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Asymmetric openness-environment nexus in most open OIC countries: new evidence from quantile-on-quantile (QQ) estimation

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Abstract

Trade openness continues to have the potential to influence many parts of today’s society, including religion, transportation, lifestyle, language, and international relations; however, its ability to impact environmental quality is the primary issue for environmental policy guidelines. In response to an increasing interest in finding the dynamic association between trade openness and environmental quality, the current study explores the trade openness- environmental quality nexus in the ten most open Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries for the years 1991 to 2018. By taking CO2 emissions and ecological footprint as environmental indicators, a novel methodology “quantile-on-quantile (QQ)” is used to indicate how different quantiles of trade openness asymmetrically affect the quantiles of environmental indicators by providing an adequate pattern to comprehend the overall dependence structure. A negative openness-CO2 emissions association is dominant in seven out of ten selected OIC countries (i.e., Suriname, Malaysia, Jordan, UAE, Libya, Brunei, and Qatar). On the other hand, a positive impact of trade openness on ecological footprint is dominant in eight out of ten selected OIC countries (i.e., Oman, Jordan, UAE, Libya, Bahrain, Brunei, Qatar, and Kuwait). The outcomes indicate that the asymmetric strength of openness-induced environmental quality differs with countries at both upper and bottom quantiles of data distribution that need specific attention in contending trade and environment policies in OIC countries.

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Data availability

The datasets used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. General Agreement of Trade and Tariffs (GATT) entered into force in 1948, while the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995 by replacing GATT.

  2. Metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

  3. North American Free Trade Agreement.

  4. Malaysia, Oman, Suriname, Jordan, The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Libya, Brunei, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait.

  5. Augmented Dicky-Fuller unit root test.

  6. We have checked various alternative bandwidth values but the qualitative outcomes remain the same.

  7. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was implemented on 21 March 1994. The main purpose of this agreement is to reduce GHG emissions in the environment.

  8. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) became effective on 26 December 1996 to mitigate the effects of drought and combat desertification through national action programs.

  9. The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that was made in Kyoto (Japan) on 11 December 1997. It extends the UNFCCC to persuade its members to reduce GHG emissions.

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Acknowledgements

Muhammad Saeed Meo acknowledges that this paper has been supported by the RUDN University Strategic Leadership Program. Sajid Ali acknowledges that a significant portion of this paper is extracted from his PhD thesis in Economics from School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra, Malaysia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia

    Sajid Ali & Zulkornain Yusop

  2. School of Economics, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan

    Sajid Ali

  3. Putra Business School, UPM, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia

    Zulkornain Yusop

  4. Department of Management Sciences, The Superior University, Lahore, Pakistan

    Muhammad Saeed Meo

  5. Lab for Gas, Technology and Sustainable Development, RUDN University, Moscow, Russia

    Muhammad Saeed Meo

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  1. Sajid Ali
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  2. Zulkornain Yusop
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Contributions

SA: conceptualization, data analysis, writing—original draft; ZY: writing—methodology and supervision; MSM: review, writing—original draft

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Correspondence to Sajid Ali.

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Ali, S., Yusop, Z. & Meo, M.S. Asymmetric openness-environment nexus in most open OIC countries: new evidence from quantile-on-quantile (QQ) estimation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 26352–26370 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17473-8

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