Economic growth and environmental pollution in Myanmar: an analysis of environmental Kuznets curve: an analysis of environmental Kuznets curve

Thiri Shwesin Aung*, Behnaz Saboori, Ehsan Rasoulinezhad

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

82 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This empirical study examines the short- and long-run relationship between GDP as an economic growth indicator and CO2 emissions as an environmental pollution indicator in Myanmar by using annual time series data over the period of 1970–2014. It also carefully considered other proxies, such as trade openness, financial openness and urbanization, and structural breaks in the country. The fundamental objective of this study is to test the validity of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the context of Myanmar. The dynamic estimates of the long- and short-term relationship among greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O), GDP, trade intensity, financial openness, and urbanization growth are built through an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The empirical findings indicate that there is positive short- and long-run relationship between CO2 and GDP and thus, no evidence of EKC hypothesis is found for CO2 in Myanmar. Nevertheless, the existence of the EKC is observed for CH4 and N2O. On the other hand, trade and financial openness have inverse relationship with CO2 emissions. These results demonstrate that trade liberalization and financial openness will improve the environment quality in Myanmar in the long run.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)20487-20501
Number of pages15
JournalEnvironmental Science and Pollution Research
Volume24
Issue number25
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 1 2017

Keywords

  • ARDL approach
  • EKC
  • Financial openness
  • GHG emissions
  • Myanmar
  • Trade openness
  • Urbanization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Pollution
  • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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