IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v143y2021ics136403212100191x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental sustainability and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: A modified EKC hypothesis

Author

Listed:
  • Tenaw, Dagmawe
  • Beyene, Abebe D.

Abstract

Despite numerous studies of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), the evidence is still inconclusive and little has been done to capture the issue of environmental sustainability and welfare aspects of growth in the EKC relationship. Accordingly, this paper aims to investigate the environment-development linkage under a sustainability-oriented EKC framework in 20 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries for the period from 1990 to 2015. The Common Correlated Effects version of Pooled Mean Group Estimator (CCE-PMG) in the context of error-correction based panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model augmented with cross-sectional averages was employed as a preferred estimation technique. The study also used an appropriate U test to check the presence of genuine inverted U-shaped EKC relationship. The results confirm the existence of a modified EKC hypothesis in SSA, but the linkage depends on the extent of endowment of natural resources. Among the growth-related factors, energy consumption and trade openness are found to have a long run detrimental effect on the environment. The study suggests that country's effort for economic development needs to be accompanied by appropriate policy options to ensure environmental sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Tenaw, Dagmawe & Beyene, Abebe D., 2021. "Environmental sustainability and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: A modified EKC hypothesis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:143:y:2021:i:c:s136403212100191x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.110897
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136403212100191X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110897?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Valeria Costantini & Chiara Martini, 2010. "A Modified Environmental Kuznets Curve for sustainable development assessment using panel data," International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(1/2), pages 84-122.
    2. Holly, Sean & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Yamagata, Takashi, 2010. "A spatio-temporal model of house prices in the USA," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 158(1), pages 160-173, September.
    3. Viktoriia Koilo, 2019. "Evidence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve: Unleashing the Opportunity of Industry 4.0 in Emerging Economies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Roberto Martino & Phu Nguyen-Van, 2016. "Environmental Kuznets curve and environmental convergence: A unified empirical framework for CO2 emissions," Working Papers of BETA 2016-18, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    5. Kolawole Ogundari & Adebola Abimbola Ademuwagun & Olajide Abraham Ajao, 2017. "Revisiting Environmental Kuznets Curve in Sub-Sahara Africa," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(2), pages 222-231, February.
    6. 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.
    7. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    8. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2007. "A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 265-312.
    9. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Smith, Ron, 1995. "Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 79-113, July.
    10. William Brock & M. Taylor, 2010. "The Green Solow model," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 127-153, June.
    11. Frank Adusah-Poku, 2016. "Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Urbanization and Population: Empirical Evidence in Sub Saharan Africa," Energy Economics Letters, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(1), pages 1-16, March.
    12. Esteve, Vicente & Tamarit, Cecilio, 2012. "Threshold cointegration and nonlinear adjustment between CO2 and income: The Environmental Kuznets Curve in Spain, 1857–2007," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 2148-2156.
    13. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2021. "General diagnostic tests for cross-sectional dependence in panels," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 13-50, January.
    14. Azam, Muhammad, 2016. "Does environmental degradation shackle economic growth? A panel data investigation on 11 Asian countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 175-182.
    15. Jo Thori Lind & Halvor Mehlum, 2010. "With or Without U? The Appropriate Test for a U‐Shaped Relationship," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(1), pages 109-118, February.
    16. Tiago V. De V. Cavalcanti & Kamiar Mohaddes & Mehdi Raissi, 2015. "Commodity Price Volatility and the Sources of Growth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 857-873, September.
    17. Frank Adusah-Poku, 2016. "Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Urbanization and Population: Empirical Evidence in Sub Saharan Africa," Energy Economics Letters, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(1), pages 1-16.
    18. Farhani, Sahbi & Mrizak, Sana & Chaibi, Anissa & Rault, Christophe, 2014. "The environmental Kuznets curve and sustainability: A panel data analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 189-198.
    19. Baumann, Ursel & Albuquerque, Bruno & Krustev, Georgi, 2014. "Has US household deleveraging ended? a model-based estimate of equilibrium debt," Working Paper Series 1643, European Central Bank.
    20. Churchill, Sefa Awaworyi & Inekwe, John & Ivanovski, Kris & Smyth, Russell, 2018. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve in the OECD: 1870–2014," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 389-399.
    21. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Mutascu, Mihai & Azim, Parvez, 2013. "Environmental Kuznets curve in Romania and the role of energy consumption," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 165-173.
    22. Panayotou T., 1993. "Empirical tests and policy analysis of environmental degradation at different stages of economic development," ILO Working Papers 992927783402676, International Labour Organization.
    23. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2015. "Testing Weak Cross-Sectional Dependence in Large Panels," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6-10), pages 1089-1117, December.
    24. Omotunde E. G. Johnson, 2020. "Financial Sector Development in African Countries," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-32938-9, June.
    25. Richard F. J. Haans & Constant Pieters & Zi-Lin He, 2016. "Thinking about U: Theorizing and testing U- and inverted U-shaped relationships in strategy research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(7), pages 1177-1195, July.
    26. Samargandi, Nahla & Fidrmuc, Jan & Ghosh, Sugata, 2015. "Is the Relationship Between Financial Development and Economic Growth Monotonic? Evidence from a Sample of Middle-Income Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 66-81.
    27. Kijima, Masaaki & Nishide, Katsumasa & Ohyama, Atsuyuki, 2010. "Economic models for the environmental Kuznets curve: A survey," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1187-1201, July.
    28. Nutnaree Maneejuk & Sutthipat Ratchakom & Paravee Maneejuk & Woraphon Yamaka, 2020. "Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve Exist? An International Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-22, November.
    29. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2006. "Estimation and Inference in Large Heterogeneous Panels with a Multifactor Error Structure," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(4), pages 967-1012, July.
    30. Twerefou Daniel Kwabena & Bekoe William & Adusah-Poku Frank, 2016. "An empirical examination of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana: an ARDL approach," Environmental & Socio-economic Studies, Sciendo, vol. 4(4), pages 1-12, December.
    31. Alexandra Soberon & Irene D’Hers, 2020. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Semiparametric Approach with Cross-Sectional Dependence," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-23, November.
    32. Prof Dr.Abdul Ghafoor Awan, 2013. "Relationship between Environment and Sustainable Economic Development: A Theoretical Approach to Environmental Problems," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(3), pages 741-761, March.
    33. 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.
    34. Al-Mulali, Usama & Saboori, Behnaz & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2015. "Investigating the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in Vietnam," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 123-131.
    35. Ogundipe, Adeyemi & Alege, Philip & Ogundipe, Oluwatomisin, 2014. "Income Heterogeneity and Environmental Kuznets Curve in Africa," MPRA Paper 55822, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    36. Abdul Ghafoor Awan, 2013. "Relationship between Environment and Sustainable Economic Development: A Theoretical Approach to Environmental Problems," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(3), pages 741-761.
    37. Kivyiro, Pendo & Arminen, Heli, 2014. "Carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, economic growth, and foreign direct investment: Causality analysis for Sub-Saharan Africa," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 595-606.
    38. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2005. "A theoretical basis for the environmental Kuznets curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 403-413, May.
    39. Muhammad, Shahbaz & Adebola Solarin, Solarin & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2016. "Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and the role of globalization in selected African countries," MPRA Paper 69859, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Mar 2016.
    40. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 431-455, August.
    41. Solomon Aboagye, 2017. "Economic Expansion and Environmental Sustainability Nexus in Ghana," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(2), pages 155-168, June.
    42. Shafik, Nemat & Bandyopadhyay, Sushenjit, 1992. "Economic growth and environmental quality : time series and cross-country evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 904, The World Bank.
    43. Rina Bhattacharya & Katja Mann & Mwanza Nkusu, 2019. "Estimating the demand for reserve assets across diverse groups of countries," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 822-853, August.
    44. Sahbi Farhani & Sana Mrizak & Anissa Chaibi & Christophe Rault, 2014. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve and Sustainability: A Panel Data Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 4787, CESifo.
    45. Apergis, Nicholas, 2016. "Environmental Kuznets curves: New evidence on both panel and country-level CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 263-271.
    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. Ofori, Isaac K. & Gbolonyo, Emmanuel Y. & Ojong, Nathanael, 2023. "Foreign direct investment and inclusive green growth in Africa: Energy efficiency contingencies and thresholds," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    2. Chen, Jie & Huang, Shoujun & Ajaz, Tahseen, 2022. "Natural resources management and technological innovation under EKC framework: A glimmer of hope for sustainable environment in newly industrialized countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Liu, Yang & Dong, Kangyin & Jiang, Qingzhe, 2023. "Assessing energy vulnerability and its impact on carbon emissions: A global case," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    4. Ali, Mumtaz & Tursoy, Turgut & Samour, Ahmed & Moyo, Delani & Konneh, Abrahim, 2022. "Testing the impact of the gold price, oil price, and renewable energy on carbon emissions in South Africa: Novel evidence from bootstrap ARDL and NARDL approaches," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Obobisa, Emma Serwaa, 2022. "Achieving 1.5 °C and net-zero emissions target: The role of renewable energy and financial development," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 967-985.
    6. Murshed, Muntasir & Apergis, Nicholas & Alam, Md Shabbir & Khan, Uzma & Mahmud, Sakib, 2022. "The impacts of renewable energy, financial inclusivity, globalization, economic growth, and urbanization on carbon productivity: Evidence from net moderation and mediation effects of energy efficiency," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 824-838.
    7. Jahanger, Atif & Usman, Muhammad & Murshed, Muntasir & Mahmood, Haider & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel, 2022. "The linkages between natural resources, human capital, globalization, economic growth, financial development, and ecological footprint: The moderating role of technological innovations," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Jahanger, Atif & Yu, Yang & Hossain, Mohammad Razib & Murshed, Muntasir & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Khan, Uzma, 2022. "Going away or going green in NAFTA nations? Linking natural resources, energy utilization, and environmental sustainability through the lens of the EKC hypothesis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Yubin Zhao & Shuguang Liu, 2023. "Effects of Climate Change on Economic Growth: A Perspective of the Heterogeneous Climate Regions in Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-22, April.
    10. Liu, Xiao & Hang, Ye & Wang, Qunwei & Chiu, Ching-Ren & Zhou, Dequn, 2022. "The role of energy consumption in global carbon intensity change: A meta-frontier-based production-theoretical decomposition analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    11. Rahman, Mohammad Mafizur & Alam, Khosrul, 2022. "Effects of corruption, technological innovation, globalisation, and renewable energy on carbon emissions in Asian countries," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Pei-Zhi Liu & Seema Narayan & Yi-Shuai Ren & Yong Jiang & Konstantinos Baltas & Basil Sharp, 2022. "Re-Examining the Income–CO 2 Emissions Nexus Using the New Kink Regression Model: Does the Kuznets Curve Exist in G7 Countries?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-18, March.

    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. Muhammad Shahbaz & Avik Sinha, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2emissions: a literature survey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(1), pages 106-168, January.
    2. Lazăr, Dorina & Minea, Alexandru & Purcel, Alexandra-Anca, 2019. "Pollution and economic growth: Evidence from Central and Eastern European countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1121-1131.
    3. Alexandra-Anca Purcel, 2020. "New insights into the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in developing and transition economies: a literature survey," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 22(4), pages 585-631, October.
    4. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Inekwe, John & Ivanovski, Kris & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve across Australian states and territories," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Mehmet Akif, Destek & Muhammad, Shahbaz & Ilyas, Okumus & Shawkat, Hammoudeh & Avik, Sinha, 2020. "The relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions in G-7 countries: evidence from time-varying parameters with a long history," MPRA Paper 100514, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Apr 2020.
    6. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets Curve for CO2 emission: A survey of empirical literature," MPRA Paper 100257, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2019.
    7. Azam, Muhammad & Khan, Abdul Qayyum, 2016. "Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis: A comparative empirical study for low, lower middle, upper middle and high income countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 556-567.
    8. Aslan, Alper & Destek, Mehmet Akif & Okumus, İlyas, 2017. "Bootstrap Rolling Window Estimation Approach to Analysis of the Environment Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: Evidence from the United States," MPRA Paper 106883, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Muhammad Bilal Khan & Hummera Saleem & Malik Shahzad Shabbir & Xie Huobao, 2022. "The effects of globalization, energy consumption and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in South Asian countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(1), pages 107-134, February.
    10. Lars Sorge & Anne Neumann, 2017. "The Nexus of CO2 Emissions, Energy Consumption, Economic Growth, and Trade-Openness in WTO Countries," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1699, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Gorus, Muhammed Sehid & Aslan, Murat, 2019. "Impacts of economic indicators on environmental degradation: Evidence from MENA countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 259-268.
    12. Bouznit, Mohammed & Pablo-Romero, María del P., 2016. "CO2 emission and economic growth in Algeria," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 93-104.
    13. Ali Acaravci & Guray Akalin, 2017. "Environment economic Growth Nexus: A Comparative Analysis of Developed and Developing Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 7(5), pages 34-43.
    14. Jeyhun I. Mikayilov & Marzio Galeotti & Fakhri J. Hasanov, 2018. "The Impact of Economic Growth on CO2 Emissions in Azerbaijan," IEFE Working Papers 102, IEFE, Center for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    15. Mrabet, Zouhair & Alsamara, Mouyad & Mimouni, Karim & Mnasri, Ayman, 2021. "Can human development and political stability improve environmental quality? New evidence from the MENA region," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 28-44.
    16. Hatem M'henni & Mohamed El Hedi Arouri & Adel Ben Youssef & Christophe Rault, 2011. "Income Level and Environmental Quality in The MENA Countries: Discussing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis," Working Papers 587, Economic Research Forum, revised 05 Jan 2011.
    17. Sabrina Auci & Giovanni Trovato, 2018. "The environmental Kuznets curve within European countries and sectors: greenhouse emission, production function and technology," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(3), pages 895-915, December.
    18. Aslan, Alper & Destek, Mehmet Akif & Okumus, İlyas, 2017. "Sectoral carbon emissions and economic growth in the US: Further evidence from rolling window estimation method," MPRA Paper 106961, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Alexandra Soberon & Irene D’Hers, 2020. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Semiparametric Approach with Cross-Sectional Dependence," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-23, November.
    20. Maralgua Och, 2017. "Empirical Investigation of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis for Nitrous Oxide Emissions for Mongolia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 7(1), pages 117-128.

    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:eee:rensus:v:143:y:2021:i:c:s136403212100191x. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    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.