Does military expenditure impact environmental sustainability in developed Mediterranean countries?

This study aims to examine the relationship between military expenditure and environmental sustainability in developed Mediterranean countries: Greece, France, Italy, and Spain. Sustainable economic growth is strictly related to energy consumption which leads to producing a higher level of carbon emissions. Besides, there may be a nexus between military expenditures and environmental pollution. This study focuses on developed Mediterranean countries since carbon emissions and greenhouse gas emissions are relatively high in these countries. Furthermore, France and Italy are the top countries in terms of total military spending. We investigate the relationship between military expenditure and carbon emissions using the Global Vector Autoregression model proposed by Pesaran et al. (J Bus Econ Stat 22 129:162, Pesaran et al., J Bus Econ Stat 22:129-162, 2004) and Dees et al. (J Appl Econ 22(1):38, Dees et al., J Appl Econ 22:1-38, 2007) between 1965 and 2019. The empirical findings indicated that the relationship between carbon emission and military expenditure should be taken into account from a global perspective for environmental sustainability, and an increase in the global military expenditure seems to be very harmful to the global environment. It can be concluded that country-based prevention cannot provide the desired solution in combating environmental pollution.

Dynamic Nexus between Technological Innovation and Building Sector Carbon Emissions in the BRICS Countries.

The greatest contribution to global CO2 emissions comes from the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). The building sector in these countries is one of the sectors that increases CO2 emissions significantly. Increasing CO2 emissions in the building sector adversely affects sustainable development. Therefore, measures to mitigate environmental damage become substantially important. Improvements in technological innovation can be among the measures considered to mitigate CO2 emissions. In this study, the effects of technological innovation on the carbon emissions caused by the building sector are examined by panel data methods for the BRICS countries in the period 1992-2018. It has been observed that there is a long-term relationship between the series. As the results of Dynamic Common Correlated Effects indicated, increased technological innovation reduces carbon emissions. This result is meaningful to encourage investments related to technological innovation.

Exploring the nexus between human capital and environmental degradation: The case of EU countries.

Human capital investments have a vital role in economic growth. Therefore the effects of human capital on the environment should be analyzed for sustainable economic growth. This paper contributes to the debate on the nexus between human capital and environmental degradation. Based on 21 EU countries' panel data over the period 1994-2018, this study aims to analyze the relationship between human capital and environmental pollution in different financial development levels. We employed the panel smooth transition regression model (PSTR) to assess the nexus between the variables. According to the estimation results, human capital decreases carbon emissions in the low growth regime whereas increases in the high growth regime. Besides, human capital increases carbon emissions in both low regimes of financial development and human capital, and decreases in high regimes. The analysis indicated that as human capital improves, there will be more innovation to protect the environment, and thus there is less environmental degradation.

A comparative analysis of the relationship between innovation and transport sector carbon emissions in developed and developing Mediterranean countries.

Innovation technologies have been recognized as an efficient solution to alleviate carbon emissions stem from the transport sector. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of innovation on carbon emissions stemming from the transportation sector in Mediterranean countries. Based on the available data, Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey are selected as the 8 developing countries; and Cyprus, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, and Spain are selected as the 6 developed countries and included in the analysis. Due to data constraints, the analysis period has been determined as 1997-2017 for the developing Mediterranean countries and 2003-2017 for the developed Mediterranean countries. After determining the long-term relationship with the panel co-integration method, we obtained the long-term coefficients with PMG and DFE methods. The empirical test results indicated that the increments in the level of innovation in developing countries have a positive impact on carbon emissions due to transportation if the innovation results from an increase in patents. An increase in the level of innovation in developed countries has a positive impact on carbon emissions due to transportation if the innovation results from an increase in trademark. As a result, innovation level has a positive effect on carbon emissions due to transportation, and this effect is stronger for developed countries.

The effects of innovation on sectoral carbon emissions: Evidence from G20 countries.

In all countries, the priority of policymakers is to reduce carbon emissions without reducing economic growth performance. Progress in innovation is one of the main measures that can be used to reduce carbon emissions. It is important to demonstrate the impact of innovation at the sectoral level, in terms of more realistic data on policy measures. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of innovation on carbon emissions on a sectorial basis for fourteen countries in the G20, for the period between 1991 and 2017. The selected countries are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States for which data is available. The results show that the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is invalid and, in the long-term, innovations did not have a statistically significant effect on the energy sector, transport sector, and other sectors. It was also found that while an increase in innovation in the industrial sector leads to a reduction in carbon emissions, an increase in innovation in the construction sector increases carbon emissions. Therefore, it can be recommended that, in addition to national policies to reduce CO2 emissions, specific policies should be implemented for each sector separately.

Relationship between oil price volatility and military expenditures in GCC countries.

Natural resource-rich countries transfer more sources to military expenditures due to extreme security concerns. As public revenues have declined due to the decline in oil prices, military expenditures have been cut in many countries. Nevertheless, this is not valid for all countries. Even in some countries, despite the decrease in oil prices and volatility, military expenditures increase. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between volatility in oil prices and military expenditures in GCC countries (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Oman). The analysis period was determined differently for each country depending on the availability of data. UAE and Qatar were excluded from the analysis as the defense expenditures data of these countries could not be provided regularly. ARDL model was preferred for the research. According to the bound test results, there is a cointegration relationship between the variables in all countries. Besides, the long-term results showed that the volatility in oil prices in all countries, except for Bahrain, positively affects military expenditures. The error correction model indicated that there is a reverse relationship between oil price volatility and military expenditures. These findings indicated that despite the volatility in oil prices, military expenditures in GCC countries are not reduced.

Economics of energy and environmental efficiency: evidence from OECD countries.

The purpose of this research is to determine the efficiency of energy usage and its role in carbon dioxide emissions (CI) and economic-environmental efficiency (EEE) for some countries Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies. For environment quality assessment, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to assess the data cover the period from 2013 to 2017. In this study, primary energy consumption (PEC) and population are two basic inputs along with gross domestic product (GDP) and carbon dioxide emissions that are desirable and undesirable  outputs, respectively. The practical outcomes illustrate that Brunei, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong are the most effective and efficient states for the 5 years periods (2013-2017) in terms of energy efficiency and to reduce emission of carbon dioxide. In addition, other states in the OECD region shows greater economic proficiency than environmental proficiency. Furthermore, the results shows that energy efficiency has strong bonding with carbon emissions; however there is a weaker association between economic-environmental efficiency. Thus, the attainment of optimal level of energy efficiency could be more pivotal than economic efficiency to improve environmental efficiency in countries from the OECD region.