Investigating the role of research development and renewable energy on human development: An insight from the top ten human development index countries

The human development index (HDI) is an inclusive indicator for measuring the standard of living with greater emphasis on development than the gross domestic product. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of economic growth, renewable energy consumption, research and development expenditure, and total natural resource rent on the HDI in the top ten human development countries. For this reason, we used datasets for 1996–2007 and employed a series of advanced econometric methods [the Driscoll-Kraay, feasible generalized least square (FGLS), and generalized method of moments (GMM)] to mitigate the existing cross-sectional problem. This study demonstrates that economic growth, renewable energy consumption, research and development expenditure, and total natural resources rent tested positive on the HDI. While the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality tests showed a bidirectional relationship between the HDI and economic growth. In addition, a unidirectional causality relationship was found from the HDI to renewable energy consumption, and to research and development expenditure. The policy implication highlighting the directions for the use of variables in the context of sustainability is also discussed.