Towards a sustainable future: The interplay of trade globalization and regulatory quality on environmental outcomes in India

Over the past three decades, India's transformative journey through globalization has boosted trade and technological advancements but has also raised concerns about balancing development with environmental sustainability, emphasizing the urgent need for stringent environmental regulations. In...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nupur Soti, Ashish Kumar, Sanjeev Gupta, Suman Ahuja, Deepa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:Sustainable Futures
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666188825001480
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850101630303731712
author Nupur Soti
Ashish Kumar
Sanjeev Gupta
Suman Ahuja
Deepa
author_facet Nupur Soti
Ashish Kumar
Sanjeev Gupta
Suman Ahuja
Deepa
author_sort Nupur Soti
collection DOAJ
description Over the past three decades, India's transformative journey through globalization has boosted trade and technological advancements but has also raised concerns about balancing development with environmental sustainability, emphasizing the urgent need for stringent environmental regulations. In this context, this study investigates the impact of trade globalization (TG) and regulatory quality (RQ) on ecological footprints (EF) in India from 1990 to 2022. Additionally, economic growth (EG), urbanization (UB), and biocapacity (BC) are included as control variables to eliminate the possibility of omitted variable bias. The Autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and Quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) methodologies are employed to unravel this nexus. The study utilizes three different models for robust explorations of the impact of TG and RQ on EF. The findings are consistent across both the techniques for all these models, underscoring the validity of our results. Specifically, our findings reveal a significant inverse relationship between TG and EF (in the short-run) and between RQ and EF (in the short-run and long-run). This validates the pollution halo effect hypothesis (PHEH) in India in the short-run, suggesting that stringent regulations can promote ‘clean’ trade in the host nation. Additionally, the interaction effect of TG and UB on EF is statistically significant, highlighting the importance of integrating trade and environmental policies to foster green growth. Based on the findings, the study offers important policy implications.
format Article
id doaj-art-01f3bbcbb4884bf699751d23f515a2fc
institution DOAJ
issn 2666-1888
language English
publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Sustainable Futures
spelling doaj-art-01f3bbcbb4884bf699751d23f515a2fc2025-08-20T02:39:58ZengElsevierSustainable Futures2666-18882025-06-01910057810.1016/j.sftr.2025.100578Towards a sustainable future: The interplay of trade globalization and regulatory quality on environmental outcomes in IndiaNupur Soti0Ashish Kumar1Sanjeev Gupta2Suman Ahuja3 Deepa4Apeejay School of Management, Dwarka, New Delhi, IndiaUniversity School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Dwarka, New Delhi, India; Corresponding author.HPKV Business School, School of Commerce and Management Studies, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, IndiaUniversity School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Dwarka, New Delhi, IndiaUniversity School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Dwarka, New Delhi, IndiaOver the past three decades, India's transformative journey through globalization has boosted trade and technological advancements but has also raised concerns about balancing development with environmental sustainability, emphasizing the urgent need for stringent environmental regulations. In this context, this study investigates the impact of trade globalization (TG) and regulatory quality (RQ) on ecological footprints (EF) in India from 1990 to 2022. Additionally, economic growth (EG), urbanization (UB), and biocapacity (BC) are included as control variables to eliminate the possibility of omitted variable bias. The Autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and Quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) methodologies are employed to unravel this nexus. The study utilizes three different models for robust explorations of the impact of TG and RQ on EF. The findings are consistent across both the techniques for all these models, underscoring the validity of our results. Specifically, our findings reveal a significant inverse relationship between TG and EF (in the short-run) and between RQ and EF (in the short-run and long-run). This validates the pollution halo effect hypothesis (PHEH) in India in the short-run, suggesting that stringent regulations can promote ‘clean’ trade in the host nation. Additionally, the interaction effect of TG and UB on EF is statistically significant, highlighting the importance of integrating trade and environmental policies to foster green growth. Based on the findings, the study offers important policy implications.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666188825001480BiocapacityEconomic growthEcological footprintsRegulatory qualityTrade globalization
spellingShingle Nupur Soti
Ashish Kumar
Sanjeev Gupta
Suman Ahuja
Deepa
Towards a sustainable future: The interplay of trade globalization and regulatory quality on environmental outcomes in India
Sustainable Futures
Biocapacity
Economic growth
Ecological footprints
Regulatory quality
Trade globalization
title Towards a sustainable future: The interplay of trade globalization and regulatory quality on environmental outcomes in India
title_full Towards a sustainable future: The interplay of trade globalization and regulatory quality on environmental outcomes in India
title_fullStr Towards a sustainable future: The interplay of trade globalization and regulatory quality on environmental outcomes in India
title_full_unstemmed Towards a sustainable future: The interplay of trade globalization and regulatory quality on environmental outcomes in India
title_short Towards a sustainable future: The interplay of trade globalization and regulatory quality on environmental outcomes in India
title_sort towards a sustainable future the interplay of trade globalization and regulatory quality on environmental outcomes in india
topic Biocapacity
Economic growth
Ecological footprints
Regulatory quality
Trade globalization
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666188825001480
work_keys_str_mv AT nupursoti towardsasustainablefuturetheinterplayoftradeglobalizationandregulatoryqualityonenvironmentaloutcomesinindia
AT ashishkumar towardsasustainablefuturetheinterplayoftradeglobalizationandregulatoryqualityonenvironmentaloutcomesinindia
AT sanjeevgupta towardsasustainablefuturetheinterplayoftradeglobalizationandregulatoryqualityonenvironmentaloutcomesinindia
AT sumanahuja towardsasustainablefuturetheinterplayoftradeglobalizationandregulatoryqualityonenvironmentaloutcomesinindia
AT deepa towardsasustainablefuturetheinterplayoftradeglobalizationandregulatoryqualityonenvironmentaloutcomesinindia