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Sustainable Development Indicators and Their Relationship to GDP: Evidence from Emerging Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Bahram Adrangi

    (Pamplin School of Business Administration, The University of Portland, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd, Portland, OR 97203, USA)

  • Lauren Kerr

    (Pamplin School of Business Administration, The University of Portland, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd, Portland, OR 97203, USA)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the metrics the United Nations has set and called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their association with the gross domestic product (GDP) in emerging economies. SDGs have been identified to measure healthy development, whereas GDP has historically been used to measure economic health and has been prioritized above many other indicators. This research deploys the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) and the seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) on panel data consisting of the five BRIC countries spanning 2000 through 2017 to estimate a regression model that shows the association of SDGs with GDP. The paper concludes that targeting GDP may not lead to achieving overall SDGs.

Suggested Citation

  • Bahram Adrangi & Lauren Kerr, 2022. "Sustainable Development Indicators and Their Relationship to GDP: Evidence from Emerging Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-13, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:2:p:658-:d:719800
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. James D Ward & Paul C Sutton & Adrian D Werner & Robert Costanza & Steve H Mohr & Craig T Simmons, 2016. "Is Decoupling GDP Growth from Environmental Impact Possible?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.
    2. Bahram Adrangi & K. Kathy Dhanda & Ronald Paul Hill, 2004. "A Model of Consumption and Environmental Degradation: Making the case for sustainable consumer behaviour," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 417-432.
    3. Borgmann, Albert, 2000. "The Moral Complexion of Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 26(4), pages 418-422, March.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Harman Preet Singh & Ajay Singh & Fakhre Alam & Vikas Agrawal, 2022. "Impact of Sustainable Development Goals on Economic Growth in Saudi Arabia: Role of Education and Training," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-25, October.
    3. Yu-Xia Tu & Oleksandr Kubatko & Vladyslav Piven & Bohdan Kovalov & Mykola Kharchenko, 2023. "Promotion of Sustainable Development in the EU: Social and Economic Drivers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Škare, Marinko & Gavurova, Beata & Porada-Rochon, Malgorzata, 2024. "Digitalization and carbon footprint: Building a path to a sustainable economic growth," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    5. Muhammad Waseem & Nabila Khurshid & Chinyere Emmanuel Egbe & Mudassar Rashid, 2025. "Energy Transition and Institutional Quality in E-7 Economies: Unveiling Paths to Sustainable Development with CS-ARDL Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-22, May.
    6. Bahram Adrangi & Krisztian Jeszenszki, 2025. "Publicly Subsidized Childcare and the Labor Force Participation Rates of Men and Women: Evidence From OECD," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 70(1), pages 46-63, March.
    7. Zakari, Abdulrasheed & Khan, Irfan & Tawiah, Vincent & Alvarado, Rafael & Li, Guo, 2022. "The production and consumption of oil in Africa: The environmental implications," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Malik, Arsalan Haneef & Rehan, Muhammad & Hussain, Arsalan & Ur-Rehman, Awais & Kashif, Muhammad, 2026. "Balancing innovation and sustainability: The E-waste challenge in achieving SDG 13 across EEA countries," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Fan, Ruilin & Zhang, Hanlu & Gao, Yi, 2023. "The global cooperation in asteroid mining based on AHP, entropy and TOPSIS," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 437(C).
    10. Le Quoc Dinh & Tran Thi Kim Oanh & Nguyen Thi Hong Ha, 2025. "Financial stability and sustainable development: Perspectives from fiscal and monetary policy," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 1724-1741, April.
    11. Mehdi Seraj & Annette Siakamba & Huseyin Ozdeser, 2025. "The Impact of Economic Indicators on Renewable Energy Consumption in Southern Africa: Evidence from Residual Augmented Least Squares Cointegration and Method of Moments Quantile Regression Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-18, April.

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