Studying the trade-off between human well-being and ecological footprint in Vietnam

Abstract

This study was conducted to answer whether there exists a trade-off between human well-being and environmental quality in Vietnam from 1980 - 2021. By applying the Wavelet tools, the findings are summarized: (i) There is a trade-off between environmental quality and life expectancy in both the short run and long run; (ii) Environmental quality has a weak correlation with economic growth in the short-term, but is a strong correlation in the long term; (iii) The association correlation between environmental quality and human development index is weak between 1994 and 2012, and gets stronger from 2012 to now. Based on this evidence, the study suggests several helpful policy implications for policy-makers to enhance human well-being and mitigate harmful environmental impacts in Vietnam.