IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v89y2024ics0301420724000497.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The dynamic effect of income distribution, natural resources, and freedom of press on ecological footprint: Theory and empirical evidence for emerging economies

Author

Listed:
  • Uzar, Umut

Abstract

The global concern about environmental issues makes identifying the root causes of these problems a priority and popular agenda. Although the impressions of many factors on the ecological footprint have been examined in the previous literature, income inequality and natural resources have not received sufficient attention. Moreover, while the number of new studies investigating the influence of different political factors on the environment has increased recently, freedom of the press and ecological footprint have yet to be linked. All these gaps in the literature raise a critical research question that needs to be answered: Do income inequality, natural resources, and freedom of the press affect the ecological footprint? This study tries to answer this question for the period 1993–2017 in E7 countries. According to the study's key findings, while the abundance of natural resources and freedom of the press reduce the ecological footprint, economic growth and energy consumption enhance the ecological pressure. While the coefficient of inequality on the ecological footprint is positive, it is not statistically significant. Within the framework of these findings, the abundance of natural resources and freedom of the press can solve environmental problems in E7 countries. At the same time, economic growth and energy portfolio are pressure factors on the environment. In this context, enhancing freedoms and promoting renewable energy is highly strategic for reducing ecological pressure.

Suggested Citation

  • Uzar, Umut, 2024. "The dynamic effect of income distribution, natural resources, and freedom of press on ecological footprint: Theory and empirical evidence for emerging economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:89:y:2024:i:c:s0301420724000497
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2024.104682
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420724000497
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2024.104682?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kalenborn, Christine & Lessmann, Christian, 2013. "The impact of democracy and press freedom on corruption: Conditionality matters," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 857-886.
    2. Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2021. "World Inequality Report 2022," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-03693233, HAL.
    3. Joakim Westerlund, 2008. "Panel cointegration tests of the Fisher effect," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(2), pages 193-233.
    4. Dinda, Soumyananda & Coondoo, Dipankor & Pal, Manoranjan, 2000. "Air quality and economic growth: an empirical study," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 409-423, September.
    5. Dumitrescu, Elena-Ivona & Hurlin, Christophe, 2012. "Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1450-1460.
    6. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    7. Hashem Pesaran, M. & Yamagata, Takashi, 2008. "Testing slope homogeneity in large panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 50-93, January.
    8. He, Jie, 2006. "Pollution haven hypothesis and environmental impacts of foreign direct investment: The case of industrial emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in Chinese provinces," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 228-245, November.
    9. Eyup Dogan & Nigar Taspinar & Korhan K Gokmenoglu, 2019. "Determinants of ecological footprint in MINT countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(6), pages 1065-1086, September.
    10. Ahmadov, Anar Kamil & van der Borg, Charlotte, 2019. "Do natural resources impede renewable energy production in the EU? A mixed-methods analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 361-369.
    11. Mahmut Bilen & Veli Yilanci & Hakan Eryüzlü, 2017. "Tourism development and economic growth: a panel Granger causality analysis in the frequency domain," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 27-32, January.
    12. Ender Demir & Giray Gozgor, 2019. "Does freedom of the press enhance inbound tourism?," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(20), pages 2550-2565, December.
    13. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Roubaud, David & Farhani, Sahbi, 2018. "How economic growth, renewable electricity and natural resources contribute to CO2 emissions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 356-367.
    14. Umut Uzar, 2021. "The relationship between institutional quality and ecological footprint: Is there a connection?," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(4), pages 380-396, November.
    15. Francis Teal & Markus Eberhardt, 2010. "Productivity Analysis in Global Manufacturing Production," Economics Series Working Papers 515, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    16. Mohammadreza Ramezani & Leili Abolhassani & Naser Shahnoushi Foroushani & Diane Burgess & Milad Aminizadeh, 2022. "Ecological Footprint and Its Determinants in MENA Countries: A Spatial Econometric Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-20, September.
    17. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Vanessa Smith, L. & Yamagata, Takashi, 2013. "Panel unit root tests in the presence of a multifactor error structure," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 175(2), pages 94-115.
    18. Eberhardt, Markus & Teal, Francis, 2008. "Modeling technology and technological change in manufacturing: how do countries differ?," MPRA Paper 10690, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Engelbert Stockhammer, 2017. "Determinants of the Wage Share: A Panel Analysis of Advanced and Developing Economies," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 3-33, March.
    20. Wolde-Rufael, Yemane & Idowu, Samuel, 2017. "Income distribution and CO2 emission: A comparative analysis for China and India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1336-1345.
    21. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Mrabet, Zouhair, 2017. "The impact of economic development and social-political factors on ecological footprint: A panel data analysis for 15 MENA countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 138-154.
    22. James Boyce, 1994. "Inequality as a Cause of Environmental Degradation," Published Studies ps1, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    23. Ahmad, Mahmood & Jiang, Ping & Majeed, Abdul & Umar, Muhammad & Khan, Zeeshan & Muhammad, Sulaman, 2020. "The dynamic impact of natural resources, technological innovations and economic growth on ecological footprint: An advanced panel data estimation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    24. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2007. "A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 265-312.
    25. Dirk Schoenmaker, 2021. "Greening monetary policy," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 581-592, April.
    26. Berthe, Alexandre & Elie, Luc, 2015. "Mechanisms explaining the impact of economic inequality on environmental deterioration," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 191-200.
    27. Cadoret, Isabelle & Padovano, Fabio, 2016. "The political drivers of renewable energies policies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 261-269.
    28. J. Boyce, 1997. "Ecological Distribution, Agricultural Trade Liberalization, and IN SITU Genetic Diversity," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 6(2), pages 5-5, December.
    29. Umut Uzar, 2022. "The connection between freedom of the press and environmental quality: An investigation on emerging market countries," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(1), pages 21-38, February.
    30. Frederick Solt, 2020. "Measuring Income Inequality Across Countries and Over Time: The Standardized World Income Inequality Database," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(3), pages 1183-1199, May.
    31. T. S. Breusch & A. R. Pagan, 1980. "The Lagrange Multiplier Test and its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 239-253.
    32. Muhammad Sohail Amjad Makhdum & Muhammad Usman & Rakhshanda Kousar & Javier Cifuentes-Faura & Magdalena Radulescu & Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente, 2022. "How Do Institutional Quality, Natural Resources, Renewable Energy, and Financial Development Reduce Ecological Footprint without Hindering Economic Growth Trajectory? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-25, October.
    33. Abdullah Alam & Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, 2013. "The Role of Press Freedom in Economic Development: A Global Perspective," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 4-20, March.
    34. Na Yang & Zilong Zhang & Bing Xue & Junxia Ma & Xingpeng Chen & Chenyu Lu, 2018. "Economic Growth and Pollution Emission in China: Structural Path Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, July.
    35. Kijima, Masaaki & Nishide, Katsumasa & Ohyama, Atsuyuki, 2010. "Economic models for the environmental Kuznets curve: A survey," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1187-1201, July.
    36. Langnel, Zechariah & Amegavi, George Babington & Donkor, Prince & Mensah, James Kwame, 2021. "Income inequality, human capital, natural resource abundance, and ecological footprint in ECOWAS member countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    37. Jorgenson, Andrew & Schor, Juliet & Huang, Xiaorui, 2017. "Income Inequality and Carbon Emissions in the United States: A State-level Analysis, 1997–2012," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 40-48.
    38. George Babington Amegavi & Zechariah Langnel & Albert Ahenkan & Thomas Buabeng, 2022. "The dynamic relationship between economic globalisation, institutional quality, and ecological footprint: Evidence from Ghana," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(6), pages 876-893, August.
    39. Boyce, James K., 1994. "Inequality as a cause of environmental degradation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 169-178, December.
    40. Ali, Kishwar & Jianguo, Du & Kirikkaleli, Dervis, 2022. "Modeling the natural resources and financial inclusion on ecological footprint: The role of economic governance institutions. Evidence from ECOWAS economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    41. Zahoor Ahmed & Mahmood Ahmad & Husam Rjoub & Olga A. Kalugina & Nazim Hussain, 2022. "Economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and ecological footprint: Exploring the role of environmental regulations and democracy in sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 595-605, August.
    42. Zafar, Muhammad Wasif & Zaidi, Syed Anees Haider & Khan, Naveed R. & Mirza, Faisal Mehmood & Hou, Fujun & Kirmani, Syed Ali Ashiq, 2019. "The impact of natural resources, human capital, and foreign direct investment on the ecological footprint: The case of the United States," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    43. Hussain, Jamal & Khan, Anwar & Zhou, Kui, 2020. "The impact of natural resource depletion on energy use and CO2 emission in Belt & Road Initiative countries: A cross-country analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    44. Heerink, Nico & Mulatu, Abay & Bulte, Erwin, 2001. "Income inequality and the environment: aggregation bias in environmental Kuznets curves," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 359-367, September.
    45. Eberhardt, Markus & Bond, Stephen, 2009. "Cross-section dependence in nonstationary panel models: a novel estimator," MPRA Paper 17692, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    46. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 431-455, August.
    47. Dongjing Chen & Xiaoyan Ma & Hairong Mu & Peiying Li, 2010. "The Inequality Of Natural Resources Consumption And Its Relationship With The Social Development Level Based On The Ecological Footprint And The Hdi," Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(01), pages 69-86.
    48. Ravallion, Martin & Heil, Mark & Jalan, Jyotsna, 2000. "Carbon Emissions and Income Inequality," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 651-669, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ullah, Sami & Lin, Boqiang, 2024. "Natural resources, renewable energy-environment nexus for Pakistan: A policy perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Langnel, Zechariah & Amegavi, George Babington & Donkor, Prince & Mensah, James Kwame, 2021. "Income inequality, human capital, natural resource abundance, and ecological footprint in ECOWAS member countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Sencer Atasoy, Burak, 2017. "Testing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis across the U.S.: Evidence from panel mean group estimators," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 731-747.
    3. Bo Yang & Minhaj Ali & Shujahat Haider Hashmi & Mohsin Shabir, 2020. "Income Inequality and CO 2 Emissions in Developing Countries: The Moderating Role of Financial Instability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-24, August.
    4. Umut Uzar, 2023. "Income Inequality, Institutions, and Freedom of the Press: Potential Mechanisms and Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-23, August.
    5. Umut Uzar, 2021. "The relationship between institutional quality and ecological footprint: Is there a connection?," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(4), pages 380-396, November.
    6. Li, Xuelin & Yang, Lin, 2023. "Natural resources, remittances and carbon emissions: A Dutch Disease perspective with remittances for South Asia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    7. Fateh Belaïd, Sabri Boubaker, Rajwane Kafrouni, 2020. "Carbon emissions, income inequality and environmental degradation: the case of Mediterranean countries," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 17(1), pages 73-102, June.
    8. Saud, Shah & Haseeb, Abdul & Zafar, Muhammad Wasif & Li, Huiyun, 2023. "Articulating natural resource abundance, economic complexity, education and environmental sustainability in MENA countries: Evidence from advanced panel estimation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    9. Uddin, Md. Main & Mishra, Vinod & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "Income inequality and CO2 emissions in the G7, 1870–2014: Evidence from non-parametric modelling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Usman Mehmood & Ephraim Bonah Agyekum & Salman Tariq & Zia Ul Haq & Solomon Eghosa Uhunamure & Joshua Nosa Edokpayi & Ayesha Azhar, 2022. "Socio-Economic Drivers of Renewable Energy: Empirical Evidence from BRICS," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-10, April.
    11. Kangyin Dong & Xiucheng Dong & Qingzhe Jiang, 2020. "How renewable energy consumption lower global CO2 emissions? Evidence from countries with different income levels," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(6), pages 1665-1698, June.
    12. Ahmad, Mahmood & Ahmed, Zahoor & Khan, Sana Akbar & Alvarado, Rafael, 2023. "Towards environmental sustainability in E−7 countries: Assessing the roles of natural resources, economic growth, country risk, and energy transition," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    13. Alvarado, Rafael & Tillaguango, Brayan & Murshed, Muntasir & Ochoa-Moreno, Santiago & Rehman, Abdul & Işık, Cem & Alvarado-Espejo, Johana, 2022. "Impact of the informal economy on the ecological footprint: The role of urban concentration and globalization," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 750-767.
    14. Kassouri, Yacouba & Altuntaş, Mehmet & Alola, Andrew Adewale, 2022. "The contributory capacity of natural capital to energy transition in the European Union," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 617-629.
    15. Lian Xue & Mohammad Haseeb & Haider Mahmood & Tarek Tawfik Yousef Alkhateeb & Muntasir Murshed, 2021. "Renewable Energy Use and Ecological Footprints Mitigation: Evidence from Selected South Asian Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    16. Ulucak, Recep & Danish, & Ozcan, Burcu, 2020. "Relationship between energy consumption and environmental sustainability in OECD countries: The role of natural resources rents," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    17. Muhammad Khalid Anser & Qasim Raza Syed & Hooi Hooi Lean & Andrew Adewale Alola & Munir Ahmad, 2021. "Do Economic Policy Uncertainty and Geopolitical Risk Lead to Environmental Degradation? Evidence from Emerging Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, May.
    18. Dong, Kangyin & Hochman, Gal & Zhang, Yaqing & Sun, Renjin & Li, Hui & Liao, Hua, 2018. "CO2 emissions, economic and population growth, and renewable energy: Empirical evidence across regions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 180-192.
    19. Gyamfi, Bright Akwasi & Agozie, Divine Q. & Bekun, Festus Victor, 2022. "Can technological innovation, foreign direct investment and natural resources ease some burden for the BRICS economies within current industrial era?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    20. Bayar, Yilmaz, 2016. "Economic Freedom and Unemployment in Emerging Market Economies," Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research, Pro Global Science Association, vol. 11(1), pages 5-12, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:89:y:2024:i:c:s0301420724000497. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.