The environmental Kuznets curve, economic growth, renewable and non-renewable energy, and trade in Tunisia

Ben Jebli, Mehdi and Ben Youssef, Slim (2013): The environmental Kuznets curve, economic growth, renewable and non-renewable energy, and trade in Tunisia.

Abstract

We use the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds approach to cointegration in order to investigate the short and long-run relationship between per capita CO2 emission, GDP, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and trade openness for Tunisia during the period 1980-2009. The Fisher-statistic for cointegration is established when CO2 emission is defined as a dependent variable. The stability of coefficients in the long and short-run is examined. Short-run Granger causality suggests that there is a one way causality relationship from economic growth and trade openness (exports and imports) to emissions, whereas there is no causality running from renewable and non-renewable energy consumption to emissions. The results from the long-run relationship suggest that non-renewable energy consumption contributes positively in explaining CO2 emission (for both models), whereas renewable energy affects CO2 emission negatively (for the model with exports). The contribution of trade openness is positive and statistically significant in the long-run. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) that assumes an inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita CO2 emissions and output is not supported in the long-run. This means that Tunisia has not yet reached the required level of per capita GDP to get an inverted U-shaped EKC.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Environmental Kuznets Curve; Renewable and non-renewable energy; Trade openness; Autoregressive distributed lag; Tunisia.
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Single Equation Models ; Single Variables > C22 - Time-Series Models ; Dynamic Quantile Regressions ; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models ; Diffusion Processes; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F14 - Empirical Studies of Trade; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q4 - Energy > Q42 - Alternative Energy Sources; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q4 - Energy > Q43 - Energy and the Macroeconomy; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q54 - Climate ; Natural Disasters and Their Management ; Global Warming

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