Unveiling the relationship between institutional quality, fintech, financial inclusion, human capital development and mineral resource abundance. An Asian perspective

Financial inclusion is crucial to subsidize economic adaption toward environmental challenges. It also promotes adjustability toward environmental perils in terms of financial needs. Thus, scholars have transposed their struggle to evaluate financial inclusion as a consoling attribute of environmental quality. Moreover, natural resources either as a curse or blessing still remains a predicament due to contradictory findings. Hence, the study intends to evaluate the impact of fintech, financial inclusion, institutional quality, and human capital on mineral resource rents in selected Asian economies during the pandemic and post-COVID time period. To examine the varying effects of explanatory variables across three quantile ranges MMQR technique was applied. Based on the preliminary findings, it can be deduced that the utilization of fintech and financial inclusion has the potential to decrease reliance on mineral resources. Similarly, the relationship between human development, institutional quality, and the level of dependency on mineral resources is observed to be negative. However, the magnitude of this impact differs across various quantiles. The findings indicate that the impact of fintech and financial inclusion is more pronounced at higher quantiles. The findings presented in this study provide significant and valuable policy recommendations. The said outcome is substantial and demands immediate interest of higher authorities of Asian region. The selected nations’ member must work together to form stable regional market that may provide enough control on energy and natural resources demand and supply.