Linking Economic Growth, Urbanization, and Environmental Degradation in China: What Is the Role of Hydroelectricity Consumption?

Tomiwa Adebayo (), Mary Oluwatoyin Agboola, Husam Rjoub, Ibrahim Adeshola, Ephraim Bonah Agyekum and Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar
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Mary Oluwatoyin Agboola: College of Business, Dar Al Uloom University, 1 Mizan st. Al Falah, Riyadh 13314, Saudi Arabia
Ibrahim Adeshola: Department of Management Information Systems, School of Applied Sciences, Cyprus International University, Northern Cyprus, Via Mersin 10, Turkey
Ephraim Bonah Agyekum: Department of Nuclear and Renewable Energy, Ural Federal University Named after the First President of Russia Boris Yeltsin, 19 Mira Street, 620002 Ekaterinburg, Russia
Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar: School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-14

Abstract: Achieving environmental sustainability has become a global initiative whilst addressing climate change and its effects. Thus, this research re-assessed the EKC hypothesis in China and considered the effect of hydroelectricity use and urbanization, utilizing data from 1985 to 2019. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing method was utilized to assess long-run cointegration, which is reinforced by a structural break. The outcome of the ARDL bounds test confirmed cointegration among the series. Furthermore, the ARDL revealed that both economic growth and urbanization trigger environmental degradation while hydroelectricity improves the quality of the environment. The outcome of the ARDL also validated the EKC hypothesis for China. In addition, the study employed the novel gradual shift causality test to capture causal linkage among the series. The advantage of the gradual shift causality test is that it can capture gradual or smooth shifts and does not necessitate previous information of the number, form of structural break(s), or dates. The outcomes of the causality test revealed causal connections among the series of interest.

Keywords: CO 2 emissions; hydroelectricity consumption; economic growth; urbanization; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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