Mauricio Betancourt Co-Authors Article in the Environment, Development and Sustainability Journal The assistant professor of environmental studies served as the first author for a paper titled “Revisiting sustainable development: a time-series, cross-national study of the nexus between human well-being and environmental impact.”

By Brian Laubscher
January 7, 2026

Mauricio Betancourt, assistant professor of environmental studies at Washington and Lee University, recently co-authored an article in the Environment, Development and Sustainability Journal.

Betancourt served as the first author for the paper titled “Revisiting sustainable development: a time-series, cross-national study of the nexus between human well-being and environmental impact.” Amanda Sikirica, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wyoming, and Nicholas Theis, assistant professor of sociology at Kenyon College, also served as co-authors for the article which was published in the December 2025 edition of the journal.

The paper examines how different aspects of a country’s development such as education, health and income can affect the environment. The authors analyzed data from countries around the world between 1990 and 2018 to understand whether becoming a more developed nation inevitably means harming the planet.

The findings indicate that while economic growth generally increases a country’s environmental damage, improvements in education and healthcare can soften that blow. Countries with better-educated and healthier populations tend to pollute less for each dollar of economic growth. However, the numbers can be skewed because in wealthier countries, longer life expectancy was associated with a larger environmental footprint, likely because people consume resources over more years of life.

The authors argue that policymakers shouldn’t rely solely on the Human Development Index (HDI) when considering sustainability impacts. Considering these variables together masks that each affect the environment differently and understanding those differences is key to creating policies that improve people’s lives without destroying the planet.

Betancourt joined the W&L faculty in 2023. He holds a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Master of Arts in philosophy of science from the National Autonomous University of Mexico as well as a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Oregon.

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