THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND INSTITUTIONAL QUALITY ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of technological innovation and institutional quality on the environment in Nigeria.  The study spanned from 1990 to 2022.  The key variables in the study were technological innovation as proxy by technological index, institutional quality as proxy by six governance indicators, and carbon emission as proxy for environment.  While the control variables include energy consumption and Gross domestic product.  The study first conducted a pre-estimation test using Descriptive statistics and Correlation matrix, and Augmented Dickey Fuller test for stationarity while Ordinary least was used as major estimation techniques since it does not violate classical linear regression assumption.  The findings from the preliminary estimation shows that all data series are stationarity at levels.  The result form the best linear unbiased estimates indicate that environmentally related technological innovation destructively affects C0₂ emissions while energy consumption and economic growth positively impact C0₂ emissions.  Based on these findings, the government should raise investment in environmental technological innovation so as to improve the quality of institutional environment to achieve sustainable development targets