Q50 - Environmental Economics: GeneralNávrat zpět

Environmental poverty is a global concern for developed and developing economies, particularly in light of sustainable development goals. Unlike previous research, this study evaluates the role of political risk index and income level on environmental poverty in developed regions, namely, OECD economies in the period 2004-2022. We also examine the role of renewable energy consumption. We initially developed a multidimensional index for assessing weighted average environmental poverty alongside a novel index to gauge political risk within OECD economies. We employ several panel econometric procedures, including cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity, CIPS unit root circle for identifying unit roots and Westerlund cointegration for long-run connection among variables. Besides, the study employed cross-sectional autoregressive distributive lags (CS-ARDL) to identify the short-run and long-run impact of explanatory variables on environmental poverty. The results show that variables are heterogenous and cross-sectionally dependent. Moreover, the unit roots are found within the unit root circle, implying that variables are static at the first difference and long-run equilibrium exists among variables. The empirical results confirm that the political risk index reduces environmental poverty. A one-percent increase in the betterment of the political risk index lowers environmental poverty by -0.022% and -0.034%, respectively. However, the results for PRI in the short run are inconclusive while effective in the long run. Since the OECD countries have lower political risk and effective PRI, economic and financial activities spur, which leads to the positive influence of income on environmental poverty. A one-percent increase in income level (GDP) increases environmental poverty in OECD countries by 1.21% and 1.34% in the short and long run. Conversely, the results for renewable energy consumption (REC) are negative in both the short and long run and we conclude that REC significantly reduces environmental poverty in the region. Besides, the robustness analysis employed through an augmented mean group (AMG) estimator is reported to have similar and robust results. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test reports that REC and environmental poverty (ENVP) have bidirectional causal linkage and provide feedback to each other, while GDP and PRI have a unidirectional connection and no feedback effect is found. Relevant policies are inferred from the conclusions.

The effects of the shadow economy on the environment have been amply documented in the literature; however, the relevance of financial inclusion and the unpredictability of economic policy are still up for debate. Therefore, this study examines the diverse effects of financial inclusion, shadow economies and economic policy on carbon emissions in 21 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2002 to 2019. To determine whether this hypothesis is true, this study uses the panel spatial correlation consistent (PSCC), method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR) and Dumitrescu-Hurlin (D-H) (2012) methodologies. The findings of the PSCC show that financial inclusion increases carbon emissions in SSA countries but the shadow economy and economic policy uncertainty have an adverse impact on emissions. Using the MM-QR estimation with fixed effects, the same results are obtained across all quantiles after accounting for the effects of the shadow economy and economic policy uncertainty over the conditional distribution of CO₂. The effect of financial inclusion on CO₂ emissions is positive, but only statistically significant at the 30^th to 70^th quantiles until traces of significance are erased. In addition, there is evidence of a two-way causal relationship between the shadow economy and CO₂ emissions, financial inclusion and the shadow economy, urban population and CO₂ emissions, renewable energy use and economic policy uncertainty, trade liberalisation and economic policy uncertainty, and financial inclusion and economic policy uncertainty. The empirical results of this study offer insightful policy suggestions to counteract the direct impact of financial inclusion and to amplify the damaging effects of the shadow economy and economic policy uncertainty on carbon emissions.

In the contemporary times, with the major conflict of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the global economies are facing several challenges and disputes in various economic, energy, and financial sectors. Still, policymakers and scholars are concerned about exploring factors affecting greener energy. The present study examines the impact of research and development (R&D) budgets, financial globalization and socio-economic conditions on greener energy adoption. Besides, this study considers the role of internal and external conflicts on greener energy adoption in the "Emerging Seven" economies during the period 1990-2020. Using various diagnostic and cointegration tests, the results revealed the presence of cross-sectional dependence, heterogeneous slopes and a long-run equilibrium relationship. This study employes panel quantile regression and finds that R&D budgets, financial globalization, socio-economic conditions and internal and external conflicts significantly promote greener energy adoption. Still, the influence of socio-economic conditions is inconsistent across quantiles. Using the autoregressive distributed lag model as a robustness measure, this study validates the positive impact of variables on greener energy adoption, except external conflicts. However, all the variables adversely influence greener energy adoption in the short run. The empirical results also validate bidirectional and unidirectional causal associations of the variables. Following the results, this study recommends further enhancement in the R&D budgets and financial globalization and limiting conflicts in emerging economies.

The conventional view of the sustainability of social development is based on the works of the Roman Club, particularly the book "The Limits to Growth" by Donella Meadows and her colleagues (1972). In their opinion, the human population and economy are depleting the wealth of the Earth and pollutants and wastes are burdening the environment. However, the concern that mineral resources will be depleted is unsubstantiated. Environmental economics argues that a higher number of people and a higher income make resources scarcer on a short-term basis. For investors and entrepreneurs, higher prices represent an opportunity and an incentive to search for solutions. Many of them will not succeed in this search and they will bear the costs on their own. However, in a free society, the solutions are eventually found. And in the long run, we are better off thanks to the new discoveries than if the original problems had never occurred.

The 19th Annual Conference of European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, EAERE-2012, was held in Prague at the end of June 2012. Leading environmental economists discussed new research outcomes and economic theory extensions related to economics of climate change, efficient pollution reduction, optimal use of natural resources, nonmarket valuation and green economy.

The paper shows the current state of environmental concerns in economic theory. Different economic schools have incorporated the environmental analysis into their theoretical framework. They use different presumptions, focus on different environmental aspects and come to diverse conclusions and political recommendations. However, there are many unclear frontiers between one another. This paper would like to help to understand these differences. It characterises and compares the main economic schools and theories. The paper focuses on environmental economics, ecological economics, new institutional economics, free market environmentalism, coevolutionary theory in economics and bioeconomics.