New insights into decoupling economic growth, technological progress and carbon dioxide emissions: Evidence from 40 countries

João Leitão, Joaquim Ferreira and Ernesto Santibanez-González

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2022, vol. 174, issue C

Abstract: Overall, the literature strongly validates the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis and the decoupling of the economy regarding energy intensity and raw materials. However, there is no assessment of whether such evidence derives from the non-linearities of macroeconomic fundamentals from considering a simultaneous supply-demand market perspective of material flows. Therefore, using a sample of 40 countries, we estimated a Panel Smooth Transition Regression model for the period between 1994 and 2016. The results showed that economic growth and material flows are the drivers of CO2 emissions. They also showed that stock markets and debt issuance reduce CO2 emissions in high regimes, and the preponderant technological progress in the European context, mainly on the demand side and in high-regimes of economic growth and low-debt regimes, contribute to reductions in CO2 emissions, even though positive in the low-regimes of economic growth. This study considered the efficiency levels and the evolution of macroeconomic fundamentals, providing new guidance for managers and policy-makers seeking to either innovate public policies and market positions or design sustainable asset investment strategies and portfolios.

Keywords: Carbon dioxide emissions; Environmental kuznets curve; Debt; Material flows; Stock markets; Technological progress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521006843
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:174:y:2022:i:c:s0040162521006843

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121250

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().