ERF 26th Annual Conference
The Impact of Socio-economic Development and Political Instability on the Ecological Footprint in the MENA Region: Evidence from Panel VAR Estimations
No.
ERF26_41
Publisher
ERF
Date
July, 2020
Topic
C2. Single Equation Models
O4. Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
Q5. Environmental Economics
F1. Trade
Using a sample of 16 countries from the MENA region for the period 1990 to 2016 and the Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) methodology, we find a strong negative relationship between the ecological footprint and the human development index (HDI). Interestingly, our findings reveal that this relationship is inverted U-shaped where non-oil countries in the MENA region did not reach the turning level yet whereas oil-producing countries are now at a stage of development where further increases in HDI will reduce the ecological footprint. Moreover, we show that the political instability following the 2011 Arab uprising has shifted the turning point upward. Accordingly, because of the uprising, MENA region countries require a higher level of HDI to start experiencing environmental improvements. These findings are of paramount importance with several policy implications in exploring potential pathways to sustainable development.
Research Fellows
Mouyad Alsamara
Associate Professor of Economics, College of Business...
Research Fellows
Zouhair Mrabet
Associate Professor, College of Business and Economics,...