The Impact of Urbanization on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Regions of Russia

O.S. Mariev, N.B. Davidson and O.S. Emelianova

Journal of Applied Economic Research, 2020, vol. 19, issue 3, 286-309

Abstract: Today the world faces the environmental problems arising from economic activity, and Russia is no exception. At the same time, it is a well known fact that economic development is associated with urbanization process. Our aim is to estimate the impact of urbanization on CO2 emissions. In this paper, we study 77 Russian regions based on data for the years 2001-2015, provided by the Federal Service for State Statistics and the Unified Inter-Agency Information and Statistical System. The Quantile regression model is applied, with the dependent variable of CO2 emissions per capita. Urbanization is measured as a share of urban population in the regions. Gross regional product per capita is included into the model to test the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. Control variables are energy consumption per capita, expenditures on technological innovations per capita and foreign direct investment per capita. Markov Chain Monte Carlo method is used to estimate the model. Mixed evidence of the urbanization effect on CO2 emission is revealed: urbanization contributes to decrease in CO2 emissions in the Russian regions of 10th and 50th quantiles, while in the regions of 25th, 75th and 90th quantiles higher urbanization leads to increase in CO2 emissions. The hypothesis of Environmental Kuznets Curve is also confirmed for some Russian regions, i.e. with an increase in gross regional product per capita CO2 emissions increase up to a certain point, and with further growth of gross regional product per capita they decrease. As expected, an increase in energy consumption leads to an increase in CO2 emissions. Foreign direct investment is found to affect negatively CO2 emissions, when this variable is significant, i.e. for the 50th and 90th quantiles. We find it important that with an increase in regional expenditures on technical innovations CO2 emissions decrease. The results of this research can be useful for regional policy.

Keywords: CO2 emissions; carbon dioxide; ecology; urbanization; Environmental Kuznets Curve; regions; Russia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aiy:jnjaer:v:19:y:2020:i:3:p:286-309

DOI: 10.15826/vestnik.2020.19.3.014

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