Trade and Environmental Quality in African Countries: Do Institutions Matter?

Mina Baliamoune

ICER Working Papers from ICER - International Centre for Economic Research

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of trade and political institutions on environmental quality in Africa and explores whether political institutions matter to the trade-environment relationship. We use data from a large group of African countries, covering the period 1990-2008 and two indicators of environmental quality: net forest depletion and CO2 emissions. The results from GMM-SYS estimates suggest that political institutions influence the relationship between trade and environmental quality only in the case of CO2 emissions. Interestingly, we find that polity has a U relationship with net forest depletion. In addition, the results are in favor of an environmental Kuznets curve in the case of pollution (CO2 emissions) but not in the case of net forest depletion (deforestation). We discuss the policy implications of these findings.

Keywords: Africa; environmental quality; deforestation; CO2 emissions; trade; political institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F18 O13 P48 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2012-10
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Trade and Environmental Quality in African Countries: Do Institutions Matter? (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:icr:wpicer:14-2012

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