Do environmental regulations and technological innovation enhance environmental well-being in sub-Saharan Africa?

We investigate the regulation–technology–environment nexus in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), one of the world's most rapidly growing regions. Using a comprehensive panel dataset consisting of 32 countries from 2000 to 2022, we find that stronger environmental regulations and technological innovation enhance environmental well-being. Moreover, we identify that stronger environmental regulations positively affect proenvironment innovation. Finally, we present clear evidence for a dynamic and nonlinear regulation–technology–environment relationship, ruling out one-size-fits-all policy approaches to environmental well-being. Our results remain robust to different estimators, measurements, and sample selections.