آیا توسعه اقتصادی و مالی بالاتر منجر به تخریب محیط زیست میشود: شواهد از کشورهای BRIC

A vast number of studies addressed the environmental degradation and economic development but not financial development. Moreover, as argued by Stern [2004. The rise and fall of the environmental Kuznets curve. World Development 32, 1419–1439] they present important econometric weaknesses. Using standard reduced-form modeling approach and controlling for country-specific unobserved heterogeneity, we investigate the linkage between not only economic development and environmental quality but also the financial development. Panel data over period 1992–2004 is used. We find that both economic and financial development are determinants of the environmental quality in BRIC economies. We show that higher degree of economic and financial development decreases the environmental degradation. Our analysis suggests that financial liberalization and openness are essential factors for the CO2 reduction. The adoption of policies directed to financial openness and liberalization to attract higher levels of R&D-related foreign direct investment might reduce the environmental degradation in countries under consideration. In addition, the robustness check trough the inclusion of US and Japan does not alter our main findings.

Key policy objective of international efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of global climate change is the reduction of global CO2 emissions. The success of these efforts depends to a large degree on the commitment of the major CO2 production nations in meeting global emissions targets. In 1990, the major producers of energy-related1 CO2 emissions were US 23.00%, Japan 5.72% the OECD group 24.00%, China 11.00%, India 3.00%, Brazil 0.94% and Russian Federation 3.80%. By 2007, US and Japanese emissions came down to 22.00% and 5.00% respectively, while it increased for BRIC economies, China 16.00%, India 5.00%, Brazil 1.15% and Russia 6.00% (World Bank, 2007). However, during the last years these economies have experienced profound structural changes that continue to influence the evolution of regional CO2 output, with potentially adverse consequences for global mitigation strategies. While there is evidence of declining energy consumption accompanying the development process, for many of these countries it remains unclear what path economic output will follow or whether it is likely to translate into rising CO2 emissions over the longer term.

While most empirical studies have focused on the effects of economic growth on environmental performance, this paper also addressed the impact of financial development on environmental degradation. We examine BRIC economies to show whether or not higher degrees of economic and financial development lead to higher CO2 per capita emissions. As a measure of robustness, we introduce and examine behavior of results considering USA and Japan. Energy and oil consumption as well as energy imports are used as control indicators. Our analysis attempts to fulfill the econometric criticism of the EKC theory highlighted by Stern (2004).