Nükleer ve Yenilenebilir Enerji, Doğrudan Yabancı Yatırım ve Ekonomik Büyümenin Ekolojik Ayak İzi Üzerindeki Etkisi: Nükleer Enerji Tüketen Ülkelerden Kanıtlar

The Impact of Nuclear and Renewable Energy, Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth on Ecological Footprint: Evidence from Nuclear Energy-Consuming Countries

Mehmet Ali Demir
Additional contact information
Mehmet Ali Demir: Cankiri Karatekin University

Business and Economics Research Journal, 2026, vol. 17, issue 2, 185-205

Abstract: Nuclear energy represents a widely accepted form of energy production in recent years, emerging as a viable alternative energy source to meet increasing energy demands in many countries worldwide, and considered environmentally sustainable. The current literature lacks studies examining the potential impacts of nuclear energy on the ecological footprint in a large sample size. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to analyze the potential impacts of nuclear energy on the ecological footprint, an indicator of environmental sustainability, in 25 countries consuming nuclear energy between 2000 and 2023. Simultaneously, the study focuses on the effects of renewable energy, economic growth, and foreign direct investment on the ecological footprint, while also questioning the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). To this end, the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) was used to examine the extent to which various variables have an impact among countries with different environmental sustainability ratings. The findings show that in all quantiles, nuclear energy and economic growth contribute to the ecological footprint, foreign direct investment increases the ecological footprint and creates a pollution haven, while renewable energy consumption reduces the ecological footprint, and finally, the inverted U-shaped structure of the EKC hypothesis is confirmed.

Keywords: Nuclear Energy; Pollution Haven Hypothesis; Environmental Kuznets Curve; Ecological Footprint; Method of Moments Quantile Regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q40 Q43 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.berjournal.com/the-impact-of-nuclear-a ... -consuming-countries

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:ris:buecrj:022572

DOI: 10.20409/berj.2026.494

Access Statistics for this article

Business and Economics Research Journal is currently edited by Adem Anbar

More articles in Business and Economics Research Journal from Bursa Uludag University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Adem Anbar ().