The Effects of Human Development, Education Expenditures, Migration and Corruption on Achieving Ecological Sustainability in <scp>OECD</scp> Economies

ABSTRACT Environmental degradation poses global challenges, threatening ecosystems and human well‐being. However, it may not directly indicate progress toward sustainable development goals. Recent studies highlight the load capacity factor, which measures environmental sustainability by considering biocapacity. While green energy transition and innovation have been extensively examined, the influence of socioeconomic factors remains underexplored. This study investigates the effects of education expenditures, human development, corruption, and migration on the ecological footprint in 15 OECD countries from 2000 to 2021 employing the Dynamic Common Correlated Effects (DCCE) estimator as the primary method, complemented by the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimator for robustness check. Findings reveal that migration increases the footprint in Japan but decreases it in Austria, Norway, and Switzerland. Corruption raises it in Slovenia, while human development reduces it in Germany and Switzerland but increases it in Austria and Slovakia. Education expenditures lower the footprint in Greece, Switzerland, and the overall panel. These results emphasize the role of education investments in strengthening environmental sustainability in OECD countries. Moreover, addressing country‐specific factors such as corruption and migration should be a priority in developing specific environmental policies that balance economic growth with ecological protection.