Greening South Asia with Financial Liberalization, Human Capital, and Militarization: Evidence from the CS-ARDL Approach

Green growth is recognized as an adequate mechanism to decelerate environmental turmoil. However, empirical evidence on what determines sustainable economic growth is still underexplored. Apprehending the importance of financial liberalization, human capital, and militarization in the South Asian region, we investigate their short- and long-run effects on green growth using data from 1990 to 2017. To address the cross-sectional dependency (CD) and heterogeneity issue, second-generation cointegration estimation techniques are employed. The findings show a stable and long-run relationship between financial liberalization, human capital, military expenditures, and green growth. The results of CS-ARDL also show the positive long-run effect of financial liberalization and human capital while the negative effect of militarization on green growth. Nonetheless, the interaction effects show the darker side of human capital and the brighter side of militarization in the presence of more financial openness. Results were further validated using the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test, highlighting the need to optimally utilize military expenditures, financial liberalization, and human capital for the sustainable growth of the region.