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Economic Development and Pesticide Use in EU Agriculture: A Nonlinear Panel Data Autoregressive Distributed Lag Approach

Author

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  • Eleni Zafeiriou

    (Department of Agricultural Development, School of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, 68200 Orestiada, Greece)

  • Christos Karelakis

    (Department of Agricultural Development, School of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, 68200 Orestiada, Greece)

  • Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso

    (Department of Economics, University of Goettingen, Platz der Goettinger Sieben 3, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
    Department of Economics, Instituto de Economía Internacional, Universitat Jaume I, 12080 Castellón, Spain)

  • Konstantinos Galanopoulos

    (Department of Agricultural Development, School of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, 68200 Orestiada, Greece)

  • Dimitra Gkika

    (Department of Agricultural Development, School of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, 68200 Orestiada, Greece)

Abstract

Within the regime established by the Directive on Sustainable Use of Pesticides (SUDP); the present work explores the relationship between pesticides’ agricultural use per hectare of cropland and the GDP per capita of the rural population for twenty-five EU countries to unveil the efficiency of the current EU strategy. With the econometric tool of panel nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) cointegration technique; we try to capture potential asymmetries in the agricultural use of pesticides concerning positive and negative variations in agricultural income. The findings validate the existence of a long-run relationship that supports an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC); i.e., an inverted U-shaped relationship between the variables; since increasing agricultural income is related to reductions in the use of pesticides after the turning point. Even though this result is not validated in the short run; our findings confirm the existence of a steady-state situation with asymmetric responses to pesticides. In terms of policy implications; more measures need to be taken; along with the education of farmers; aiming to enhance their consciousness towards environmental issues and; in consequence; for them to prefer environmentally friendly plant protection methods over chemical ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Eleni Zafeiriou & Christos Karelakis & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Konstantinos Galanopoulos & Dimitra Gkika, 2023. "Economic Development and Pesticide Use in EU Agriculture: A Nonlinear Panel Data Autoregressive Distributed Lag Approach," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-22, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:9:p:1693-:d:1226802
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    References listed on IDEAS

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