Globalization, energy use, and environmental degradation in South Africa: Startling empirical evidence from the Maki-cointegration test.

This study investigates whether the dynamic effects of globalization and energy consumption can lead to a significant rise in South Africa's environmental degradation. Specifically, the study investigates which among the combinations of the variable of globalization, energy use, and economic growth is possessive with the dynamics of influencing upward or downward movement of South Africa's environmental degradation and hence Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). To ensure robust and parsimonious result, time series data from 1971 to 2014 was used. The structural breaks from the Maki cointegration tests were incorporated in the FMOLS and CRR models for the dynamic long-run estimates while the short-run estimates were obtained from the conditional Error Correction Model (ECM) regression. The direction of causality was investigated using the Toda-Yamamoto causality test. The finding from this test was validated using the innovation accounting analysis and the impulse response function. The results established the existence of an upward EKC dynamics, which bear a major linkage from the excessive fossil fuel energy use in South Africa. While globalization, was detected to condense environmental degradation in the short-run irrespective of the degree of economic growth attained by the country. Complementing this finding was the Toda-Yamamoto test, which established the existence of a one-way causality running from energy use to environmental degradation and again, a two-way causality between economic growth and globalization. The innovation accounting test revealed that 7.96% and 0.80% of energy use and globalization could lead to corresponding environmental degradation of 72.52% and 1.39% respectively. The study, therefore, advocates the need for conservative energy policies and pollution-free energy mix. How to achieve these are carefully outlined by the present study.

Military spending, financial development, and ecological footprint in a developing country: insights from bootstrap causality and Maki cointegration.

Military spending is required for national sovereignty, but it comes at a cost. The ecological consequences of military activities remain insufficiently investigated, especially in developing countries, where military spending is on the rise due to terrorism and civil unrest created by different secessionists' groups. As such, this study has a maiden attempt to address this gap by exploring the effects of military spending on the ecological footprint (EF) using the bootstrap causality test and the Maki (2012) cointegration test under multiple structural breaks. The findings suggest that military spending increases the EF. Also, while energy consumption and economic growth degrade the environment, financial development enhances environmental wellbeing by reducing the ecological footprint. The causality results suggest a unidirectional causality from military spending to EF, while feedback causality exists between military spending and economic growth. The result of this study affirms the existence of destruction theory and also provides a better understanding of the links behind environmental degradation and is applicable for the design and implementation of environmental policies.

The influence of renewable energy use, human capital, and trade on environmental quality in South Africa: multiple structural breaks cointegration approach.

Recent economic and environmental literature suggests that the current state of energy use in South Africa amidst rapid growing population is unsustainable. Researchers in this area mostly focus on the effect of fossil energy use on carbon (CO2) emission, which represents only an aspect of environmental quality. In contrast, the current study evaluates the influence of renewable energy use, human capital, and trade on ecological footprint--a more comprehensive measure of environmental quality. To this end, the study employs multiple structural breaks cointegration tests (Maki cointegration tests), dynamic unrestricted error correction model through Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, and VECM Granger causality tests. The results of the Maki cointegration tests reveal the existence of a cointegration between the variables in all the models with evidence of multiple structural breaks. Further, the ARDL results divulge that an increase in renewable energy use, human capital, and trade improves environmental quality through a decrease in ecological footprint, while an increase in income stimulates ecological footprint. Moreover, causal relationship is found, running from all the variables to renewable energy and trade flow in the long run, while in the short run, economic growth causes ecological footprint. Trade is found to Granger-cause human capital, while human capital causes renewable energy. Additionally, human capital, renewable energy, and economic growth are predictors of trade. The study therefore recommends South African policymakers to consider the importance of renewable energy, human capital development, and trade as a policy option to reduce ecological footprint and improve environmental quality.

Modeling CO2 emissions in Malaysia: an application of Maki cointegration and wavelet coherence tests.

One of humanity's most significant problems in the twenty-first century revolves around how to balance the mitigation of environmental pollution while achieving sustainable economic development. Despite increased awareness and dedication to climate change, the planet is still seeing a drastic decrease in the volume of pollutant emissions. This study explores the long-run and causal impact of economic growth, financial development, urbanization, and gross capital formation on Malaysia's CO2 emissions based on the STIRPAT framework. The current paper employs recently developed econometric techniques such as Maki co-integration, auto-regressive distribution lag (ARDL), fully modified OLS (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS), and wavelet coherence and gradual shift causality tests to investigate these interconnections. The advantage of the gradual shift causality test is that it can capture the causality in the presence of a structural break(s). The findings from the Maki co-integration and ARDL bounds tests reveal evidence of cointegration among the variables. The ARDL test reveals that economic growth, gross capital formation, and urbanization exert a positive impact on CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the wavelet coherence test reveals that there is a significant dependency between CO2 emissions and economic growth, gross capital formation, and urbanization. The Toda Yamamoto and Gradual shift causality tests reveal that there is a (a) unidirectional causality from urbanization to CO2 emissions, (b) unidirectional causality from economic growth to CO2 emissions, and (c) unidirectional causality from gross capital formation to CO2 emissions.

Role of renewable energy and globalization on ecological footprint in the USA: implications for environmental sustainability.

The role of renewable energy and globalization on ecological footprint is investigated in the USA by controlling for the effects of financial development and real output using quarterly data from 1985:Q1 to 2014:Q4. We apply the minimum Lagrange multiplier unit root test, multiple structural break cointegration test, and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimation approach. The empirical evidence suggests that, in the long run, renewable energy and real output exert negative pressure on ecological footprint while financial development and globalization exert positive pressure on ecological footprint. The short-run results indicate that renewable energy, financial development, real output, and globalization are positively linked to ecological footprint. The vector error correction model Granger causality results, in the long run, divulge that ecological footprint, consumption of renewable energy, real output, and globalization Granger-cause financial development while ecological footprint, renewable energy, financial development, and globalization Granger-cause real output. The results also show that, in the short run, renewable energy and globalization cause ecological footprint and real output causes renewable energy, while renewable energy causes globalization. The finding also reveals that the causality between real output and globalization, as well as globalization and financial development, is bidirectional. Therefore, our findings provide insights for policymakers to consider consumption of renewable energy as a surest way to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions.

Trivariate modelling of the nexus between electricity consumption, urbanization and economic growth in Nigeria: fresh insights from Maki Cointegration and causality tests.

In this era of intensive electricity utilization for economic development, the role of urbanization remains inconclusive, especially in developing economies. Here, this study examined the electricity consumption and economic growth nexus in a trivariate framework by incorporating urbanization as an additional variable. Using the recent novel Maki cointegration test, Ng-Perron, Zivot-Andrews, and Kwiatkowski unit root tests along with FMOLS, DOLS and the CCR estimation methods, we relied on an annual frequency data from 1971-2014. Results from FMOLS, DOLS and the CCR regression confirms the electricity consumption-driven economic growth. This is desirable as Nigeria is heavily dependent on energy (electricity) consumption. A unidirectional causality from urbanization to electricity consumption and economic growth was found but the long-run empirical findings revealed urbanization impedes growth - a situation that has policy implications. The study highlights that though urbanization is a good predictor of Nigeria's economic growth, however, the adjustment of the energy portfolio to meet the growing urban demand will curtail the adverse and far-reaching impact of urbanization on the economy.

Revisiting the economic growth and electricity consumption nexus in Pakistan.

This paper revisits the interaction between electricity consumption, real gross domestic product, and carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan. To this end, our study relies on annual data from 1971 to 2014 for the econometric analysis while accounting for structural break(s). According to the Maki cointegration test, a cointegration equilibrium relationship exists among electricity consumption, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions. The empirical findings from Toda-Yamamoto causality test provided the following insights: (i) unidirectional causality was found running from economic growth to electricity consumption. Thus, this study validates the conservative hypothesis, meaning that in Pakistan, conservative energy strategies cannot harm economic progress. (ii) Causality was also found running from electricity consumption to carbon dioxide emissions. This implies that industrial activities trigger an increase in carbon emissions flaring which in return translates into environmental degradation. This outcome has inherent policy implications which are further discussed in the conclusion section.