Environmental Performance in Countries Worldwide: Determinant Factors and Multivariate Analysis

Isabel Gallego-Alvarez, Purificación Vicente-Galindo Mª, Purificación Galindo-Villardón Mª and Miguel Rodríguez-Rosa
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Isabel Gallego-Alvarez: Department of Business Administration, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, Edificio FES, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Purificación Vicente-Galindo Mª: Department of Statistics, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, Alfonso X el Sabio S/N, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Purificación Galindo-Villardón Mª: Department of Statistics, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, Alfonso X el Sabio S/N, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Miguel Rodríguez-Rosa: Department of Statistics, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, Alfonso X el Sabio S/N, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain

Sustainability, 2014, vol. 6, issue 11, 1-26

Abstract: The aim of this study is to analyze the environmental performance of countries and the variables that can influence it. At the same time, we performed a multivariate analysis using the HJ-biplot, an exploratory method that looks for hidden patterns in the data, obtained from the usual singular value decomposition (SVD) of the data matrix, to contextualize the countries grouped by geographical areas and the variables relating to environmental indicators included in the environmental performance index. The sample used comprises 149 countries of different geographic areas. The findings obtained from the empirical analysis emphasize that socioeconomic factors, such as economic wealth and education, as well as institutional factors represented by the style of public administration, in particular control of corruption, are determinant factors of environmental performance in the countries analyzed. In contrast, no effect on environmental performance was found for factors relating to the internal characteristics of a country or political factors.

Keywords: environmental sustainability; environmental performance; countries worldwide; socioeconomic factors; institutional factors; biplot (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:11:p:7807-7832:d:42031

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