The influence of trade openness on environmental pollution in EU-18 countries

No Thumbnail Available
Date
2020-06
Authors
Mensah, Claudia Nyarko
Mensah, Isaac Adjei
Tachie, Andrews Kwamena
Appiah-Twum, Florence
Dauda, Lamini
Xingle Long
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Abstract
Trade openness is one of the main channels of globalization and technological transfers. In environmental economic literature, the implications of trade openness remain controversial and still could be potential drivers of carbon dioxide emissions. This study therefore explores the effect of trade openness in developed countries using EU-18 economies. We employed an econometric approach that accounts for cross-section dependence among study variables. The panel CIPS and CADF unit root show that the variables are stationary and the long-run relationship was confirmed in Westerlund cointegration tests. The mean group (MG) and augmented mean group (AMG) results show that trade openness increases CO2-emissions in EU-18. Again, energy consumption and urbanization escalate emissions. The study confirmed the environmental Kuznets curve. Finally, pollution halo and pollution haven hypothesis were confirmed at both estimation methods. The Dumetriscu-Hurlin Granger causality test results confirmed bidirectional causality between trade openness and energy consumption and between trade openness and economic growth. Again, unidirectional Granger causality is running from trade openness and CO2 emissions. Policy recommendations are further proposed
Description
Keywords
Citation
Tachie, A. K., Xingle, L., Dauda, L., Mensah, C. N., Appiah-Twum, F., & Adjei Mensah, I. (2020). The influence of trade openness on environmental pollution in EU-18 countries. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27, 35535-35555.