Does economic complexity influence environmental performance? Empirical evidence from OECD countries

Chien‐Chiang Lee and Godwin Olasehinde‐Williams

International Journal of Finance & Economics, 2024, vol. 29, issue 1, 356-382

Abstract: Environmental degradation is a major challenge facing the world. Our view is that a country's productive structure, reflected through its knowledge content and technical capabilities (economic complexity), is strongly correlated with its environmental performance. To empirically confirm this view, the link between economic complexity and environmental performance in member countries of the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) was examined within a modified version of the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model incorporating two alternative measures of economic complexity. The model was estimated using the fixed effects extension proposed by Driscoll and Kraay (DK‐FE) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation techniques. Granger causality testing in frequency domain was also employed to examine country‐specific relationships. The sample period extended from 2007 to 2016. The study findings provided reliable empirical justification for our position. The coefficients for economic complexity in the long‐run estimations revealed that economic complexity positively impacted on environmental performance in the OECD countries. Granger causality outcomes also indicated economic complexity as a meaningful predictor of environmental performance in most of the OECD countries.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.2689

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:wly:ijfiec:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:356-382

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://jws-edcv.wile ... PRINT_ISSN=1076-9307

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Finance & Economics is currently edited by Mark P. Taylor, Keith Cuthbertson and Michael P. Dooley

More articles in International Journal of Finance & Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().