ArticlePublisher preview available

Economic complexity, ICT, biomass energy consumption, and environmental degradation: evidence from Iran

Authors:
Amir Mehrjo at Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University
Amir Mehrjo
Saeid Satari Yuzbashkandi at Tarbiat Modares University
Saeid Satari Yuzbashkandi
Mohammad Hadi Eskandari Nasab
Mohammad Hadi Eskandari Nasab
Mohammad Hadi Eskandari Nasab
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Hadis Gudarzipor
Hadis Gudarzipor
Hadis Gudarzipor
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Read publisher preview
Download citation
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

Abstract and Figures

Economic complexity, biomass energy consumption, and information communication technology (ICT) have diverse impacts on energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Nevertheless, analysis of these variable effects is not addressed in the previous literature; the antiqueness of this article is stuffing this gap. This study assessed the relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, biomass consumption, economic complexity index (ECI), ICT, and CO2 emissions in Iran in 1994–2018. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and the quantile regression (QR) econometric technique were used to investigate the factors affecting CO2 emissions in the tails of the conditional distribution. The share of each influential factor was predicted through the variance decomposition analysis (VD) for the next 10 years. The empirical results showed a long-run relationship between the variables. So, the variables of biomass consumption, ECI, and ICT improve the quality of the environment in Iran by reducing CO2 emissions, and the per capita GDP variable increases CO2 emissions. Results suggest no evidence indicating the presence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC); however, QR demonstrated the existence of EKCs in the lower quantiles of the conditional distribution. The ECI will have the most share to change the CO2 emissions in the future. The income threshold should be determined at the turning point of the EKC to increase economic development. Moreover, investing in increasing biomass consumption is vital. Policymakers also need to consider strict added value for the export of products.
Figures - available from: Environmental Science and Pollution Research
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
A preview of this full-text is provided by Springer Nature.
Learn more
Content available from Environmental Science and Pollution Research
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20689-x
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Economic complexity, ICT, biomass energy consumption,
andenvironmental degradation: evidence fromIran
AmirMehrjo1· SaeidSatariYuzbashkandi2 · MohammadHadiEskandariNasab2· HadisGudarzipor2
Received: 15 November 2021 / Accepted: 3 May 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022
Abstract
Economic complexity, biomass energy consumption, and information communication technology (ICT) have diverse impacts
on energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Nevertheless, analysis of these variable effects is not addressed
in the previous literature; the antiqueness of this article is stuffing this gap. This study assessed the relationship between
gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, biomass consumption, economic complexity index (ECI), ICT, and CO2 emis-
sions in Iran in 1994–2018. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and the quantile regression (QR) economet-
ric technique were used to investigate the factors affecting CO2 emissions in the tails of the conditional distribution. The
share of each influential factor was predicted through the variance decomposition analysis (VD) for the next 10years. The
empirical results showed a long-run relationship between the variables. So, the variables of biomass consumption, ECI, and
ICT improve the quality of the environment in Iran by reducing CO2 emissions, and the per capita GDP variable increases
CO2 emissions. Results suggest no evidence indicating the presence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC); however, QR
demonstrated the existence of EKCs in the lower quantiles of the conditional distribution. The ECI will have the most share
to change the CO2 emissions in the future. The income threshold should be determined at the turning point of the EKC to
increase economic development. Moreover, investing in increasing biomass consumption is vital. Policymakers also need
to consider strict added value for the export of products.
Keywords ARDL approach· Biomass· CO2 emissions· Economics complexity· Economic growth· Quantile regression
Introduction
Today, climate change is the most critical environmental
problem, and the rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
are considered its leading cause (Lin & Zhu, 2019). CO2
emissions, regarded as the most significant components of
GHG emissions, have a prominent contribution to climate
change (Ahmed etal., 2019). The International Energy
Agency (IEA, 2019) statistics revealed that since 2012, the
amount of CO2 emissions related to fossil fuel energy had
shown an alarmingly increasing trend by 1.7% in 2018, thus
have reached to 33,444 million tons of CO2 equivalent. Cli-
mate change and continuous air pollution will bring potential
threats to life and human activities.
Hence, concerns about the effects of increased CO2 emis-
sions, including climate change, have intensified such that
many countries have committed to reducing CO2 emissions
(Apergis & Payne, 2014). Thus, environmentalists have
repeatedly called on the international community to take
action to reduce CO2 emissions. Therefore, countries in vari-
ous international meetings such as the Stockholm Confer-
ence, the Montreal and the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris
Agreement have taken steps to deal with climate change and
limit GHG emissions (Razmjoo & Davarpanah, 2019).
This study aimed to explore the impacts of ECI, informa-
tion communication technology (ICT), and biomass energy
Responsible Editor: Roula Inglesi-Lotz
Highlights
•Focus on Iran as one of the largest Co2 emissions in the world.
•The effects of GDP, economic complexity index biomass
consumption and internet consumption on air quality are assessed.
•Economic complexity is significantly affecting the reduction of
Co2 emissions in the future.
•Our result provides a new strategy for policymakers to move
towards sustainable economic development.
•ARDL, QR and VD analysis techniques were applied.
* Saeid Satari Yuzbashkandi
saeid.satari@modares.ac.ir
Extended author information available on the last page of the article
/ Published online: 17 May 2022
Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2022) 29:69888–69902
1 3
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Economic complexity has been linked to an amplified ecological footprint and increased emissions of CO 2 , nitrogen dioxide, and greenhouse gases (Balsalobre-Lorente et al. 2022;Chu 2021;Peng et al. 2022). However, another study has shown that economic complexity can lead to improved ecosystems (Mehrjo et al. 2022). The relationship between economic freedom and CO 2 emissions has yielded conflicting results, with some studies suggesting a positive association and others indicating a negative one (Akadırı et al. 2021;Bjørnskov 2020;de Soysa 2021;Ghiţă, 2019;Hassan 2021;Lundström and Carlsson 2003;Majeed et al. 2021;Mamkhezri et al. 2022a, b;Rapsikevicius et al. 2021;Sart et al. 2022;Setyadharma et al. 2021a;Sheraz et al. 2021). ...
... One such study by Ghiţă (2019) found a direct and significant correlation between economic freedom and CO 2 emissions. Similarly, other studies also highlighted those countries with greater economic freedom tend to exhibit higher levels of CO 2 emissions (Hassan 2021;Karimi et al. 2022;Mehrjo et al. 2022). The reasoning behind this relationship can be attributed to the fact that economic freedom promotes economic growth and activity, leading to increased energy consumption and extraction of resources and, subsequently, higher CO 2 emissions. ...
... This connection can be explained in theory because more intricate and varied economies will likely have more industrial processes and energy consumption, resulting in higher CO 2 emissions. In contrast, Mehrjo et al. (2022) noted in their empirical research that the economic complexity has a positive influence on environmental sustainability preservation by decreasing carbon emissions, which is an essential component of the global agenda to combat climate change. ...
Asymmetrical analysis of economic complexity and economic freedom on environment in South Asia: A NARDL approach
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2023
  • ENVIRON SCI POLLUT R
The environment has become a growing concern for many countries, as pollution and other environmental degradation can harm human health, economic growth, and overall well-being. This paper probes into the asymmetrical implications of economic complexity and freedom on ecological quality in four South Asian countries from 1995 to 2019. Using Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag methodology approach, our findings indicate that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are intensified by economic freedom both in the long and short term, while negative and positive shocks to economic complexity increase CO2 emissions in the long term. However, a negative economic complexity shock increases CO2 emissions, whereas a positive shock has the opposite effect in the short run. Moreover, our results confirm the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the long run. Furthermore, we find that renewable energy usage and the interaction of FDI and renewable energy usage can help reduce environmental damage in both the short and long run. The findings suggest that countries should focus on attracting foreign direct investment that promotes the use of renewable energy. Additionally, policies aimed at encouraging renewable energy use should be implemented. It is important to note that as economic freedom and complexity increase, there is a corresponding increase in CO2 emissions. Therefore, South Asian policy makers are advised to prioritize the reduction in fossil fuels, the promotion of energy-saving technologies and efficient production, and trade that encourages the transition of renewable energy sources to reduce CO2 emissions.
View
... This implies that the interaction between the two variables contributes to the increase in CO 2 emission both in the short and long run. This finding is not consistent with the studies conducted by Ozcan and Apergis (2018) for emerging countries, Salahuddin and Alam (2015) for Australia, Ibrahim and Waziri (2020) for SSA, and Mehrjo et al. (2022) for Iran. The differences in the findings could be due to various factors, such as differences in the time period studied, the theoretical framework used, econometrics techniques and other related factors. ...
The crucial roles of ICT, renewable energy sources, industrialization, and institutional quality in achieving environmental sustainability in BRICS
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2024
  • ENVIRON SCI POLLUT R
The BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—are committed to achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, which focuses on mitigating climate change. To attain this goal, it is crucial to emphasize the significance of ICT, renewable energy sources, industrialization, and institutional quality. This study contributes to the literature by examining the potential role of these factors in environmental sustainability in the BRICS economies from 2000 to 2021, utilizing cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) estimation and other novel econometric techniques. Accordingly, the study suggests that BRICS governments and policymakers prioritize the use of ICT in the industrial and institutional sectors to achieve faster environmental sustainability in the short-run, as per the CS-ARDL results. However, the study advises caution in the long-term as the interaction between ICT and renewable energy sources, industrialization, and institutional quality may not favour environmental quality. Although the renewable energy sources interaction with ICT may not yield immediate progress, strong measures need to be taken to ensure that short-term gains are not nullified. In conclusion, the study highlights the potential of ICT, renewable energy sources, industrialization, and institutional quality in achieving environmental sustainability in the BRICS countries, while recommending cautious measures in the long run to safeguard the progress made.
View
... The findings indicated that sources of renewable power (such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric), ICT, and good governance are the most important markers for reducing carbon emissions. Mehrjo et al. (2022) assessed the relationship between ICT, and CO 2 emissions in Iran by utilizing the ARDL model and the quantile regression (QR) econometric technique using time series data from 1994 to 2018. The result revealed that ICT improves the quality of the environment in Iran by reducing CO 2 emissions. ...
Economy-energy-environment nexus: The role of information and communication technology towards green development in Malaysia
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2023
Global warming and climate change are caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rising energy consumption due to population and economic growth. Over the past decade, information and communication technology (ICT) usage has increased which may increase energy utilization and GHG emissions. Conversely, ICT's clean technologies can minimize pollution. Therefore, this study investigated the dynamic influences of ICT, economic growth, population, and energy use on GHG emissions in Malaysia by employing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach using data from 1990 to 2021. The results of the ARDL bounds test indicated the existence of a long-run link between the variables. The results revealed that a 1% increase in the number of Internet users could increase GHG emissions by 0.013% in the short run but cut GHG emissions by 0.077% in the long run. Additionally, economic growth, population, and energy usage have a positive association with GHG emissions. The robustness of the ARDL outcomes has been checked by using the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR) methods. This article offers additional policy proposals for emission reduction and sustainable development by promoting renewable energy use and financing green ICT.
View
... Due to the intensive use and dependency on the internet increased electricity consumption increases environmental degradation (Khan et al. 2022a, b). Khan et al. (2022a, b), Mehrjo et al. (2022), and Naseem et al. (2023) found a negative effect of ICT on CO 2 emissions. On the other hand, Bilal et al. (2022), Kim (2022) revealed that there is a positive relationship between ICT and CO 2 emissions. ...
Examining the nonlinear impact of human capital on environmental degradation in N-11 countries. An application of the PSTR approach
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2023
  • ENVIRON SCI POLLUT R
The emergence of globalization, human capital has played a crucial role in the economic integration of countries, leading to the growth of the economies and a reduction in Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This study highlights the importance of investing in human capital development to control ecological degradation and promote sustainable economic growth. This paper employs the PSTR method to investigate the threshold impact of GDP, globalization, information communication technology, and energy consumption on CO2 emissions. The study examines two regimes, with a single threshold to analyze the transition of human capital on these variables. The results reveal that human capital developments play a central role in controlling ecological degradation due to reduced CO2 emissions. Based on the empirical findings, this research study offers corresponding policy suggestions
View
... Our observation is parallel with the findings of recent studies in literature. For instance, Awad (2022) observes a negative correlation between ICT and CO 2 emissions among 47 African countries, Mehrjo et al. (2022) witnesses the same in the case of Iran, Shobande and Asongu (2022) observe it among the Eastern and Southern African nations, and Zafar et al. (2022) validate it among selected Asian countries. Due to the evolution of data science, information has become more available than earlier, and it is also facile to feed this information to the mass population through the advancement of technology in the form of the internet, mobile, and fixed telephone lines. ...
Articulating CO2 Emissions Limiting Roles of Nuclear Energy and ICT under the EKC Hypothesis: An Application of Non-parametric MMQR Approach
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2023
Limiting toxic elements from being exposed to the world’s atmosphere has been the biggest challenge among environmental researchers and stakeholders. Climate change conferences have been counselling the global economies to take serious steps toward profound decarbonization to keep the universal temperature below 1.5°C. In this context, the direction of environmental research has changed, and researchers are more focused on tracing how to limit pollution and keep it below the threshold level. In this milieu, nuclear energy can make a big difference along with other alternatives to fossil energy. Therefore, we extend the extant literature by exploring the dynamic effects of atomic energy and ICT on carbon emissions (CO2) for top nuclear energy countries using data from 1990-2017. To obtain robust findings, we deploy a novel non-parametric econometric approach (i.e., method of moments quantile regression). The results suggest that nuclear energy is a sustainable alternative to historical fossil fuel as it curbs CO2 emissions in the lower, middle, and upper quantiles. Furthermore, our findings corroborate that ICT penetration through the internet, mobile and telephone plays a vital role in improving environmental quality. Moreover, we unveil that linear economic growth jeopardizes the environment by unleashing harmful gases. The findings also support the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis by confirming the negative association between the polynomial economic growth (GDP2) and CO2 emissions among the designated nations. Also, the Granger causality test reaffirms the causal nexus among selected series that runs from nuclear energy and technological innovation to CO2 emissions, indicating that any policy shock in both series leads to environmental degradation. We, therefore, advocate that the designated territories keep enriching their energy baskets with nuclear energy and boost ICT penetration to achieve a 100% decoupling of economic growth from pollution.
View
... They emphasize on efficient ICT equipment and green energy to tackle environment issues. Mehrjo, Satari Yuzbashkandi, Eskandari Nasab, and Gudarzipor (2022) also depict positive ICT role for mitigation of carbon emissions for Iran by utilizing Quantile regression (QR) and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model as an econometric techniques. By using same estimation technique (ARDL) and panel pooled mean group N'dri, Islam, and Kakinaka (2021) explore the ICT impact for 58 developing countries from 1994 to 2014. ...
Information and Communication Technology and Environmental Degradation Global Perspective: A Panel Data Analysis
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2022
The linkage between ICT and environmental degradation has an important role in today’s environmental debates. This research empirically scrutinizes the ecological dimension of ICT at the global level by using different key indicators. This paper conducts an analysis to provide comprehensive documentation regarding ICT impact on environmental degradation from 1984 to 2019. The empirical findings are based on Ordinary Least Square (OLS), Pooled OLS, Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS), and Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) techniques. By applying cross-sectional and panel data, this research found evidence that ICT is an effective tool to alleviate environmental degradation. The study points out many policy implications drawn from its findings.
View
View
View
Towards environmental sustainability path in Africa: The critical role of ICT, renewable energy sources, agriculturalization, industrialization and institutional quality
Article
  • Oct 2023
As African countries battles to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13 (that is, climate change mitigation), there is an increasing need to harness information and communication technology (ICT), renewable energy sources, agriculturalization, industrialization and institutional quality toward achieving this goal. Hence, it has become critical to investigate the potential role that ICT, renewable energy sources, agri-culturalization, industrialization and institutional quality could play towards environmental sustainability path in Africa. The study spans from 2000 to 2021 and applied a battery of novel econometric techniques. The variables were found to have a long-term equilibrium relationship, and the causality results indicate that there is a two-way/mutual causality between all of the series (except between ICT and CO 2 emissions). Based on the system GMM results, this study recommends that African governments and policymakers can achieve environmental sustainability faster when ICT is jointly utilised with the renewable energy sources and trade openness compared to the levels of industrialization, agriculturalization and institutional quality.
View
Exploring the dynamic nexus between urbanization, energy efficiency, renewable energies, economic growth, with ecological footprint: A panel cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag evidence along Middle East and North Africa countries
Article
  • Jun 2023
  • Energ Environ
The release of greenhouse gases (GHG) is acknowledged as a serious hazard that fuels climate change (CC). The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries face particular environmental challenges due to its contribution to carbon dioxide emissions (CO 2 ). There is, however, a scarcity of literature about the region's environmental challenges, despite its vulnerability to the consequences of CC. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to look at various solutions to the CC issue in the MENA area, that is, energy efficiency (EE), economic development, urbanization, fossil fuel (FF) usage, and renewable energies (RE). Further, the study seeks to evaluate CO 2 emissions in the region by establishing a RE index. By applying the fresh technique known as the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag estimator to panel data for 18 MENA countries from 1990 to 2019, this study quantifies the impact of these variables on CO 2 emissions. The findings reveal that the explanatory variables’ significance varies across regional panel clusters, with economic growth having a significantly positive effect on CO 2 emissions in the long run. Moreover, the study rejects the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis validation and highlights the importance of EE in boosting environmental quality in the long and short runs. Additionally, the outcomes suggest that RE contributes to reducing CO 2 emissions, while the urbanization level and FF consumption adopted by MENA countries do not improve their environment. Thus, mitigating the negative consequences of CC in the MENA area necessitates encouraging EE and lobbying for a shift from FF to RE sources.
View
Growing green through biomass energy consumption: the role of natural resource and globalization in a world economy
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2022
  • ENVIRON SCI POLLUT R
Energy consumption supports the basic needs of society. The way energy is produced matters for the global economy and environmental quality. The present study explores the impact of biomass energy consumption on environmental quality across heterogeneous income groups over the period 1971–2018. The cointegration is analyzed through the Wester-Lund cointegration test. The study used Fully Modified (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) to examine the long-run relationship between biomass energy and environmental quality in the presence of economic growth, urbanization, natural resource, and globalization. The results validate the potential of biomass energy consumption for emission reduction in the high-income group while environmental deteriorating role in upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income, and low-income groups. Our empirical findings support an inverted U-shaped relationship in the high-income and upper-middle-income groups while a U-shaped relationship between income and environmental quality exists in lower-middle-income and low-income groups. Globalization improves environmental quality in high-income and upper-middle-income groups while resulting in higher emissions in lower-middle, and low-income economies. Natural resource rent degrades the environment in high-income economies while lowering emissions in upper-middle, lower, and low-income economies. The results from Pooled Mean group and Driscoll Kray estimation also support these findings.
View
Does Globalization Moderate the Effect of Economic Complexity on CO2 Emissions? Evidence From the Top 10 Energy Transition Economies
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2021
The association between economic complexity (sophisticated economic structure) and carbon emissions has major implications for environmental sustainability. In addition, globalization can be an important tool for attaining environmental sustainability and it may also moderate the association between economic complexity and carbon emissions. Thus, this research examines the effects of economic complexity, economic growth, renewable energy, and globalization on CO2 emissions in the top 10 energy transition economies where renewable energy and globalization have greatly increased over the last 3 decades. Furthermore, this study also evaluates the joint effect of globalization and economic complexity on carbon emissions. Keeping in view the presence of slope heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence in the data, this research utilized second-generation unit root tests (CIPS and CADF), Westerlund cointegration approach, and CS-ARDL and CCEMG long-run estimators over the period of 1990–2018. The results affirmed the presence of cointegration among the considered variable. Long-run findings revealed that globalization, renewable energy, and economic complexity decrease carbon emissions. Conversely, economic growth increases carbon emissions. Moreover, the joint impact of economic complexity and globalization stimulates environmental sustainability. Based on these findings, the government of these groups of economies should continue to expand the usage of renewable energy. They should also promote interaction with the rest of the world by adopting the policy of opening up.
View
Effects of Economic Complexity, Economic Growth, and Renewable Energy Technology Budgets on Ecological Footprint: The role of Democratic Accountability
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2022
  • ENVIRON SCI POLLUT R
The economic structure of countries can influence economic growth, energy demand, and environmental footprints. However, the literature on economic complexity and ecological footprint (EFP) nexus is scarce. Besides, democracy is an important factor that may affect environmental policies and environmental sustainability. Hence, this paper investigates the effect of democracy, economic complexity, and renewable energy technology budgets on the EFP in G7 countries controlling income and financial development from 1985 to 2017. The findings from Westerlund (2008) and other cointegration methods depict cointegration among variables. The long-run estimates from the CUP-FM method unfold that economic complexity contributes to reducing the EFP. However, greater democratic accountability boosts the EFP figures rather than reducing them. On the flipside, renewable energy technology budgets and financial development are evidenced to mitigate EFP. Moreover, the study unveils a U-shaped linkage between economic growth and EFP, which indicates that an increase in income level will boost EFP. Further, the study found causality from economic complexity, democracy, and renewable energy budgets to EFP. Based on these findings, it is pertinent for the G7 countries to increase the manufacturing of sophisticated and complex products. In addition, enhancing renewable energy technology budgets is essential to ensure environmental well-being.
View
Revisiting the EKC hypothesis by assessing the complementarities between fiscal, monetary, and environmental development policies in China
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2022
  • ENVIRON SCI POLLUT R
Recently, China has declared its national objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. Hence, mitigating carbon dioxide emissions has become an important agenda of the Chinese government. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of pursuing expansionary fiscal and monetary policies on China’s carbon dioxide emission figures by using annual frequency data from 1980 to 2018. Accordingly, this study considers the levels of government expenditure and broad money supply as fiscal and monetary policy instruments, respectively. Besides accounting for structural break concerns in the data, the findings from the empirical analysis reveal that there are long-run associations between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, and fiscal and monetary expansion in China. Moreover, the results also show that in both the short- and long-run expansionary fiscal policy trigger higher carbon dioxide emissions while expansionary monetary policy inhibits the carbon dioxide emission figures of China. Furthermore, the results invalidate the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis since the relationship between China's economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions is evidenced to portray an N-shape. In line with these findings, it is recommended that China achieve environmentally sustainable economic growth by aligning the national fiscal and monetary policies with the 2060 carbon-neutrality objective.
View
Modeling the Relationship Between Economic Complexity and Environmental Degradation: Evidence From Top Seven Economic Complexity Countries
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2021
The continuous growth in CO2 emissions of nations around the globe has made achieving the aim of sustainable development extremely challenging. Therefore, the current research assesses the connection between CO2 emissions and economic complexity in the top 7 economic complexity countries while taking into account the role of economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and globalization for the period between 1993 and 2018. The research aims to answer the following questions: 1) What is the association between CO2 and the regressors in the long-run? 2) What are the effects of renewable energy consumption, economic growth, economic complexity, and globalization on CO2 emissions? The research utilized the CS-ARDL, CCEMG and panel causality approaches to investigate these interconnections. The empirical outcomes revealed that economic growth and economic complexity increase CO2 emissions while renewable energy consumption and globalization mitigate CO2 emissions. The outcomes of the causality test revealed a feedback causal connection between economic growth and CO2, while a unidirectional causality was established from economic complexity, globalization and renewable energy consumption to CO2 emissions in the top 7 economic complexity countries.
View
Do natural gas, oil, and coal consumption ameliorate environmental quality? Empirical evidence from Russia
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2022
  • ENVIRON SCI POLLUT R
Environmental degradation stemming from the combustion of conventional energy sources is not only a major factor behind climate change but it also poses an adverse impact on human health. Undoubtedly, fossil fuels are major drivers of economic growth; however, their detrimental environmental impacts are of global concern. In the literature, there is no comprehensive empirical evidence on the linkage between the use of different energy sources and carbon dioxide emissions in the context of Russia, a nation that is ranked third in the list of the top carbon dioxide-emitting global countries. Hence, this paper aims to scrutinize the relationships between oil consumption, natural gas consumption, coal consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions controlling economic growth for Russia over the 1990–2016 period. The findings from the econometric analysis indicate that carbon dioxide emissions in Russia have long-run associations with economic growth and consumption of oil, gas, and coal. The long-run elasticity estimates reveal that economic growth is not directly harming Russia’s environmental quality. However, higher oil, gas, and coal consumption degrades environmental quality by boosting the level of carbon dioxide emissions in Russia. In addition, the results from the Granger causality analysis confirm the existence of both long and short-term causal connections among the variables of concern. In line with these findings, several policy recommendations to address the environmental challenges in Russia are put forward.
View
Moving toward a green revolution in Japan: Symmetric and asymmetric relationships among clean energy technology development investments, economic growth, and CO 2 emissions
Article
  • Aug 2022
A revolution in the energy sector is crucial for achieving environmental sustainability since almost three-fourth of global carbon dioxide emissions is generated from the energy sector. It is believed that combustion of unclean energy resources is the major contributor to the multifaceted environmental adversities experienced across the globe. Thus, the development of clean energy technologies, to elevate their shares in the global energy mix, is deemed necessary to reinstate environmental well-being worldwide. Against this background, this study aims to explore the symmetric and asymmetric impacts of public research and development investments for nuclear and renewable energy development and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in the context of Japan over the 1974–2017 period. As opposed to the conventional approaches, this study contributes to the literature by specifically scrutinizing the environmental effects associated with public investments in clean energy development projects; whereas the majority of the preceding studies have either considered the environmental impacts associated with the overall research and development investments in the energy sector or that made by firms in general. However, evaluating the effects of such investments for clean energy development is more appropriate for policy-making purposes. The results from both the symmetric and asymmetric analyses reveal that higher public investments in clean energy research and development-oriented projects help to curb carbon dioxide emissions in Japan. Besides, such investments for nuclear energy development are evidenced to be relatively more effective in facilitating the nation's carbon emission-abating agenda. In contrast, economic growth in Japan is evidenced to trigger higher carbon dioxide emissions. In line with these key findings, this study offers several policy-level suggestions in respect of undergoing clean energy transition and achieving environmental sustainability in Japan.
View
An environmental impact assessment of economic complexity and energy consumption: Does institutional quality make a difference?
Article
  • May 2021
  • ENVIRON IMPACT ASSES
The relationship between ecological footprint and economic complexity has important policy implications for environmental sustainability. Furthermore, institutional quality can be an imperative tool to ensure environmental sustainability, and it may also moderate the nexus between economic complexity and ecological footprint. Therefore, this study investigates the linkage between economic complexity, institutional quality, disaggregated energy consumption, and economic growth on environmental degradation in emerging countries from 1984 to 2017. In addition, it also probes the moderating effect of institutional quality in the nexus between economic complexity and footprint. To do so, the study applies an advanced econometric approach, cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) estimator, for short-run and long-run estimation, that allows heterogeneity in the slope parameters and dependencies across countries. The analytical outcomes demonstrate that economic complexity increases environmental degradation by exacerbating ecological footprint, while a high level of economic complexity mitigates ecological footprint. The findings of the study unfold that institutional quality supports environmental sustainability by reducing the ecological footprint. The outcomes also indicated that institutional quality promotes environmental sustainability by moderating the nexus between economic complexity and ecological degradation. Moreover, renewable energy is found to decrease ecological footprint, whereas non-renewable energy use leads to intensifying the ecological footprint. It was also found that there is an inverted u-shaped association between ecological footprint and economic growth. Based on the results, the study suggests that emerging countries should accelerate economic complexity along with a stronger institutional framework to combat environmental issues without compromising sustainable economic growth.
View
Environmental Consequences of Economic Complexities in the EU amidst a booming Tourism Industry: Accounting for the role of Brexit and other Crisis Events
Article
  • Apr 2021
  • J CLEAN PROD
The European Union (EU) is one of the strongest, but most complex unions in the world with a competitive tourism industry. The aim of this study, therefore, is to account for economic complexity index (ECI), Brexit and other crisis episodes in the growth-energy-emissions nexus. Theoretically, the traditional Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model is assessed by adopting a One-step System Generalized Method of Moment (Sys GMM) on data for 26 EU member states over the period from 1995 to 2018. For the first time, an EU-macro regional analysis is conducted with and without the UK. Empirical results reveal that an increase in tourism, real GDP per capita, and energy use across the four EU macro regions leads to increase in carbon emission. In some regions, it was observed that tourism, ECI, Brexit, and the Greece bailout have no significant impact on carbon emission. This suggests that the increase in international travel, complexity of the economy, and financial crisis do not accelerate environmental crisis in such regions. However, where such factors are statistically significant, Brexit and the Greece bailout crisis both heighten emissions. Particularly, when the UK is excluded, Brexit and the Greece bailout crisis increase and reduce emissions, respectively. The EKC hypothesis, however, holds in either scenario. Based on these empirical findings, vital policy directions are suggested for a post-Brexit EU-UK energy and environmental relations.
View
Econometric Analysis of Panel Data
Book
  • Jan 2021
This textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to panel data econometrics, an area that has enjoyed considerable growth over the last two decades. Micro and Macro panels are becoming increasingly available, and methods for dealing with these types of data are in high demand among practitioners. Software programs have fostered this growth, including freely available programs in R and numerous user-written programs in both Stata and EViews. Written by one of the world’s leading researchers and authors in the field, Econometric Analysis of Panel Data has established itself as the leading textbook for graduate and postgraduate courses on panel data. It provides up-to-date coverage of basic panel data techniques, illustrated with real economic applications and datasets, which are available at the book’s website on springer.com. This new sixth edition has been fully revised and updated, and includes new material on dynamic panels, limited dependent variables and nonstationary panels, as well as spatial panel data. The author also provides empirical illustrations and examples using Stata and EViews. “This is a definitive book written by one of the architects of modern, panel data econometrics. It provides both a practical introduction to the subject matter, as well as a thorough discussion of the underlying statistical principles without taxing the reader too greatly." Professor Kajal Lahiri, State University of New York, Albany, USA. "This book is the most comprehensive work available on panel data. It is written by one of the leading contributors to the field, and is notable for its encyclopaedic coverage and its clarity of exposition. It is useful to theorists and to people doing applied work using panel data. It is valuable as a text for a course in panel data, as a supplementary text for more general courses in econometrics, and as a reference." Professor Peter Schmidt, Michigan State University, USA. “Panel data econometrics is in its ascendancy, combining the power of cross section averaging with all the subtleties of temporal and spatial dependence. Badi Baltagi provides a remarkable roadmap of this fascinating interface of econometric method, enticing the novitiate with technical gentleness, the expert with comprehensive coverage and the practitioner with many empirical applications.” Professor Peter C. B. Phillips, Cowles Foundation, Yale University, USA.
View