Does ecological footprint matter for the shape of the environmental Kuznets curve? Evidence from European countries

Muhammad Saqib () and François Benhmad ()
Additional contact information
Muhammad Saqib: MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université de Montpellier
François Benhmad: MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université de Montpellier

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: The study empirically examines the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypotheses by investigating the relationship between ecological footprint, economic growth, energy consumption, and population growth. The study uses ecological footprint as a measurement of environmental degradation which is a more comprehensive indicator and considers all factors responsible for environmental degradation. Keeping in view the problem of cross-sectional dependence, a more efficient estimation tools like pooled mean group and augmented mean group have been used to estimate the long-run parameters for 22 European countries from 1995 through 2015. Results of the study found a quadratic relationship between income growth and ecological footprint and support validity of EKC. Energy consumption positively contributes to ecological footprint, while population growth plays no significant role in determining environmental quality. The long-run estimates of the study are validated through robustness analysis by employing dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) techniques. Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) panel non-causality test indicated that there is a unidirectional causality running from GDP to ecological footprint while bidirectional causality running between energy consumption and ecological footprint. The study identified that population growth in European region is not a severe issue as compared to intensive energy consumption. Policies which restrict emission, deforestation, and water pollution should be adopted for sustainability of environment.

Keywords: Ecological footprint; Income growth; EKC; CO 2 emission; Panel data; Pooled mean group (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-11-14
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2020, 28, pp.13634 - 13648. ⟨10.1007/s11356-020-11517-1⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:hal:journl:hal-03515525

DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-11517-1

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().