The impact of entrepreneurship and education on the ecological footprint: insights from the G-20 states

Abstract

Environmental impairment has become a critical global issue. Therefore, identifying the drivers of environmental degradation is essential for addressing environmental challenges world wide. This research article employs the Westerlund and Edgerton (2007) bootstrap cointegration test and the causality test of Juodis, Karavias, and Sarafidis (2021) to examine the interplay among entrepreneurial activities, education, renewable energy utilization, and ecological footprint in selected G-20 countries during 2002–2020. The causality analysis reveals a unidirectional causal relationship between entrepreneurial activities and education to ecological footprint, along with a feedback loop between ecological footprint and renewable energy utilization. Additionally, the cointegration analy sis indicates that education, renewable energy utilization, and entrepreneurial activities generally reduce the ecological footprint in the long term for most of the countries studied. In conclusion, entrepreneurship, education, and renewable energy usage are significant factors in determining the ecological footprint in both short- and long-term scenarios. Hence, countries could leverage education, sustainable entrepreneurship, and renewable energy to enhance environmental quality.