Trivariate modelling of the nexus between electricity consumption, urbanization and economic growth in Nigeria: fresh insights from Maki Cointegration and causality tests.

In this era of intensive electricity utilization for economic development, the role of urbanization remains inconclusive, especially in developing economies. Here, this study examined the electricity consumption and economic growth nexus in a trivariate framework by incorporating urbanization as an additional variable. Using the recent novel Maki cointegration test, Ng-Perron, Zivot-Andrews, and Kwiatkowski unit root tests along with FMOLS, DOLS and the CCR estimation methods, we relied on an annual frequency data from 1971-2014. Results from FMOLS, DOLS and the CCR regression confirms the electricity consumption-driven economic growth. This is desirable as Nigeria is heavily dependent on energy (electricity) consumption. A unidirectional causality from urbanization to electricity consumption and economic growth was found but the long-run empirical findings revealed urbanization impedes growth - a situation that has policy implications. The study highlights that though urbanization is a good predictor of Nigeria's economic growth, however, the adjustment of the energy portfolio to meet the growing urban demand will curtail the adverse and far-reaching impact of urbanization on the economy.

Urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions in Singapore: evidence from the ARDL approach.

The main aim of this article is to examine empirically the impact of urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions in Singapore from 1970 to 2015. The autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) approach is applied within the analysis. The main finding reveals a negative and significant impact of urbanization on carbon emissions in Singapore, which means that urban development in Singapore is not a barrier to the improvement of environmental quality. Thus, urbanization enhances environmental quality by reducing carbon emissions in the sample country. The result also highlighted that economic growth has a positive and significant impact on carbon emissions, which suggests that economic growth reduces environmental quality through its direct effect of increasing carbon emissions in the country. Despite the high level of urbanization in Singapore, which shows that 100 % of the populace is living in the urban center, it does not lead to more environmental degradation. Hence, urbanization will not be considered an obstacle when initiating policies that will be used to reduce environmental degradation in the country. Policy makers should consider the country's level of economic growth instead of urbanization when formulating policies to reduce environmental degradation, due to its direct impact on increasing carbon dioxide emissions.

Dynamic impact of urbanization, economic growth, energy consumption, and trade openness on CO 2 emissions in Nigeria.

The objective of this paper is to examine the dynamic impact of urbanization, economic growth, energy consumption, and trade openness on CO 2 emissions in Nigeria based on autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) approach for the period of 1971-2011. The result shows that variables were cointegrated as null hypothesis was rejected at 1 % level of significance. The coefficients of long-run result reveal that urbanization does not have any significant impact on CO 2 emissions in Nigeria, economic growth, and energy consumption has a positive and significant impact on CO 2 emissions. However, trade openness has negative and significant impact on CO 2 emissions. Consumption of energy is among the main determinant of CO 2 emissions which is directly linked to the level of income. Despite the high level of urbanization in the country, consumption of energy still remains low due to lower income of the majority populace and this might be among the reasons why urbanization does not influence emissions of CO 2 in the country. Initiating more open economy policies will be welcoming in the Nigerian economy as the openness leads to the reduction of pollutants from the environment particularly CO 2 emissions which is the major gases that deteriorate physical environment.