Assessing the heterogeneous effect of unemployment on ecological footprint in Africa

Mubenga-Tshitaka, Jean- Luc (2026): Assessing the heterogeneous effect of unemployment on ecological footprint in Africa.

Abstract

The paper investigates the impact of unemployment on the environmental quality known as the environmental Phillips Curve (EPC) hypothesis by accounting for the heterogeneity among African countries. To the best of our knowledge, no prior study has examined the environmental-unemployment nexus in the African context. The annual data of unemployment, gross domestic product, population growth, usage of renewable, non-renewable energy, urbanization and ecological footprints from 1990 to 2021 are sourced from the World Bank and Global Footprint network. A set of methods is employed for empirical analysis. The results confirm there is a trade-off between the unemployment rate and the environmental quality in Africa. However, when the heterogeneous effect is considered. The findings reveal that unemployment in Africa has detrimental effect on the environmental quality. The effect becomes more significant in higher percentile. Policy implications are discussed. Keywords:

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Ecological footprint, Unemployment, environmental Phillips curve, heterogeneous, Kenel-Based Regularized Least Squares, Africa
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E24 - Employment ; Unemployment ; Wages ; Intergenerational Income Distribution ; Aggregate Human Capital ; Aggregate Labor Productivity; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q0 - General > Q01 - Sustainable Development; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q56 - Environment and Development ; Environment and Trade ; Sustainability ; Environmental Accounts and Accounting ; Environmental Equity ; Population Growth; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q59 - Other

References

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