Unemployment Rate, Clean Energy And Ecological Footprint In OECD Countries

Abstract

OECD countries have encountered the challenges of improving the environmental sustainability while maintaining economic growth by not impairing employment. Designing green policies with the consideration of clean energy is claimed to resolve the mentioned challenges. This study attempts to reexamine the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by using ecological footprint as an indicator of environmental degradation. Besides, our study aims to test the validity of environmental Phillips curve and role of clean energy on ecological footprint. Our data cover a panel of 36 OECD countries from 1995-2015. We adopt the second generation panel unit root and cointegration test to account for the presence of cross section dependence (CSD). Moreover, the long-run relationship is estimated using Common Correlated Effect Mean Group (CCEMG) and Augmented Mean Group (AMG) that are robust to CSD. Our results are able to provide valuable insights for environmental policy recommendations in OECD countries.

The role of green ICT on ecological footprint: Does environmental regulation work?

“…Our negative impact nding of IND on EF is also different from Saud et al (2020) that IND spurs resource consumption and environmental deterioration. Our UMP nding is similar to Ng et al (2022) for the existence of a negative association between UMP and environmental degradation. In sum, the GICT-induced EKC hypothesis is partially supported by H3, in that GICT has an inverted U-shape link with EF.…”

“…This result thus indicates these EFs support the EKC hypothesis and are consistent with the theoretical expectation that argues GICT leads to environmental sustainability. Generally, our UMP nding is similar to Ng et al (2022) in that a negative relationship exists between UMP and environmental degradation. In sum, the GICTinduced EKC hypothesis partially supports H2, whereby GICT has an inverted U-shape link with EF.…”

“…Shahnazi and Shabani (2020) nd that ICT plays both negative and positive roles in tackling environmental challenges. This study suggests the relationship between the GICT and EF nexus is different under different EF quantiles and EF types Ng et al (2022). in that a negative correlation exists between UMP and environmental degradation.…”

The heterogeneous effect of economic growth on the ecological footprint in OECD countries

“…In addition to carbon dioxide research, other research employed ecological footprints (EF) to measure of environmental deterioration recently. For instance, the study by [8] utilise data covering a panel of 36 OECD nations from 1995 to 2015, examine the "Environmental Phillips Curve" (EPC) and the influence of clean energy to EF. Their result indicates the compromise of unemployment or environmental deterioration, but new technology improvement, particularly in the clean energy industry, might be a crucial contributor in achieving long-term growth and improved quality of the environment.…”