Examining the Validity of EKC in Western Africa: Different Pollutants Option

Abstract

The Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesized pollution as a monotonic function of income which implies that as an economy develops, pollution level starts to increase but reaching a certain threshold the relation reverses. This study investigates the relationship between GDP per capita income and environmental degradation in Western Africa region using panel data analysis for the period 1990-2012. Our specific objective was to estimate EKC for four indicators of environmental quality such as CO 2 emissions, Suspended particulate matter (PM10), lack of access to sanitation facilities and lack of access to safe drinking water; and establish whether these pollutants exhibit an inverted u-shape function. Likewise, we subject our estimated relationship to sensitivity checks to ensure robustness to changes in assumption Environmental Management and Sustainable Development ISSN 2164-7682 2015 www.macrothink.org/emsd 70 and estimation techniques, an aspect inherently lacking in most EKC literature. The study could not find an unambiguous evidence of an inverted u-shaped relationship for CO 2 emissions while the other point source pollutants confirmed the EKC theory. We subjected our estimation to further robustness checks by ascertaining the statistical properties of the variables used and examined the long run sustainability; results were found to be consistent and suitable for policy inferences.

Environmental pollution, economic growth and institutional quality: exploring the nexus in Nigeria

“…Following Song et al (2008) and Ogundipe et al (2015), the theoretical interpretation of the sign and relationship of the parameters are shown as follows: β 1 >0, β 2 =0, it indicates linear shape and monotonically increasing function. As income rises, environmental pressure increases. β 1 <0, β 2 =0, it indicates linear shape and monotonically decreasing function.…”

Social Protection and Agricultural Production in ECOWAS: The Youth Unemployment Question

“…The econometric method applied in this study is in three major parts: Firstly, the usual way of time series dataset was taken by checking for the level of stationarity. Given that study engaged a panel dataset whose analysis differs from Univariate unit root testing, the method of Ogundipe et al (2015) was also followed by using three statistical means, which are: Levin, Lim & Chu (LLC), Hadri LM and Im, Pesaran & Shin (IPS). Secondly, the study test for the presence of panel co-integration to determine the long-run relationship between youth unemployment, agriculture production and social protection in ECOWAS sub-region, the variables engaged are presented in Table 2:…”

Environmental Degradation and Nigeria’s Macroeconomic Space

“…Employing GDP per capita, literacy rate, population density, trade Environmental Management and Sustainable Development ISSN 2164-7682 2018 openness and a measure of institutional quality, the available result from their estimation procedure re-established the existence of the EKC hypothesis in the studied economies. Again, Ogundipe, Olurinola and Odebiyi (2015) investigated the link that exists between per capita income and environmental pollution in the West Africa sub region in a panel study framework with data for the period of 1990 to 2012. Their specific objective was to estimate EKC for four indicators of environmental quality such as CO2emissions, Suspended particulate matter, lack of access to sanitation infrastructure and lack of adequate drinking that is safe and confirm if the pollutants indicates an inverted u-shape relationship.…”