The spatial analysis of green economy indicators of OECD countries

Abstract

The present study aims to examine the effect of the geographical location relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution. For this purpose, the spatial relationship between the variable CO2 emission and the variables energy consumption (ENC), real GDP per capita (GDP), urbanization rate (URB), and trade liberalization (DAE) was investigated by using the data of 37 OECD countries for the period of 1990–2015. The geographical location relationship was determined by using LISA (Local Indicators of Spatial Association) analysis, which is one of the spatial autocorrelation analysis methods. Spatial distribution maps were prepared. Considering the years determined according to Moran I index results, a gradually increasing positive autocorrelation was found for CO2 and ENC variables and a low increasing positive correlation for DAE and GDP variables. For the variable URB, a low increasing positive autocorrelation was found for the year 1990 and a high increasing positive autocorrelation for the year 2015. Then, using the LISA clustering maps, the relationships between the countries were clustered as low, high, and non-related. As a result of this study, given the spatial analysis results, the effect of energy consumption on the carbon emission was found to be positive in general. Increases in trade liberalization increased carbon emissions in some countries and decreased it in some others. On the other hand, increases in the urbanization rate decreased carbon emissions in some countries and had a positive effect in some others. The trade openness index was found to have a generally negative effect on the carbon emission. Within the scope of this study, Spatial Regression Analysis was conducted separately for the years 1990 and 2015. In this analysis, CO2 is the dependent variable, whereas ENC, GDP, URB, and DAE are independent variables. Given the results of spatial regression analysis, it was found that ENC, GDP, and DAE variables have a positive relationship with the CO2 variable. It was determined that there was no significant relationship between URB and CO2. Considering the results achieved, it could be possible to observe the increasing and decreasing effects of variables, which were examined here, on the CO2 emissions.