The impact of National Environmental Policy on Pakistan’s green economic development: evidence from regression discontinuity design

Muhammad Salman () and Guimei Wang ()
Additional contact information
Muhammad Salman: China West Normal University
Guimei Wang: China Jiliang University

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2025, vol. 27, issue 5, No 83, 11983-12012

Abstract: Abstract Pakistan is currently facing a number of environmental challenges, including an increasing ecological footprint, loss of biodiversity, and overexploitation of natural resources. In response to these issues, the government introduced the National Environmental Policy (NEP) in 2005. However, the policy’s impact of NEP on Pakistan’s sustainable development remains understudied. In this study, we use an advanced ecological footprint model that incorporates a macro-trade adjustment approach to determine the trade modification values for energy and biological products. The study then analyzed the economic and policy impacts of NEP on the sustainable development using fuzzy regression discontinuity analysis. Results revealed a linearly decreasing trade footprint for Pakistan signifying an overall trade deficit. Per capita ecological footprint and per capita sustaining capacity declined; while, the ecological deficit increased over 1990–2022. Among the six land types, Fossil energy and cultivated areas exhibited the largest ecological footprint effects. Pakistan’s footprint decreased markedly following NEP implementation. Setting cutoffs at 2010, 2015, 2018 uncovered negative EP jumps, confirming NEP’s efficiency. Findings can shape optimal policy mechanisms.

Keywords: National Environmental Policy; Ecological footprint; Macro-trade adjustment method; Fuzzy regression discontinuity design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-04392-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:5:d:10.1007_s10668-023-04392-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-04392-6

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().