Environmental degradation and economic growth: Evidence from selected African countries

This paper will utilize the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL Bounds test for cointegration in order to examine the dynamic long-run relationships between economic growth, energy consumption, population density, trade openness and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in some selected African countries within the framework of the Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The objective of this study is to test the validity or universality of the EKC hypothesis in a group of selected African countries based on income and data availability.  In other words, the main objective is to investigate whether or not the inverted U-shaped EKC holds in the selected African countries or if the long-run relationships between CO₂ emissions and economic growth in these African countries follow different (U-shaped or N-shaped) trajectories. In addition, the turning points would be estimated to see if they are higher or lower than the sample mean. And to ensure the long-run cointegration and parameter stability, the  cumulative sum (CUSUM) and  cumulative sum squared (CUSUMSQ) tests will be conducted.  Furthermore, we expect the results to indicate whether or not economic growth, energy consumption, population density, trade openness Granger-causes CO₂ emissions in each country in the sample. The important implication based on the finding of this study is whether or not policymakers in these countries can adopt the EKC postulate as the conceptual basis for the formulation and implementation of policies favoring economic growth unconditionally or whether they would need to embark on a wide range of policy initiatives that would induce increased demand for better environment quality and its sustainability in tandem with measures that would promote economic growth.