Abstract
The principal aim of our study is to investigate the contribution and/or the influence of Foreign Trade (FT), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and Financial Development (FD) on the Energy Consumption (EC) Environmental Pollution (EP)-Economic Growth (EG) link for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) over the period 1971-2019. To realize the study aim, we develop an augmented growth model to examine the long-run relationship between the mentioned variables by applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) procedure and the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to capture direction causality. The empirical results suggest that the variables concerned are cointegrated. Further, the coefficients estimated are mixed across countries. In the long-run, EC, FT (except Kuwait), and FDI (except Oman and KSA) are related to a rise in EG for all countries. Besides, the findings support that EC generates EG in the short-run for all GCC countries, implying economic expansion. Moreover, the major conclusion of this research paper has an impressive value for the policymakers to advance comprehensive trade, investment, financial, and energy policies that enable to achieve sustainable development. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.