What matters for environmental quality in the Next Eleven Countries: economic growth or income inequality?

Abstract

This study uses panel data for the period 1971–2013 to explore the implications of growth, wealth disparities, and per capita energy consumption on carbon emissions in a sample of Next Eleven (N-11) countries. It uses the first-generation (Pedroni and Kao) and second-generation (Westerlund) cointegration techniques to highlight a long-run interplay between the selected variables in carbon emission functions for all the N-11 countries. It also analyzes the long-run interactions among the series. Contrastingly, it also shows that economic growth, income inequalities, and per capita energy consumption accelerate CO2 emissions. Besides examining the effects of wealth disparity square, the study also uses the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the context of the N-11 countries and discusses the policy implications of its findings.