The panel provides the following feedback and requires resubmission in 6 months.

1/ The candidate is proxying sustainable economic growth using three variables: carbon dioxide emissions/pollutants,
income inequality and total factor productivity. A strong justification for using these variables is required.
Response: Explain on the motivation and linking with 17 SDGs

Could the impact of trade on sustainability be examined more directly by looking at the impact of imports and exports
on the environmental/natural capital stock? Is such a variable available for a large number of countries? Could this
be a contribution or has it been done before?
Response: Conduct Literature Review on this issue

A stronger conceptual framework and theory are required. How exactly could imports and exports impact on
economic sustainability and how exactly do institutions moderate these relationships. Are the types of
institutions based on the theory consistent with the WB governance indicators in the empirical model? Are
there better institutional measures?
Response: Conduct Literature Review on this issue

The candidate could consider the types of goods that are imported and exported – and maybe consider the carbon
content of these goods. Are richer countries now reducing their emissions by shifting emission-intense production
to poorer countries? The Global Carbon Project estimates country level domestic emissions but also emissions once
the CO2 that is embodied in imports and exports have been included. Is there a contribution that could be made
here?
Response: Conduct Literature Review on this issue

It is very important to control for population size in your models examining CO2 emissions and PM2.5 particles. Either
include populations as an explanatory variable or examine pollutants on a per capita basis.
Response: Employ CO2 emission and PM2.5 per capita

I strongly encourage the candidate to find ways of addressing endogeneity in the models. A system GMM model uses
internal instruments. A Lewbel model might also be considered.
Response: Conduct System GMM and Lewbel model for robustness check

There are far too many results in the thesis – the candidate should make strong arguments for a preferred model,
based on theory and other factors, and focus on those results.
Response: Use PCSE as a main estimator

Where quadratics are used, report the turning point at which the relationship changes from positive to negative or
vice versa. Where interactions are used carefully interpret the coefficient, in conjunction with the coefficients
on the level’s variables.
Response: Explain the coefficient of interactions

If the three measures of economic sustainability are related to one another, consider modelling your relationships
using a system of equations (as a robustness test).
Response: Considering doing this
The thesis addresses important topics, which has a great potential to make contributions to both literature and policy
areas. The key contribution is to examine the moderating role of institutions on trade – sustainable growth
nexus. However, the analysis did not get enough attention and the thesis did not convey an economic story at it
promised.

1. Theoretical framework and research gap.

Theoretical framework as to how institutions moderate the trade – sustainable growth nexus needs to be well
discussed, with more theoretical arguments. Do different aspects of institutions matter for the nexus? Is it worth
discussing how these different aspects moderate the influence of trade on sustainable growth outcomes, both
theoretically and empirically?
Response: Conduct Literature Review on this issue and using 6 aspects of WGI

Is it possible to consider an alternative conceptual framework? Institutions influence trade, and hence affect
sustainable economic outcomes? As such, trade mediates the relation between institutions and sustainable growth.
The mediating role of trade or the moderating role of institutions, which one is more relevant in the nexus of
trade – sustainable growth and why the thesis is focused on the moderating role of institution? The
candidate needs to discuss well in the thesis.
Response: Conduct Literature Review

The current literature review is still fragmented, which needs to be restructured in alignment with research objectives.
Discussion of key concepts should not be separate. As of now, research gaps are not clear from the literature
review. Section 2.4 is about empirical review. However, in the previous sections, a lot of empirical literature
was discussed. In some sections, for example, trade and inequality, theoretical arguments are lacking as the
candidate mainly discussed empirics.
Response: Conduct Literature Review

2. Measurements of key variables

Trade is a key phenomenon of the thesis. The candidate used a common trade openness indicator. The candidate
highlighted that separation of trade into exports and imports are a contribution of the thesis. How do exports and
imports affect sustainable growth outcomes differently? Any theory for it? Without theory, it is hard to justify
it as a contribution.

Given the focus on trade and the research topic is well established in the literature, it is worth exploring other more
sophisticated measures such as vertical trade, intensive margin, extensive margin, and their application in
examining the linkage between sustainable growth variables and institutions.
It is also worth considering governance indicators separately to measure different aspects of institutions
Response: Using vertical trade, intensive margin, extensive margin

3. Empirical specifications and result discussion

Many of the sustainable growth outcome variables and trade are conceptually interlinked. That gives rise to potential
reverse causality in empirical specifications. The candidate needs to consider and finds ways to address this
issue.
Response: Conduct System GMM and Lewbel model for robustness check, Granger causality test

Result discussions need to be based on theory. Given the focus on the moderating role of institutions, it is
important to interpret coefficients of interaction variables between trade and institutions using theoretical
arguments as to how different levels of institutions shape the impact of trade on sustainable outcome
variables. This requires theoretical frameworks be clearly set out in the literature review section.
Response: Conduct Lit review on Moderating effect of Ins, Mediatating role of Trade, and how to interpret coefficient

Note that the interaction between trade and institutions is currently missing in the first empirical analysis of
trade and emission outcomes. If this was done intentionally, make sure to provide justification why the
moderating role of institutions is not considered here, and revise the research objectives
Response: Conduct Interaction term between Trade and Ins on CO2 Emission