Does technological progress help mitigate environmental pollution in high-tech countries? : evidence from a CS-ARDL framework

This paper investigates the role of technological progress (represented by information and communication technology-ICT) in mitigating carbon emissions in OECD countries. By applying the cross-section autoregressive distributed lag model (SC-ARDL) framework to 38 OECD countries from 1990 to 2019, this paper confirms the significant effects of ICT (proxied by the mobile cellular subscription per 100 people and the percentage of population using the Internet) on carbon emissions. Furthermore, results from the CS-ARDL framework also document the significant impact of GDP growth, renewable energy consumption and financial development on carbon emissions. These findings offer several crucial implications for both policymakers and researchers.