Determinants of Economic Growth for the Last Half of Century: A Panel Data Analysis on 50 Countries

Attaining economic growth through sustainable measures benefits the overall society in the long run. Yet it is nevertheless challenging today as it was few decades ago. The selected economic development indicators of 50 countries, which include developed, in transition, and developing economies across five continents for a period of 50 years from 1971 to 2020, are investigated with a particular focus on the sustainability of economic growth. The chosen predictors retrieved from the World Bank database were the value added from agriculture, forestry and fishing, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions, domestic credit granted to the private sector by banks, and domestic credit provided by the financial sector. In the empirical study using the software EViews 11, results indicated that nitrous oxide emissions have considerably influenced the economic growth level of these countries, and elicited two issues on the sustainability of economic growth. The higher were the nitrous oxide emissions, the higher the level of economic growth, and the substantial the climate change. Domestic credit to private sector by banks and domestic credit provided by the financial sector did not influence economic growth. Our results suggest that more investments and green policies are needed to achieve the sustainability of economic growth across the fifty nations. Policy implications and future research directions are also addressed.