Assessing the symmetric and asymmetric impact of technological innovations environmental quality in Qatar

A significant contribution is made by technological innovation toward economic prosperity and the growth of societies. But this growth is associated with significant risks to the environment and creates a strong impact on environmental quality. In view of rising environmental concerns accompanied by technological innovation, this research is conducted to estimate the carbon footprint of technological innovation in Qatar by taking annual time series data from 2012 to 2022. The application of the linear ARDL model, assuming that technological innovation has a symmetric effect on carbon emissions, was utilized to predict the influence of two important factors, namely patent and trademark applications, on carbon emissions. The findings of the analysis indicated that in the long term, patent applications have a noteworthy positive impact on carbon emissions, although it is of a moderate nature. Conversely, there is a significant negative impact of trademark applications on carbon emissions. This result bears well with regard to environmentally sustainable growth in Qatar as the number of trademark applications is substantively more than patent. The asymmetrical NARDL model confirms these results, it was shown that there is symmetrical effect created by patent on carbon emission in the long run in terms of direction and magnitude. This implies that in the long run, there will be a significant effect (increasing or decreasing) on carbon emissions resulting from the positive or negative shock to the patent. While the association between carbon emissions and trademark remains symmetrical in the long run with respect to direction and magnitude acts here as more of a robustness test, confirming that environmental quality in Qatar will be improved by positive or negative shocks to the trademark.