Asymmetric impacts of natural resource, population density, energy intensity, and government effectiveness on ecological footprints: insights from ECOWAS economies

This study examines the asymmetric effects of natural resources (NRs), population density (PD), energy intensity (EI), GDP, and government effectiveness (GOVEFF) on ecological footprint (EF) in ECOWAS countries from 1996 to 2020. Employing panel quantile regression approaches, including the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) and Bootstrap Quantile Regression (BSQR), the analysis captures heterogeneous effects across the distribution of ecological footprints. The findings reveal that natural resources, population density, energy intensity, and GDP significantly exacerbate ecological footprint, particularly at higher quantiles, whereas government effectiveness mitigates these impacts. Robustness checks confirm the stability of the results. Furthermore, the interaction terms (GOVEFF with NRs and PD) demonstrate that strong institutional quality significantly reduces the adverse environmental effects of resource dependence and population growth. These results highlight the importance of strengthening governance structures, promoting energy efficiency, and implementing resource management reforms to facilitate sustainable transitions in ECOWAS countries.