Economic Growth, Automation and Environmental Degradation: An Empirical Evidence from Asian Countries

In the era of Industry 4.0 the increase in population as a result of environmental erosion is the prime concern in the global scenario, Asia as the biggest continent is very much applied to it. In this context assessment of the interrelation relationship between automation, financial development, environmental degradation, and per capita growth of 12 Asian Countries from 1995 to 2022 using the panel ARDL model, in addition to assessing the cause-effect relationship panel causality test also incorporated. As a part of ARDL PMG estimation results demonstrated that capital formation, import automation machinery, urban population growth, and ecological footprint positively impact per capita in the long term. But in this phenomenon, aggregate industrial value added negatively impacts per capita, because of automation labor displacement. Results from the causality test suggest that economic upswing, and urban population growth two-way causal relationship. However, capital formation, value-added, and ecological footprint positively impacted per capita growth. Regarding policy formulation need to formulate the necessary skill development program so that individuals can cope with the new decade of automation, in addition, ecological footprint as an indicator of environmental degradation positively impacts per capita growth, so the government needs to make a strategy at the societal level toward sustainable ecofriendly behavior.