IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ijb/journl/v16y2017i1p49-74.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Institutional Quality and Air Pollution: International Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Wen-Lin Wu

    (Department of International Business, Feng Chia University, Taiwan)

Abstract

This study aims to examine the effect of institutional quality on air quality using data on fine particulate matter, PM2.5, and six dimensions of good governance from the World Bank for 167 nations over the period from 2000 to 2013. After controlling for economic and international openness variables, the empirical results show that countries with better quality regarding voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness and control of corruption have higher reported emissions of PM2.5 air pollution. This study confirms that energy use, population size and gross fixed capital formation help increase PM2.5 air pollution, whereas we support an inverted U-shape Environmental Kuznets Curve effect. These results suggest that government institutions should effectively take appropriate pollution control strategies and enforce environmental laws for the public good in the form of better air quality for their citizens.

Suggested Citation

  • Wen-Lin Wu, 2017. "Institutional Quality and Air Pollution: International Evidence," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 16(1), pages 49-74, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ijb:journl:v:16:y:2017:i:1:p:49-74
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.16-1/pdf/vol_16-1-4.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.16-1/abstract/04.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kinda, Romuald, 2010. "Democratic institutions and environmental quality: effects and transmission channels," MPRA Paper 27455, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Wong, Siang Leng & Chang, Youngho & Chia, Wai-Mun, 2013. "Energy consumption, energy R&D and real GDP in OECD countries with and without oil reserves," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 51-60.
    3. Omri, Anis, 2013. "CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth nexus in MENA countries: Evidence from simultaneous equations models," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 657-664.
    4. Tamazian, Artur & Bhaskara Rao, B., 2010. "Do economic, financial and institutional developments matter for environmental degradation? Evidence from transitional economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 137-145, January.
    5. Jaraitė, Jūratė & Di Maria, Corrado, 2012. "Efficiency, productivity and environmental policy: A case study of power generation in the EU," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1557-1568.
    6. Welsch, Heinz, 2004. "Corruption, growth, and the environment: a cross-country analysis," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(5), pages 663-693, October.
    7. Keren Priyadarshini & Omprakash K. Gupta, 2003. "Compliance to Environmental Regulations: The Indian Context," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 2(1), pages 9-26, April.
    8. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2010. "The emissions, energy consumption, and growth nexus: Evidence from the commonwealth of independent states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 650-655, January.
    9. Biswas, Amit K. & Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza & Thum, Marcel, 2012. "Pollution, shadow economy and corruption: Theory and evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 114-125.
    10. Andrea Beltratti & René M. Stulz, 2009. "Why Did Some Banks Perform Better During the Credit Crisis? A Cross-Country Study of the Impact of Governance and Regulation," NBER Working Papers 15180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. North, Douglass C, 1994. "Economic Performance through Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 359-368, June.
    12. Azmat Gani, 2012. "The Relationship Between Good Governance And Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Evidence From Developing Economies," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 77-93, March.
    13. Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2011. "The impact of financial development on carbon emissions: An empirical analysis in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 2197-2203, April.
    14. Kate Ivanova, 2011. "Corruption and air pollution in Europe," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 63(1), pages 49-70, January.
    15. Omri, Anis & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Rault, Christophe, 2014. "Causal interactions between CO2 emissions, FDI, and economic growth: Evidence from dynamic simultaneous-equation models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 382-389.
    16. Abdioglu, Nida & Khurshed, Arif & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos, 2013. "Foreign institutional investment: Is governance quality at home important?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 916-940.
    17. Omri, Anis & Daly, Saida & Rault, Christophe & Chaibi, Anissa, 2015. "Financial development, environmental quality, trade and economic growth: What causes what in MENA countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 242-252.
    18. Michael Greenstone & John A. List & Chad Syverson, 2011. "The Effects of Environmental Regulation on the Competiveness of U.S. Manufacturing," Working Papers 11-03, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    19. Esty, Daniel C. & Porter, Michael E., 2005. "National environmental performance: an empirical analysis of policy results and determinants," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 391-434, August.
    20. Sun, J.W., 2006. "An alternative viewpoint on the forecasting of energy-related CO2 emissions in the OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 377-382, March.
    21. Concetta Castiglione & Davide Infante & Janna Smirnova, 2012. "Rule of law and the environmental Kuznets curve: evidence for carbon emissions," International Journal of Sustainable Economy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(3), pages 254-269.
    22. Herrala, Risto & Goel, Rajeev K., 2012. "Global CO2 efficiency: Country-wise estimates using a stochastic cost frontier," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 762-770.
    23. Cole, Matthew A. & Elliott, Robert J. R., 2003. "Determining the trade-environment composition effect: the role of capital, labor and environmental regulations," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 363-383, November.
    24. Katrin Millock & Natalia Zugravu & Gérard Duchene, 2008. "The Factors Behind CO2 Emission Reduction in Transition Economies," Working Papers 2008.58, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    25. Goel, Rajeev K. & Herrala, Risto & Mazhar, Ummad, 2013. "Institutional quality and environmental pollution: MENA countries versus the rest of the world," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 508-521.
    26. Tamazian, Artur & Chousa, Juan Piñeiro & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2009. "Does higher economic and financial development lead to environmental degradation: Evidence from BRIC countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 246-253, January.
    27. Werner Antweiler & Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2001. "Is Free Trade Good for the Environment?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 877-908, September.
    28. Sadorsky, Perry, 2010. "The impact of financial development on energy consumption in emerging economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2528-2535, May.
    29. Bartleet, Matthew & Gounder, Rukmani, 2010. "Energy consumption and economic growth in New Zealand: Results of trivariate and multivariate models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3508-3517, July.
    30. Esty, Daniel C. & Porter, Michael E., 2005. "National environmental performance: an empirical analysis of policy results and determinants," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 381-389, August.
    31. Mr. Muthukumara Mani & Mr. Per G. Fredriksson, 2002. "The Rule of Law and the Pattern of Environment Protection," IMF Working Papers 2002/049, International Monetary Fund.
    32. 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.
    33. Kevin Sylwester, 2008. "Foreign Aid and Urbanization in Developing Countries," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 7(2), pages 153-166, August.
    34. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2010. "The worldwide governance indicators : methodology and analytical issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5430, The World Bank.
    35. Shunsuke Managi & SJames J. Opaluch & Di Jin & Thomas A. Grigalunas, 2005. "Environmental Regulations and Technological Change in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 81(2).
    36. Fredriksson, Per G. & Svensson, Jakob, 2003. "Political instability, corruption and policy formation: the case of environmental policy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1383-1405, August.
    37. Jalilian, Hossein & Kirkpatrick, Colin & Parker, David, 2007. "The Impact of Regulation on Economic Growth in Developing Countries: A Cross-Country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 87-103, January.
    38. Thomas Bernauer & Vally Koubi, 2013. "Are bigger governments better providers of public goods? Evidence from air pollution," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 593-609, September.
    39. Omri, Anis & Kahouli, Bassem, 2014. "Causal relationships between energy consumption, foreign direct investment and economic growth: Fresh evidence from dynamic simultaneous-equations models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 913-922.
    40. Goel, Rajeev K & Nelson, Michael A, 1998. "Corruption and Government Size: A Disaggregated Analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 97(1-2), pages 107-120, October.
    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. Mai T. T. Tran & Christopher Gan & Baiding Hu, 2019. "Impacts of Trade Liberalisation on CO2 Emissions in Vietnam," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 18(3), pages 265-286, December.
    2. Haider Mahmood & Awad Ali Alanzi, 2020. "Rule of Law and Environment Nexus in Saudi Arabia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(5), pages 7-12.
    3. Botetzagias, Iosif & Tsagkari, Marouko & Malesios, Chrisovaladis, 2018. "Is the ‘Troika’ Bad for the Environment? An Analysis of EU Countries' Environmental Performance in Times of Economic Downturn and Austerity Memoranda," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 34-51.

    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. Arminen, Heli & Menegaki, Angeliki N., 2019. "Corruption, climate and the energy-environment-growth nexus," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 621-634.
    2. Omri, Anis & Daly, Saida & Rault, Christophe & Chaibi, Anissa, 2015. "Financial development, environmental quality, trade and economic growth: What causes what in MENA countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 242-252.
    3. Panteli Maria & Delipalla Sofia, 2022. "The Impact of Institutions on Economic and Environmental Performance: Evidence From Europe," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 17(2), pages 125-141, December.
    4. Mumin Atalay Cetin & Ibrahim Bakirtas, 2020. "The long-run environmental impacts of economic growth, financial development, and energy consumption: Evidence from emerging markets," Energy & Environment, , vol. 31(4), pages 634-655, June.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Acheampong, Alex O., 2019. "Modelling for insight: Does financial development improve environmental quality?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 156-179.
    8. 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.
    9. Xiaoxia Shi & Haiyun Liu & Joshua Sunday Riti, 2019. "The role of energy mix and financial development in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions’ reduction: evidence from ten leading CO2 emitting countries," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 36(3), pages 695-729, October.
    10. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasir, Muhammad Ali & Roubaud, David, 2018. "Environmental degradation in France: The effects of FDI, financial development, and energy innovations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 843-857.
    11. Abid, Mehdi, 2016. "Impact of economic, financial, and institutional factors on CO2 emissions: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa economies," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 85-94.
    12. Aller, Carlos & Ductor, Lorenzo & Grechyna, Daryna, 2021. "Robust determinants of CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    13. Ahmed Imran Hunjra & Tahar Tayachi & Muhammad Irfan Chani & Peter Verhoeven & Asad Mehmood, 2020. "The Moderating Effect of Institutional Quality on the Financial Development and Environmental Quality Nexus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-13, May.
    14. 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.
    15. Nasreen, Samia & Anwar, Sofia & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2017. "Financial stability, energy consumption and environmental quality: Evidence from South Asian economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1105-1122.
    16. Maurizio Lisciandra & Carlo Migliardo, 2017. "An Empirical Study of the Impact of Corruption on Environmental Performance: Evidence from Panel Data," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(2), pages 297-318, October.
    17. Shouro Dasgupta & Enrica De Cian, 2016. "Institutions and the Environment: Existing Evidence and Future Directions," Working Papers 2016.41, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    18. Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Kumar, Ronald Ravinesh & Zakaria, Muhammad & Hurr, Maryam, 2017. "Carbon emission, energy consumption, trade openness and financial development in Pakistan: A revisit," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 185-192.
    19. Mansor H. Ibrahim, 2018. "Trade–finance complementarity and carbon emission intensity: panel evidence from middle-income countries," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 489-500, December.
    20. Aida Sy & Tony Tinker & Abdelkader Derbali & Lamia Jamel, 2016. "Economic growth, financial development, trade openness, and CO 2 emissions in European countries," African Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(2), pages 155-179.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    institutional quality; air pollution; fine particulate matter; trade openness; corruption;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F33 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ijb:journl:v:16:y:2017:i:1:p:49-74. 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: Szu-Hsien Ho (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbfcutw.html .

    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.