ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Hum. Dyn.

Sec. Population, Environment and Development

Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fhumd.2025.1602927

The impact of international trade, foreign direct investment, and demographic structure on the environmental quality of human well-being: Evidence from Bhutan

Provisionally accepted
Zhu  YeZhu Ye1Han  WangHan Wang2Hongjin  ChenHongjin Chen1Yong  YuYong Yu3*
  • 1Yangtze Normal University, Fuling District, China
  • 2Tibet University, Lhasa, Tibet, China
  • 3University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Based on the environmental quality data pertaining to human well-being in Bhutan from 2002 to 2022, the ARDL-ECM model was employed to examine the long-term equilibrium and short-term dynamic relationships between international trade, foreign direct investment, and demographic structure with Bhutan's per capita ecological footprint. Additionally, the Granger causality test was utilized to further investigate these relationships. The results showed that: During the study period, the environmental quality of human well-being in Bhutan was deteriorating continuously;The increase of international trade can increase the per capita ecological footprint of Bhutan, which leads to the decline of Bhutan's environmental quality, and it is also the Granger cause of the change in Bhutan's per capita ecological footprint. Foreign direct investment and demographic structure move in the opposite direction of Bhutan's per capita ecological footprint. This serves as a point of reference for policymakers when formulating pertinent strategies, and offers a theoretical foundation and practical guidance for other nations in their pursuit of sustainable development pathways.

Keywords: Bhutan, international trade, Foreign direct investment, Demographic structure, ecological footprint

Received: 30 Mar 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Ye, Wang, Chen and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Yong Yu, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia

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