Assessing the role of green economy on sustainable development in developing countries

PURPOSE: Over the last few years, the green economy (GE) notion has been realized as a key tool for achieving sustainable development (SD) in both developing and developed nations. Therefore, the current study tries to investigate the role of GE in achieving SD in developing countries. Through empirically examining the relationship between the GE and three different dependent variables which are GDP per capita, total unemployment rate, and poverty level, using cross-sectional data for 60 developing countries in 2018. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Applying generalized least square (GLS) approach. The four dimensions of the Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) are the key independent variables that measure the accomplishment of nations in aspects of the global green economy. FINDINGS: The empirical results showed the existence of a positive statistically significant relationship between the GE and GDP per capita and the level of total unemployment, while there is a negative statistically significant relationship between the GE and the poverty rate in developing countries. IMPLICATION POLICY: This study recommends that both the private and public sectors continue to endorse and adopt GE in the future for SD, job creation, and poverty alleviation. The original value of the study: It is the first research for developing countries that explores the relationship between GE and SD using three indicators of SD using a GLS approach according to our information. Also, this study categorized the dataset of the developing countries based on their income level for addressing the heteroskedasticity problem.