Abstract
The research was performed in 16 emerging countries from 1990 to 2014, using a two-step approach. First, a slacks-based (SBM)–data envelopment analysis (DEA) model annually estimates countries' resources and energy efficiency. In the second step, a panel quantile regression was used to assess the impacts of resources and energy efficiency, export quality, and the other variables on the ecological footprint. The SBM–DEA model revealed that Turkey and Hungary were the countries that got the better rank, and China and India got the worst rank on resources and energy efficiency mean. Quantile regression revealed that resources, energy efficiency, and trade openness reduce the ecological footprint. On the other hand, GDP, consumption of fossil fuels, and population contribute to deteriorating the environmental footprint. Export quality and urban population worsen the ecological footprint but only in some quantiles. Export quality in 10th and 25th quantiles and the case of the urban population all quantiles except the 10th one aggravates the ecological footprint. Thus, from a policy perspective, we have variables that require different kinds of intervention to mitigate/reduce the ecological footprint, i.e., requires many policy measures and the active collaboration of citizens.
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Acknowledgements
CeBER R&D unit funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., Project UIDB/05037/2020. Emad Kazemzadeh thanks the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra for the host and resources for carrying out this research.
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Research supported by CeBER, R&D unit funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., project UIDB/05037/2020.
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EK Investigation, Methodology, Data curation, Writing—original draft; JAF Supervision, Visualisation, Writing—review & editing, Funding acquisition; MK Investigation, Formal analysis; NS Investigation, Validation; FO Introduction. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
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Kazemzadeh, E., Fuinhas, J.A., Koengkan, M. et al. Do energy efficiency and export quality affect the ecological footprint in emerging countries? A two-step approach using the SBM–DEA model and panel quantile regression. Environ Syst Decis 42, 608–625 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-022-09846-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-022-09846-2