Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic complexity, CO 2 emissions, and ecological footprint in the USA
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic complexity, CO2 emissions, and ecological footprint in the USA: testing the EKC hypothesis with a structural break Ugur Korkut Pata 1 Received: 30 April 2020 / Accepted: 6 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The economic complexity index, which indicates the level of knowledge and skills needed in the production of the exported goods, is a measure of economic development. Some researchers have investigated the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by considering the effect of economic complexity on environmental pollution. This study, for the first time, examines the impact of economic complexity, globalization, and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on both CO2 emissions and ecological footprint within the framework of the EKC hypothesis in the USA. To this end, the combined cointegration test and three different estimators are utilized for the period from 1980 to 2016. The main finding of the study indicates that the inverted U-shaped EKC relationship between economic complexity and environmental pollution holds for the USA. In addition to this finding, globalization and renewable energy consumption play a dominant role in reducing environmental pollution, while non-renewable energy consumption contributing factor to environmental pressure. Overall, the outcomes indicate that increasing economic complexity helps to minimize environmental degradation after a threshold, and the US government can provide a better environment by using renewable energy sources and globalization. Keywords Combined cointegration . Ecological footprint . Economic complexity . EKC hypothesis . Globalization . Renewable and non-renewable energy
Introduction Over the last quarter century, environmental pollution and quality issues have become the focus of attention for researchers, ecologists, policymakers, and economists. Human demand for natural resources puts pressure on the ecosystem, causing many environmental problems that are not limited to biodiversity loss, climate change, soil degradation, and environmental pollution (Rudolph and Figge 2017). Unlimited consumption of natural resources by humanity causes irreversible damages in the biosphere, and this negatively affects the long-term economic and social development goals of the world (Shahbaz et al. 2017a). There is a direct link between Responsible editor: Eyup Dogan * Ugur Korkut Pata [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Economics, Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, 80000 Merkez/ Osmaniye, Turkey
the ecosystem and the economy (Nikolova 2015). Excessive natural resource extraction and consumption and increased waste and pollution emissions threaten national economies. At this point, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions cause critical environmental problems, such as biodiversity loss, global warming, and climate change. Therefore, countries have taken meas
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