Impact of Institutional Quality and Earning Population on Sustainable Development: The Moderating Role of Globalization

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to examine how the earning population and institutional quality of the belt and road countries have affected sustainable development. The generalized two-step moments method was used to analyze the panel data of 64 countries of the Belt and Road Initiative from 2003 to 2020. D-K regression and re-estimating alternative variables were used to validate the analysis. According to the GMM results, institutional quality positively influenced sustainable development while earning population negatively impacted sustainable development. Additionally, globalization with high institutional quality has a moderating effect that is both positive and significant, whereas the earning population with globalization has significant adverse impact on sustainable development. Furthermore, future directions and the implications for policy were also discussed.