Do the development of technology and the expansion of trade reduce the ecological footprint ? A case study: evidence from developing countries

In recent decades, economic growth along with environmental protection is important issue facing most economic societies. On the other hand, with the increase of new technologies and the trade openness, the effect of changing new and extensive structures on the environment has become very important. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of economic complexity and trade openness on the ecological footprint (as an indicator of environmental degradation). For this purpose, the data of 18 developing countries in Asia during the study period from 1990 to 2017 have been used with the Panel-Quantile approach. In addition, the variables of GDP per capita, globalization and financial development were considered as control variables. The results of this study show that the increase in economic complexity in different quantiles reports different results, so that with a one percent increase in economic complexity in the 10th quantile, the ecological footprint has decreased by more than one percent, but an increase in economic complexity in the 50th quantile has caused the deterioration of the quality of the environment. The results show that the increase in trade in all quantiles has helped to improve the environment. Moreover, with increasing globalization and financial development, the ecological footprint has increased in all quantiles. In addition, the results of this study indicate that the increase in per capita income has reported different results in different quantiles.