Trading Kuznets curve: empirical analysis for China.

Due to inspiring growth over the past 20 years, the dynamics of Chinese exports have been the focus of many researchers. In contrast to current literature, this study examines the quadratic relationship between China's real exports to 154 partner countries and the income of trading partners from 1996 to 2019. The findings obtained from the second generational econometric analysis confirm cross-section dependence and heterogeneous slope among panel members. Second, while the GDP per capita of partner countries has a positive impact on China's exports, the quadratic of GDP per capita has a negative impact. These findings indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between China's exports and GDP per capita of its partner countries-thus, validating the trading Kuznets curve (TKC) hypothesis. The appreciation of the Renminbi (RMB) has statistically significant negative effects on China's exports. From a policy perspective, Chinese policymakers could consider the TKC hypothesis when determining market and export strategies. Additionally, the Chinese monetary authority could consider stabilizing the value of the RMB.

Does democracy help reduce environmental degradation?

The main purpose of this study is to examine the democracy-environmental degradation nexus in 26 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries from 1990 through 2015 by using panel data estimation methods, performing well under cross-sectional dependence. Empirical results are as follows: (i) Tests show that cross-section dependence exists among panel members, and slope coefficients are heterogeneous, respectively, and (ii) long-term coefficient estimation results with Augmented Mean Group estimator show that democracy, non-renewable energy consumption, and real income per capita have statistically significant negative effects on environmental quality, whereas renewable energy consumption has a positive effect. There is also no statistically significant relationship between urbanization and environmental quality. These findings show the poor functioning of democracy in addressing environmental issues among OECD countries; therefore, raising environmental quality conflicts with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of creating strong institutions and economic growth targets. Moreover, promoting renewable energy consumption may be an effective alternative in reducing environmental degradation; therefore, it can be said that promoting clean energy use and raising the SDG environmental quality targets are in harmony.