IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i13p3708-d246191.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quality of Institutions, Technological Progress, and Pollution Havens in Latin America. An Analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis

Author

Listed:
  • José M. Cansino

    (Departamento de Análisis Económico y Economía Política, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla 410818, Spain
    Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago 7500912, Chile)

  • Rocio Román-Collado

    (Departamento de Análisis Económico y Economía Política, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla 410818, Spain
    Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago 7500912, Chile)

  • Juan C. Molina

    (Departamento de Análisis Económico y Economía Política, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla 410818, Spain)

Abstract

A set of 17-year panel data (1996–2013) across a representative sample from eighteen Latin American countries is used to respond four research questions: Did Latin American Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions prove the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis? Did the quality of institutions play a compensating role for income on environmental stress? Did technological progress help decouple income from environmental stress? Has the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) been proven? In order to answer the research questions, the paper expands the traditional EKC approach by including an exclusive quality analysis of institutions, technological progress, and PHH as part of the model. This innovation is developed considering the most recent literature about EKC as a starting point. Major findings show that the relationship between income and GHG emissions is adjusted to the traditional EKC hypothesis for the analyzed period. They also show that the quality of institutions and technological progress improve environmental sustainability. However, the variables, Foreign Direct Investment and International Trade, provide a negative answer to the fourth question. The main methodological contribution of this paper is to use a threefold extended classic EKC model to conduct the feasible generalized least squares method. The paper also contributes to the growing body of PHH literature.

Suggested Citation

  • José M. Cansino & Rocio Román-Collado & Juan C. Molina, 2019. "Quality of Institutions, Technological Progress, and Pollution Havens in Latin America. An Analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-20, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:13:p:3708-:d:246191
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/13/3708/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/13/3708/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. anonymous, 1995. "Does the bouncing ball lead to economic growth?," Regional Update, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, issue Jul, pages 1-2,4-6.
    2. Bokpin, Godfred A., 2017. "Foreign direct investment and environmental sustainability in Africa: The role of institutions and governance," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(PA), pages 239-247.
    3. Muhammad Shahbaz & Smile Dube & Ilhan Ozturk & Abdul Jalil, 2015. "Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in Portugal," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 5(2), pages 475-481.
    4. Sanchez, Luis F. & Stern, David I., 2016. "Drivers of industrial and non-industrial greenhouse gas emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 17-24.
    5. Munasinghe, Mohan, 1999. "Is environmental degradation an inevitable consequence of economic growth: tunneling through the environmental Kuznets curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 89-109, April.
    6. De Bruyn, Sander M., 1997. "Explaining the environmental Kuznets curve: structural change and international agreements in reducing sulphur emissions," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 485-503, November.
    7. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2021. "General diagnostic tests for cross-sectional dependence in panels," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 13-50, January.
    8. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    9. Kaika, Dimitra & Zervas, Efthimios, 2013. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory—Part A: Concept, causes and the CO2 emissions case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1392-1402.
    10. Dean, Judith M. & Lovely, Mary E. & Wang, Hua, 2004. "Foreign Direct Investment and Pollution Havens: Evaluating the Evidence from China," Working Papers 15854, United States International Trade Commission, Office of Economics.
    11. He, Jie, 2006. "Pollution haven hypothesis and environmental impacts of foreign direct investment: The case of industrial emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in Chinese provinces," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 228-245, November.
    12. Bhattacharya, Mita & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy, 2017. "The dynamic impact of renewable energy and institutions on economic output and CO2 emissions across regions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 157-167.
    13. de Freitas, Luciano Charlita & Kaneko, Shinji, 2011. "Decomposing the decoupling of CO2 emissions and economic growth in Brazil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(8), pages 1459-1469, June.
    14. Abay Mulatu, 2017. "The Structure of UK Outbound FDI and Environmental Regulation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(1), pages 65-96, September.
    15. Yang, Xuechun & Lou, Feng & Sun, Mingxing & Wang, Renqing & Wang, Yutao, 2017. "Study of the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and the economic growth of Russia based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 162-173.
    16. Culas, Richard J., 2007. "Deforestation and the environmental Kuznets curve: An institutional perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 429-437, March.
    17. Liu, Yiming & Hao, Yu & Gao, Yixuan, 2017. "The environmental consequences of domestic and foreign investment: Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 271-280.
    18. Yuquing Xing & Charles Kolstad, 2002. "Do Lax Environmental Regulations Attract Foreign Investment?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 21(1), pages 1-22, January.
    19. López, Luis Antonio & Arce, Guadalupe & Zafrilla, Jorge Enrique, 2013. "Parcelling virtual carbon in the pollution haven hypothesis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 177-186.
    20. Robert Hoffmann & Chew-Ging Lee & Bala Ramasamy & Matthew Yeung, 2005. "FDI and pollution: a granger causality test using panel data," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 311-317.
    21. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Mrabet, Zouhair, 2017. "The impact of economic development and social-political factors on ecological footprint: A panel data analysis for 15 MENA countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 138-154.
    22. Rikard Forslid & Toshihiro Okubo & Mark Sanctuary, 2017. "Trade Liberalization, Transboundary Pollution, and Market Size," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 927-957.
    23. Panayotou, Theodore, 1997. "Demystifying the environmental Kuznets curve: turning a black box into a policy tool," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 465-484, November.
    24. Daniel Kaufmann & Aart Kraay & Massimo Mastruzzi, 2010. "Response to ‘What do the Worldwide Governance Indicators Measure?’," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 22(1), pages 55-58, February.
    25. Pablo-Romero, María del P. & Sánchez-Braza, Antonio, 2017. "Residential energy environmental Kuznets curve in the EU-28," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 44-54.
    26. Sapkota, Pratikshya & Bastola, Umesh, 2017. "Foreign direct investment, income, and environmental pollution in developing countries: Panel data analysis of Latin America," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 206-212.
    27. Kearsley, Aaron & Riddel, Mary, 2010. "A further inquiry into the Pollution Haven Hypothesis and the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 905-919, February.
    28. Matthew A. Cole & Robert J. R. Elliott, 2005. "FDI and the Capital Intensity of “Dirty” Sectors: A Missing Piece of the Pollution Haven Puzzle," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(4), pages 530-548, November.
    29. Yin, Jianhua & Zheng, Mingzheng & Chen, Jian, 2015. "The effects of environmental regulation and technical progress on CO2 Kuznets curve: An evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 97-108.
    30. Stern, David I., 2004. "The Rise and Fall of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1419-1439, August.
    31. George E. Halkos & Epameinondas A. Paizanos, 2017. "The channels of the effect of government expenditure on the environment: evidence using dynamic panel data," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(1), pages 135-157, January.
    32. T. S. Breusch & A. R. Pagan, 1980. "The Lagrange Multiplier Test and its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 239-253.
    33. Pablo-Romero, María del P. & De Jesús, Josué, 2016. "Economic growth and energy consumption: The Energy-Environmental Kuznets Curve for Latin America and the Caribbean," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1343-1350.
    34. Zilio, Mariana & Recalde, Marina, 2011. "GDP and environment pressure: The role of energy in Latin America and the Caribbean," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7941-7949.
    35. Eskeland, Gunnar S. & Harrison, Ann E., 2003. "Moving to greener pastures? Multinationals and the pollution haven hypothesis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-23, February.
    36. Mundaca T., Luis, 2013. "Climate change and energy policy in Chile: Up in smoke?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 235-248.
    37. Al-mulali, Usama & Tang, Chor Foon & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2015. "Estimating the Environment Kuznets Curve hypothesis: Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 918-924.
    38. Bhattarai, Madhusudan & Hammig, Michael, 2001. "Institutions and the Environmental Kuznets Curve for Deforestation: A Crosscountry Analysis for Latin America, Africa and Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 995-1010, June.
    39. Iddo K. Wernick & Paul E. Waggoner & Jesse H. Ausubel, 1997. "Searching for Leverage to Conserve Forests: The Industrial Ecology of Wood Products in the United States," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 1(3), pages 125-145, July.
    40. Bernauer, Thomas & Koubi, Vally, 2009. "Effects of political institutions on air quality," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1355-1365, March.
    41. Cole, Matthew A., 2004. "Trade, the pollution haven hypothesis and the environmental Kuznets curve: examining the linkages," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 71-81, January.
    42. Liobikienė, Genovaitė & Butkus, Mindaugas, 2017. "Environmental Kuznets Curve of greenhouse gas emissions including technological progress and substitution effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 237-248.
    43. Fozia Latif Gill & K Kuperan Viswanathan & Mohd Zaini Abdul Karim, 2018. "The Critical Review of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH)," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 8(1), pages 167-174.
    44. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 431-455, August.
    45. Hosseini, Hossein Mirshojaeian & Kaneko, Shinji, 2013. "Can environmental quality spread through institutions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 312-321.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shujahat Haider Hashmi & Fan Hongzhong & Zeeshan Fareed & Roksana Bannya, 2020. "Testing Non-Linear Nexus between Service Sector and CO 2 Emissions in Pakistan," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-29, January.
    2. Xing, Licong & Khan, Yousaf Ali & Arshed, Noman & Iqbal, Mubasher, 2023. "Investigating the impact of economic growth on environment degradation in developing economies through STIRPAT model approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. Hayat Khan & Liu Weili & Itbar Khan, 2022. "Environmental innovation, trade openness and quality institutions: an integrated investigation about environmental sustainability," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 3832-3862, March.
    4. Wilman-Santiago Ochoa-Moreno & Byron Alejandro Quito & Carlos Andrés Moreno-Hurtado, 2021. "Foreign Direct Investment and Environmental Quality: Revisiting the EKC in Latin American Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Konstantinos Bletsas & Georgios Oikonomou & Minas Panagiotidis & Eleftherios Spyromitros, 2022. "Carbon Dioxide and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Role of Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, and Institutional Quality," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-24, June.
    6. Eduardo Polloni-Silva & Diogo Ferraz & Flávia de Castro Camioto & Daisy Aparecida do Nascimento Rebelatto & Herick Fernando Moralles, 2021. "Environmental Kuznets Curve and the Pollution-Halo/Haven Hypotheses: An Investigation in Brazilian Municipalities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-19, April.
    7. Michael Faure, 2020. "The Export of Ecological Civilization: Reflections from Law and Economics and Law and Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-19, December.
    8. Weijiang Liu & Mingze Du, 2021. "Is Technological Progress Selective for Multiple Pollutant Emissions?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-17, September.
    9. Mario Gómez & José Carlos Rodríguez, 2020. "The Ecological Footprint and Kuznets Environmental Curve in the USMCA Countries: A Method of Moments Quantile Regression Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-15, December.
    10. Abdelmohsen A. Nassani & Muhammad Moinuddin Qazi Abro & Rubeena Batool & Syed Haider Ali Shah & Shabir Hyder & Khalid Zaman, 2021. "Go‐for‐green policies: The role of finance and trade for sustainable development," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 1409-1423, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iftikhar Yasin & Nawaz Ahmad & M. Aslam Chaudhary, 2020. "Catechizing the Environmental-Impression of Urbanization, Financial Development, and Political Institutions: A Circumstance of Ecological Footprints in 110 Developed and Less-Developed Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 621-649, January.
    2. Aurolipsa Das & Narayan Sethi, 2023. "Modelling the environmental pollution-institutional quality nexus in low- and middle-income countries: exploring the role of financial development and educational level," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1492-1518, February.
    3. Sabuj Kumar Mandal & Devleena Chakravarty, 2017. "Role of energy in estimating turning point of Environmental Kuznets Curve: an econometric analysis of the existing studies," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 19(2), pages 387-401, October.
    4. Singhania, Monica & Saini, Neha, 2021. "Demystifying pollution haven hypothesis: Role of FDI," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 516-528.
    5. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 431-455, August.
    6. Letisha S. Fong & Alberto Salvo & David Taylor, 2020. "Evidence of the environmental Kuznets curve for atmospheric pollutant emissions in Southeast Asia and implications for sustainable development: A spatial econometric approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1441-1456, September.
    7. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Sinha, Avik, 2019. "Foreign Direct Investment–CO2 Emissions Nexus in Middle East and North African countries: Importance of Biomass Energy Consumption," MPRA Paper 91729, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 19 Jan 2019.
    8. Assad Ullah & Xinshun Zhao & Muhammad Abdul Kamal & Jiajia Zheng, 2022. "Environmental regulations and inward FDI in China: Fresh evidence from the asymmetric autoregressive distributed lag approach," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 1340-1356, January.
    9. Boris OK Lokonon & Ichaou Mounirou, 2019. "Does foreign direct investment impede forest area in Sub‐Saharan Africa?," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(4), pages 230-240, November.
    10. Boka Stéphane Kévin Assa, 2018. "Foreign direct investment, bad governance and forest resources degradation: evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(1), pages 107-125, April.
    11. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Balsalobre, Daniel & Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain, 2018. "The Influencing Factors of CO2 Emissions and the Role of Biomass Energy Consumption: Statistical Experience from G-7 Countries," MPRA Paper 87456, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Jun 2018.
    12. Iftikhar Yasin & Nawaz Ahmad & Muhammad Aslam Chaudhary, 2021. "The impact of financial development, political institutions, and urbanization on environmental degradation: evidence from 59 less-developed economies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 6698-6721, May.
    13. Jie He, 2007. "Is the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis valid for developing countries? A survey," Cahiers de recherche 07-03, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    14. Zhimin Zhou & Xinyue Ye & Xiangyu Ge, 2017. "The Impacts of Technical Progress on Sulfur Dioxide Kuznets Curve in China: A Spatial Panel Data Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-27, April.
    15. Raúl Arango-Miranda & Robert Hausler & Rabindranarth Romero-Lopez & Mathias Glaus & Sara P. Ibarra-Zavaleta, 2018. "Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Energy Consumption and Economic Growth: A Comparative Empirical Study of Selected Developed and Developing Countries. “The Role of Exergy”," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-16, October.
    16. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2017. "Trade and Environmental Quality in African Countries: Do Institutions Matter?," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(1), pages 155-172, January.
    17. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasreen, Samia & Abbas, Faisal & Anis, Omri, 2015. "Does foreign direct investment impede environmental quality in high-, middle-, and low-income countries?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 275-287.
    18. Alexandra-Anca Purcel, 2019. "Does Political Stability Hinder Pollution? Evidence From Developing States," Economic Research Guardian, Weissberg Publishing, vol. 9(2), pages 75-98, December.
    19. Myo Myo Htike & Anil Shrestha & Makoto Kakinaka, 2022. "Investigating whether the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis holds for sectoral CO2 emissions: evidence from developed and developing countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12712-12739, November.
    20. Carolina Jimenez & Luis Moncada & Diego Ochoa-Jimenez & Wilman-Santiago Ochoa-Moreno, 2019. "Kuznets Environmental Curve for Ecuador: An Analysis of the Impact of Economic Growth on the Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-11, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:13:p:3708-:d:246191. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.