Does democracy improve environmental quality of GCC region? Analysis robust to cross-section dependence and slope heterogeneity.

Since the developed world's economic prosperity has been heavily reliant on excessive fossil-based energy consumption, it has posed severe environmental quality challenges. This research attempts to revisit the relationship between income and anthropogenic emissions in the context of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory by considering electric power consumption, urbanization, and democratic accountability index in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. It employs annual frequency panel data from 1990 through 2019 and three alternative advanced econometric estimation techniques. The main findings are as follows: Firstly, the EKC results for the whole sample strongly support the proposition of an inverse U-shaped connection between anthropogenic emissions and affluence in the long run. Secondly, the country-specific results confirm EKC only in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, while the remaining countries demonstrate a U-shaped connection. Thirdly, the democratic accountability promoted anthropogenic emissions implying that it failed to contribute to environmental protection. It means that democratic setup in the GCC region performs poorly in accomplishing climate change mitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Fourthly, electric power consumption and urbanization impart positive and negative impacts on anthropogenic emission, respectively. These findings are found robust across the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), bias-corrected LSDV (least squares dummy variable) (LSDV), and pooled mean group (PMG) estimators. Finally, Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality shows that (i) income and urbanization establish a two-way causality with the anthropogenic emissions. (ii) However, a unidirectional causal connection is revealed from electric power consumption and democratic accountability index to anthropogenic emissions. The findings suggest that the GCC region should prioritize environmental protection and SDGs across the political aims' recipe since it would direct the region on the path of climate change mitigation.

Environmental Kuznets curve in Southeastern Europe: the role of urbanization and energy consumption.

This paper investigates the dynamic short-term and long-term relationships among real GDP per capita, energy consumption, urbanization, and carbon dioxide emissions within the framework of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for Southeastern Europe (SEE) from 1997 to 2014. The evidence highlights an inverted U-shaped nexus between real GDP per capita and carbon dioxide emissions (i.e., the EKC hypothesis is verified in the long-run in the sample as a whole). The short-run estimates provide evidence of inverted U-shaped EKC only for Greece and Moldova. Two-way causal relationship between urbanization and pollutant emission was also established in the short-run, as well as one-way causality flowing from real GDP per capita to pollutant emission. The coefficients with the real GDP per capita and energy consumption are negative and statistically significant in the long-term. These findings indicate the existence of an error correction mechanism that drives the observed variables back to their equilibrium. Moreover, the findings show that the consistent increase in energy consumption has not reduced environmental pressures.

Does economic prosperity lead to environmental sustainability in developing economies? Environmental Kuznets curve theory.

Since developing countries experience economic and environmental sustainability challenges, it is desirable digging into the linkages between economic and environmental parameters. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory (i.e., the inverse U-shape connection between real GDP per capita and per capita carbon dioxide emissions) in the sample of 11 developing countries. By using balanced annual panel data in the period between 1992 and 2014 and two alternative estimation techniques, we explored the potential inverted U-shaped linkage between carbon dioxide emissions and real GDP per capita in the sample of interest. For analysis purposes, Pedroni and Westerlund co-integration techniques are employed. Then, fully modified ordinary least squares, pooled mean group methods are applied for long-run parameter estimations. And, the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality approach is employed for causal directions. Firstly, this work's findings provide the supportive evidence to the inverse U-shaped linkage in the long-run, indicating that an increase in real GDP per capita and electricity consumption tends to mitigate long-run carbon dioxide emissions in the developing countries, for the whole sample. Secondly, the country-specific findings suggested the presence of EKC theory for Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, the Russian Federation, Thailand, and Turkey. It implicated that these countries are on the path of attaining environmental sustainability in the long-run. However, Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia, and South Africa failed to lend credence to the EKC theory. It manifested that these countries need to design strategies directed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from economic activity and electricity generation through efficiency improvement or promotion of renewables. Finally, bidirectional causal links are observed among all the variables of interest. The findings suggest that country-specific targeted action plans should be implemented to ensure the environmental sustainability in the developing world.