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Our article is the first attempt to investigate the association between global value chains (GVC) and environmental performance (EP). We employ two dimensions, including human health's and ecosystem's protection, to capture the EP, while GVC is classified backward and forward based on the foreign and domestic value-added to the total exports. By applying the formal empirical estimation procedure to a global sample of 30 low-income and lower-middle-income and 27 upper-middle-income and 33 high-income countries during the 2000 to 2018 period, some key findings are highlighted. Our estimates emphasize the importance of GVCs on EP through their influences on environmental health and ecosystem vitality. By distinguishing between the effects of different types of GVC, we reveal that being engaged in forward GVC plays a more critical role in improving the environment than backward GVC. By studying the short-run and long-run effects, our study suggests that the GVC involvement has adverse effects in the short term, but positive results appear in the long term. Notably, the investigation into the mechanism of the GVC-EP nexus provides empirical evidence to explain how being included in GVCs affects the environment and sustainability of a country. Finally, our study indicates that there are heterogenous effects of GVC on EP and these effects are conditional on a country's income level. It is more likely that the impacts of GVC become more pronounced for high-income countries.

This paper empirically analyses the influences of the digital transformation process in the business and public sector on natural resources rents. Our paper employs the digital businesses (e-Commerce, including the value of online selling, e-Commerce turnover, e-Commerce web sales, and e-Business, including customer relationship management (CRM) usage and cloud usage) and the digital public services (user-centricity, business mobility, and key enablers), while we deal with the total natural rents (coal rents, mineral rents, natural gas rents, and forest rents). The various econometric techniques are applied to a sample of 26 European Union countries during the 2011-2019 period. Our estimation results demonstrate that both digital businesses and digital public services lead to a rise in total natural rents. More specifically, the digital businesses appear to have increased influences on coal rents, and gas rents, while the digital public services drive mineral rents, gas rents, and forest rents up. Conversely, digital public services tend to reduce coal rents and digital businesses lead to a decrease in mineral rents and forest rents. Notably, the economic complexity or the quality and diversification of the production system is the key variable for the digital economy aiming at shirking natural rent-seeking. The findings are consistent when we consider the specific type of natural resource rent regardless of whether they are affected differently by digital transformation.

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