Impacts of Macroeconomic Indicators, Corruption and Corporate Governance on Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of Southeast Asia
Keywords:
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Country-level Corporate Governance, Macroeconomic Indicators, CorruptionAbstract
The main objective of this study is to investigate the impacts of macroeconomic indicators, corruption, and country-level corporate governance on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a set of global objectives agreed upon by all United Nations (UN) member states in 2015 as part of the UN's 2030 Agenda, which aims to create a better world. This study analyzed data from seven Southeast Asian countries (Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam) and four additional Asian countries outside the region, namely Japan, South Korea, China, and India, covering the period from 2007 to 2019. Panel data techniques, such as feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regressions, were employed to test the research hypotheses. The findings revealed that macroeconomic indicators, specifically the unemployment rate and inflation rate, negatively impacted SDG achievement, whereas country-level corporate governance positively influenced SDGs. Additionally, countries with lower corruption levels and more developed economies were found to have higher SDG scores. Furthermore, a comparison between the pre- and post-2015 UN adoption of SDGs showed that all sampled countries improved their SDG scores, particularly in meeting targets related to social inclusion, economic growth, and environmental protection. Finally, the results indicated that country-level corporate governance could moderately mitigate the negative effect of the inflation rate on SDG achievement. This paper contributes to the literature and practice by providing evidence that in Southeast Asian countries, the unemployment rate, inflation rate, corruption, and country-level corporate governance significantly influence SDG achievement. Moreover, country-level corporate governance can alleviate the adverse effect of at least one macroeconomic indicator on SDG achievement.
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