Over the past two decades, there has been growing interest in understanding the drivers of rapid growth rates of countries in Central, East and South Asia. For example, countries such as China, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Mongolia were in the list of most rapid growing countries in the period of 2000-2020. As a result, these countries have considerably increased quality of life, standards of living and life satisfaction. For example, Uzbekistan is consistently ranked among one of the happiest developing countries in the world. The present book attempts to build up on existing empirical research to offer all-encompassing evidence on some of the drivers and correlates of economic growth and quality of life in the Belt and Road Initiative countries. It explores the relationships between renewable energy and CO2 emissions, financial development and economic growth, institutional and life satisfaction, among others.
