Urban Growth or Urban Sprawl: Exploring the Interplay of Resource Migration and Knowledge Economy for Environmental Sustainability

Environment degradation is an alarming global issue to the standard of living emerging from higher mechanization and energy-intensive economic activity in urban areas. This study aims to test the impact of resource migration from rural to urban areas on environmental quality by utilizing panel data techniques for the world’s top ten highly populated countries from 1996 to 2020. For this purpose, our study has formulated a non-linear relationship between resource migration and environmental quality to form a variant of the environmental Phillips curve and urbanization-environment Kuznets curve (U-EKC). Further, this study has examined the knowledge economy indicators (technology, education, innovations, and institutional quality) moderating role through the U-EKC channel. The findings confirm the ∩ -shaped existence of U-EKC, indicating the presence of urban sprawl over the horizon. Moreover, other than technology, all knowledge indicators have shown a potential to moderate urban sprawl toward reducing net carbon emissions and environmental sustainability.