic growth, urbanization, industrialization, and total factor productivity (TFP) on domestic material consumption (DMC) vary with the level of globalization. The model features a threshold with two regimes and is estimated using a Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) approach, which is particularly well-suited for heterogeneous panel data. This study examines the indirect impact of globalization on sustainable resource management across 102 countries over the period 2000–2020.
The estimated transition speed from the first regime to the second is 102.0487, with the regime change occurring at a threshold value of 4.3998. In the first regime, the logarithm of total factor productivity exerts a positive and statistically significant effect on the logarithm of domestic material consumption, indicating that at lower levels of globalization, productivity growth drives industrial expansion that relies heavily on domestic materials. This, in turn, contributes to increased resource use and poses challenges for sustainable resource management.
However, as globalization intensifies and exceeds the identified threshold, the positive effect of TFP on DMC diminishes and eventually becomes negative. At higher levels of globalization, improvements in productivity are associated with the adoption of pollution control technologies and increased investment in cleaner production methods, leading to reduced material consumption and enhanced sustainability outcomes. These findings align with theoretical expectations and are consistent with empirical evidence from Ulucak et al. (2020) and Ma et al. (2023).
Urbanization displays a similarly nonlinear pattern. At lower globalization levels, urbanization is associated with a reduction in DMC. However, beyond the threshold, urbanization leads to increased material consumption. This shift reflects the reliance of large segments of the population in developing countries on traditional energy sources, which intensifies pollution. Furthermore, large-scale rural-to-urban migration results in habitat destruction, deforestation, and heightened pressure on ecosystems. Inadequate urban planning and the lack of environmentally sustainable infrastructure exacerbate environmental degradation. These observations are in line with the theoretical framework and corroborated by Ulucak et al. (2020), Ma et al. (2023), and Ullah and Lin (2024).
In contrast, industrialization consistently increases domestic material consumption across both regimes, thereby worsening sustainable resource management. This finding is also consistent with theoretical predictions and empirical studies by Ullah and Lin (2024).
Conclusion
Efficient and sustainable resource use is essential to mitigating environmental threats and preventing resource depletion. A robust approach to sustainable resource management involves identifying and analyzing the key drivers of material consumption. Following the STIRPAT framework, this study investigates the effects of economic growth, total factor productivity, industrialization, urbanization, and globalization on domestic material consumption.
The empirical results reveal that TFP initially increases DMC in the first regime. However, after crossing the globalization threshold, TFP contributes to a decline in material consumption, thereby supporting sustainable resource management. Economic growth follows a similar pattern: while it increases DMC in the first regime, it reduces consumption in the second. Urbanization also has contrasting effects, reducing DMC at lower globalization levels but increasing it after the threshold is crossed. In contrast, industrialization has a consistently positive effect on DMC in both regimes, underscoring its detrimental impact on sustainable resource use.
These findings highlight the importance of tailoring resource management strategies to globalization dynamics and provide valuable insights for policymakers aiming to align economic development with environmental sustainability
[A1]In English, all numbers must be left aligned.
Pls revise all numbers and transfer them to the left side.
[A2]You meant i?
[A3]You meant T?
کلیدواژهها English
