Nexus between Foreign Direct Investment, Energy Consumption, Natural Resource, and Economic Growth in Latin American Countries

Objective: This study investigates the nexus between household health expenditure, CO₂ emissions and environmental pollution in China. We analyzed the asymmetric dynamic relationship between CO₂ emissions, environmental pollution and household health expenditure for the period 1990 to 2019 in China. Methods: This study adopted nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) and Granger causality following the diagnostic test. Furthermore, we applied Dickey–Fuller (ADF), PP unit root tests, Zivot and Andrews test for structural breaks in our analysis. The NARDL is the most suitable econometric technique for estimations, especially if the asymmetric relationship exists among the variables. NARDL technique is capable to explore the dynamic relationship between CO₂ emissions, environmental pollution and household health expenditure. Results: The empirical results verify the asymmetric nexus between CO₂ emissions, environmental pollution and household health expenditure in the context of China. The outcomes revealed that in the short run and long run positive shocks of CO₂ emissions and environmental pollution positively affecting health expenditure, while negative shocks reduce health spendings. The results also demonstrate bi-directional causality among household health spendings, CO₂ emissions and environmental pollution. Conclusion: Our results support many previous studies, documenting that CO₂ emissions positively contribute to the amount of household health expenditure, confirming the asymmetric relationship between CO₂ emissions and household health expenditure. The results also confirm the statistically significant and asymmetrically positive relationship between environmental pollution and household health expenditure. This implies that Chinese residents have to bear more household health expenditure, in the case of more CO₂ emissions and a greater amount of environmental pollution.

Introduction: Agriculture faces significant challenges in ensuring global food security while minimizing resource costs and environmental impacts. The development of digital infrastructure offers transformative potential for agricultural systems and aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This study examines the role of digital infrastructure in enhancing grain production capacity in China, a key player in the global food system.Methods: We analyzed data from 277 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2021. A double machine learning model was employed to empirically assess the impact of digital infrastructure on grain production capacity, allowing for robust insights into causal relationships.Results: Results reveal that digital infrastructure significantly enhances grain production. Mechanism analysis results indicate that digital infrastructure construction drives agricultural technological advancements and farmland scale, contributing to increased production capacity. Heterogeneity analysis results show that the impact of digital infrastructure construction is significant in major grain-producing regions and the central-eastern regions, while its effects are relatively limited in grain production-consumption balanced regions, main grain consumption regions, and the western regions.Discussion: The results underscore the importance of strengthening digital infrastructure in rural areas to improve grain production capacity. Tailored policy implications are suggested to enhance sustainable food production and contribute to global food security, particularly in regions with varying agricultural dynamics.