Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The impacts of governance on environmental pollution in some countries of Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa: the evidence from panel quantile regression and causality

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Governance is one of the basic determinants of pollution levels through property rights, the effective judicial system, etc. it is accepted as that bad governance because of inefficient regulatory structures, government bureaucracy, weak law enforcement, etc. support environmental pollution. In this context, in some countries of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, it will be studied the impacts of governance on environmental pollution over the period of 1996–2018 by the panel quantile and Granger causality methods. The countries were selected by considering two different measurements, EPI (2020) index and governance index (2020). According to EPI (2020), these countries have low scores in terms of environmental quality, and in the governance index (2020), they have bad governance scores. In this study, in which panel quantile regression model is used, control variables are included in the model to prevent omitted-variable bias. The results of the analysis determined that the effect of governance on carbon emissions is positive, as well as that the effects of independent variables on CO2 emission are heterogeneous across quantities. Panel quantile regression revealed the evidence of the relation among the environmental pollution, two parameters of governance, FDI, financial development, human development index, and trade openness used as the explanatory variable and determined that government has the greatest positive effect on CO2 emission. On the other hand, by using traditional Granger causality and Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality methods, it was found the evidence of causality among governance and environmental pollution in the context of two parameters of governance. Accordingly, it was determined the evidence of unidirectional causality relation from political governance to environmental pollution and besides from economic governance to environmental pollution. And it was determined the evidence of unidirectional causality from FDI and the other explanatory variables to environmental pollution.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of data and materials

All data are received from official source.

Notes

  1. They showed that the economic development tends to accelerate environmental pollution problems once a certain GDP per capita level is reached.

  2. R, eviews and Stata programmes were employed to solve panel methods

References

  • Abid M (2016) Impact of economic, financial, and institutional factors on CO2emissions: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa economies. Util Policy 41:85–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adedoyin F, Ozturk I, Abubakar I, Kumeka T, Folarin O, Bekun FV (2020a) Structural breaks in CO2 emissions: are they caused by climate change protests or other factors? J Environ Manag 266:110628

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Adedoyin F, Gumede MI, Bekun FV, Etokakpan MU, Balsalobre-Lorente D (2020b) Modelling coal rent, economic growth and CO 2 emissions: does regulatory quality matter in BRICS economies? Sci Total Environ 710:136284

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Adedoyin F, Ozturk I, Agboola MO, Agboola PO, Bekun FV (2021) The implications of renewable and non-renewable energy generating in Sub-Saharan Africa: the role of economic policy uncertainties. Energy Policy 150:112115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alexander M, Harding M, Lamarche C (2011) Quantile regression for time-series cross section data. Int J Stat Manag Syst 6(1–2):47–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Ang JB (2007) CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and output in France. Energ Policy 35:4772–4778

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baloch MA, Ozturk I, Bekun FV, Khan D (2021) Modeling the dynamic linkage between financial development, energy innovation, and environmental quality: does globalization matter? Bus Strateg Environ 30:176–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baltagi BH, Feng Q, Kao C (2012) A Lagrange multiplier test for cross-sectional dependence in a fixed effects panel data model. J Econ 170(1):164–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bera, Galvao AK, Montes-Rojas AF, Park GV, Sung Y (2016) asymmetric Laplace regression: maximum likelihood, maximum entropy and quantile regression. J Econom Methods 5:79–101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernauer T, Koubi V (2009) Effects of political institutions on air quality. Ecol Econ 68:1355–1365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhattarai M, Hammig M (2004) Governance, economic policy, and the environmental Kuznets curve for natural tropical forests. Environ and Dev Economics 9(3):367–382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bokpin GA, Mensah L, Asamoah ME (2015) Foreign direct investment and natural resources in Africa. J Econ Stud 42(4):608–621

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bokpin GA, Mensah L, Asamoah ME (2017) Legal source, institutional quality and FDI flows in Africa. Int J Law Manag 59(5):687–698

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breusch T, Pagan A (1980) 1980, The LM test and its application to model specification in econometrics. Rev Econ Stud 47:239–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen W, Lei Y (2018) The impacts of renewable energy and technological innovation on environment-energy-growth nexus: new evidence from a panel quantile regression. Renew Energy 123:1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen X, Liu W, Zhang Y (2019) Quantile regression under memory constraint. Ann Stat 47(6):3244–3273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clapp J, Dauvergne P (2005) Paths to a Green World: the Political Economy of the Global Environment. MIT Press, Cambridge

  • Cole MA (2007) Corruption, income and the environment: an empirical analysis. Ecol Econ 62(3–4):637–647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole MA, Fredriksson PG (2009) Institutionalized pollution havens. Ecol Econ 68(4):1239–1256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Copeland, Taylor (1994) North-south Trade and the Environment. Q J Econ 109(3):755–787

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damania R, Fredriksson PG, List JA (2003) Trade liberalization, corruption, and environmental policy formation: theory and evidence. J Environ Econ Manag 46(3):490–512

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damette O, Delacote P (2012) On the economic factors of deforestation: what can we learn from quantile analysis? Econ. Model. 29(6):2427–2434

    Google Scholar 

  • Danish, Baloch MA, Wang B (2019) Analyzing the role of governance in CO2 emissions mitigation: the BRICS experience. Struct Chang Econ Dyn 51:119–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Desaii U (1998) Ecological policy and politics in developing countries: economic growth, democracy, and environment (Suny series in international environmental policy and theory). State University of New York Press, Albany

    Google Scholar 

  • Desbordes R, Vauday J (2007) The political influence of foreign firms in developing countries. Econ Polit 19(3):421–451

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dryzek JS (1987) Rational ecology: environment and political economy. Oxford & New York: Blackwell

  • Dutt K (2009) Governance, institutions and the environment-income relationship: a cross-country study. Environ Dev Sustain 11:705–723

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Environmental Performance Index (EPI) (2020) https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2020/component/epi

  • Fredriksson PG, Svensson J (2003) Political instability, corruption and policy formation: the case of environmental policy. J Public Econ 87(7/8):1383–1405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredriksson PG, Vollebergh HRJ, Dijkgraaf E (2004) Corruption and energy efficiency in OECD countries: theory and evidence. J Environ Econ Manag 47(2):207–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredriksson PG, Neumayer E, Damania R, Gates S (2005) Environmentalism, democracy, and pollution control. J Environ Econ Manag 49(2):343–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gani A (2007) Governance and foreign direct investment links: evidence from panel data estimations. Appl Econ Lett 14:753–756

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gani A (2012) The relationship between good governance and carbon dioxide emissions: evidence from developing economies. Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics 37(1):77–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Globerman S, Shapiro D (2002) Global foreign direct investment flows: the role of governance infrastructure. World Dev 30:1899–1919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goel RK, Herrala R, Mazhar U (2013) Institutional quality and environmental pollution: MENA countries versus the rest of the world. Econ Syst 37:508–521

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman GM, Krueger AB (1991) Environmental impacts of North American free trade agreement. Working paper No. 3914, National Bureau of Economic Research (1991)

  • Halkos GE, Tzeremes NG (2013) Carbon dioxide emissions and governance: a nonparametric analysis for the G-20. Energy Econ 40:110–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halkos GE, Sundström A, Tzeremes NG (2015) Regional environmental performance and governance quality: a nonparametric analysis. Environ Econ Policy Stud 17:621–644

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hassan ST, Danish KS et al (2020) Role of institutions in correcting environmental pollution: an empirical investigation. Sustain Cities Soc 53:101901

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hosseini HM, Kaneko S (2013) Can environmental quality spread through institutions? Energy Policy 56:312–321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IEA (2019) Global Energy & CO2 emissions Status Report 2019: The latest trends in energy and emissions in 2019. https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2019/co2-emissions

  • Im KS, Pesaran MH, Shin Y (2003) Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels. J Econ 115:53–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorgenson AK (2009) The transnational organization of production, the scale of degradation, and ecoefficiency: a study of carbon dioxide emissions in less developed countries. Hum Ecol Rev 16(1):64–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Kao C (1999) Spurious regression and residual-based tests for cointegration in panel data. J Econ 90(1):1–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koenker R (2004) Quantile regression for longitudinal data. J Multivar Anal 91(1):74–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koenker R, Bassett G Jr (1978) Regression Quantiles. Econometrica 46(1):33–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamarche C (2011) Measuring the incentives to learn in Colombia using new quantile regression approaches. J Dev Econ 96(2):278–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lehnert K, Benmamoun M, Zhao H (2013) FDI inflow and human development: analysis of FDI’s impact on host countries' social welfare and infrastructure. Thunderbird Int Bus Rev 55:285–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leitao A (2016) Corruption and the Environment. Journal of Socialomics 5:3 1000173

  • Leonard J (1988) Pollution and the struggle for the world product: multinational corporations, the environment, and international comparative advantage. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

  • Li Z, Dong H, Huang Z, Failler (2019) Impact of foreign direct investment on environmental performance. Sustainability 11:3538

  • Liu X, Latif K, Latif Z, Li N (2020) Relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions: does governance matter? Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:17221–17228

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mengistu A, Adhikary B (2011) Does good governance matter for FDI inflows? Evidence from Asian economies. Asia Pac Bus Rev 17:281–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nguyen B (2015) Effects of institutional quality on FDI in provinces of Vietnam: empirical evidence based on differenced panel GMM. J Econ Dev 22:26–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Omri, Hadj TB (2020) Foreign investment and air pollution: do good governance and technological innovation matter? Environ Res 185:109469

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ozturk I, Al-Mulali U, Solarin SA (2019) The control of corruption and energy efficiency relationship: an empirical analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:17277–17283

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pellegrini L, Gerlagh R (2004) Corruption’s effect on growth and its transmission channels. Kyklos 57:429–456

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peres M, Ameer W, Xu H (2018) The impact of institutional quality on foreign direct investment inflows: evidence for developed and developing countries. Econ Res-Ekonomska Istraživanja 31:626–644

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Persyn D, Westerlund J (2008) Error-correction–based cointegration tests for panel data. Stata J 8(2):232–241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pesaran MH (2004) General diagnostic tests for cross section dependence in panels Cambridge Working Papers in Economics No. 0435, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge

  • Pesaran HM (2007) A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross section dependence. J Appl Econ 22:265–312

  • Sarkodie SA, Adams S (2018) Renewable energy, nuclear energy, and environmental pollution: accounting for political institutional quality in South Africa Sci. Total Environ 643:1590–1601

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shandra J, Shor E, London B (2008) Debt, structural adjustment: and organic water pollution: a cross-national analysis. Organ Environ 21:38–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherwood B, Wang L (2016) Partially linear additive quantile regression in ultra-hig dimension. Ann Stat 44:288–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solow RM (1974) Intergenerational equity and exhaustible resources. Rev Econ Stud Symp 29–45

  • Stiglitz JE (1974) Growth with exhaustible natural resources: efficient and optimal growth paths. Rev Econ Stud Symp 41:123–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang DT, Chen WY (2014) Foreign direct investment, institutional development, and environmental externalities: evidence from China. J Environ Manag 135:81–90

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Welsch H (2004) Corruption, growth, and the environment: a cross-country analysis. Environ Dev Econ 9:663–693

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westerlund J (2007) Testing for error correction in panel data. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 69(6):709–748

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WGI (2021) Worldwide governance indicators. World Bank. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/worldwide-governance-indicators

  • Wilson JK, Damania R (2005) Corruption, political competition and environmental policy. J Environ Econ Manag 49(3):516–535

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987) Our common future. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Yu K, Jones MC (1998) Local Linear Quantile Regression. Publ Am Stat Assoc 93:228–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu H, Duan L, Guo Y, Yu K (2016) The effects of FDI, economic growth and energy consumption on carbon emissions in ASEAN-5: evidence from panel quantile regression. Econ Model 58:237–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Yildiz Tech.University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Melike Bildirici

Authors
  1. Melike Bildirici
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All paper was prepared by Melike Bildirici.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melike Bildirici.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This paper was not previously published in any journal. It is currently not under consideration by another journal. Consent to participate is not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Ilhan Ozturk

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bildirici, M. The impacts of governance on environmental pollution in some countries of Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa: the evidence from panel quantile regression and causality. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 17382–17393 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15716-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15716-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation