IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2021i1p4-d707282.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Carbon Emissions: Evidence from 137 Multinational Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Hai-Jie Wang

    (School of Business, Zhengzhou University, 100 Kexue Road, Gaoxin District, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

  • Yong Geng

    (School of Environment and Science Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai 200240, China)

  • Xi-Qiang Xia

    (School of Business, Zhengzhou University, 100 Kexue Road, Gaoxin District, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

  • Quan-Jing Wang

    (School of Business, Zhengzhou University, 100 Kexue Road, Gaoxin District, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

Abstract

With growing economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and the importance of protecting the natural environment worldwide, the relationship between EPU and carbon emissions should be investigated further. However, conclusions in the existing literature on the relationship between EPU and carbon emission are inconclusive. This paper aims to examine the influence of EPU on carbon emissions according to the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model. To investigate such essential issues, we conduct GMM estimations by utilizing cross-country data covering 137 countries during the period 1970–2018, obtained from World Bank and OECD statistics. Our empirical estimations support that EPU would bring about more carbon emissions, while we conduct empirical analysis by changing the system of measurement, employing alternative estimation and constructing new samples. Our study provides substantial policy implications for government participation in international treaties on environmental protection to mitigate environmental degradation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hai-Jie Wang & Yong Geng & Xi-Qiang Xia & Quan-Jing Wang, 2021. "Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Carbon Emissions: Evidence from 137 Multinational Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:4-:d:707282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/4/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/4/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scott R Baker & Robert A Farrokhnia & Steffen Meyer & Michaela Pagel & Constantine Yannelis & Jeffrey Pontiff, 0. "How Does Household Spending Respond to an Epidemic? Consumption during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 834-862.
    2. Li, Lingchao & Liu, Jinlong & Long, Hexing & de Jong, Wil & Youn, Yeo-Chang, 2017. "Economic globalization, trade and forest transition-the case of nine Asian countries," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 7-13.
    3. Wang, Quan-Jing & Feng, Gen-Fu & Chen, Yin E. & Wen, Jun & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2019. "The impacts of government ideology on innovation: What are the main implications?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1232-1247.
    4. Wang, Quan-Jing & Feng, Gen-Fu & Wang, Hai-Jie & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2021. "The impacts of democracy on innovation: Revisited evidence," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    5. Massimo Guidolin & Eliana La Ferrara, 2010. "The economic effects of violent conflict: Evidence from asset market reactions," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 47(6), pages 671-684, November.
    6. Oscar Jorda & Sanjay R. Singh & Alan M. Taylor, 2022. "Longer-Run Economic Consequences of Pandemics," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(1), pages 166-175, March.
    7. Degiannakis, Stavros & Filis, George & Panagiotakopoulou, Sofia, 2018. "Oil price shocks and uncertainty: How stable is their relationship over time?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 42-53.
    8. Muhammad Shahbaz & Mantu Kumar Mahalik & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Shawkat Hammoudeh, 2019. "Does the environmental Kuznets curve exist between globalization and energy consumption? Global evidence from the cross‐correlation method," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(1), pages 540-557, January.
    9. Al-Thaqeb, Saud Asaad & Algharabali, Barrak Ghanim, 2019. "Economic policy uncertainty: A literature review," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    10. Yu, Jian & Shi, Xunpeng & Guo, Dongmei & Yang, Longjian, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and firm carbon emissions: Evidence using a China provincial EPU index," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    11. Bakas, Dimitrios & Triantafyllou, Athanasios, 2020. "Commodity price volatility and the economic uncertainty of pandemics," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    12. Kang, Wensheng & Ratti, Ronald A. & Vespignani, Joaquin L., 2017. "Oil price shocks and policy uncertainty: New evidence on the effects of US and non-US oil production," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 536-546.
    13. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    14. Balcilar, Mehmet & Gupta, Rangan & Segnon, Mawuli, 2016. "The role of economic policy uncertainty in predicting U.S. recessions: A mixed-frequency Markov-switching vector autoregressive approach," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 10, pages 1-20.
    15. Xiulin Qi & Xin Wang & Xiao Jin & Zhenyu M. Wang & Beibei Zhang & Chuanhao Wen, 2021. "Will Policy Uncertainty Deteriorate Haze Pollution? A Spatial Spillover Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-16, September.
    16. Quan-Jing Wang & Yong Geng & Xi-Qiang Xia, 2021. "Revisited Globalization’s Impact on Total Environment: Evidence Based on Overall Environmental Performance Index," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-16, October.
    17. Atsu, Francis & Adams, Samuel, 2021. "Energy consumption, finance, and climate change: Does policy uncertainty matter?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 490-501.
    18. Wen, Jun & Hao, Yu & Feng, Gen-Fu & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2016. "Does government ideology influence environmental performance? Evidence based on a new dataset," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 232-246.
    19. Shoufu Lin & Ji Sun & Dora Marinova & Dingtao Zhao, 2017. "Effects of Population and Land Urbanization on China’s Environmental Impact: Empirical Analysis Based on the Extended STIRPAT Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-21, May.
    20. Abid Rashid Gill & Sallahuddin Hassan & K Kuperan Viswanathan, 2019. "Is democracy enough to get early turn of the environmental Kuznets curve in ASEAN countries?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(8), pages 1491-1505, December.
    21. Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili & Yu, Mingbo & Yu, Mingliang, 2011. "Estimation, characteristics, and determinants of energy-related industrial CO2 emissions in Shanghai (China), 1994-2009," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 6476-6494, October.
    22. Hailemariam, Abebe & Smyth, Russell & Zhang, Xibin, 2019. "Oil prices and economic policy uncertainty: Evidence from a nonparametric panel data model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 40-51.
    23. Phan, Dinh Hoang Bach & Iyke, Bernard Njindan & Sharma, Susan Sunila & Affandi, Yoga, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty and financial stability–Is there a relation?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 1018-1029.
    24. Adams, Samuel & Adedoyin, Festus & Olaniran, Eniola & Bekun, Festus Victor, 2020. "Energy consumption, economic policy uncertainty and carbon emissions; causality evidence from resource rich economies," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 179-190.
    25. Danish & Recep Ulucak & Salah‐Ud‐Din Khan, 2020. "Relationship between energy intensity and CO2 emissions: Does economic policy matter?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1457-1464, September.
    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. Ayad, Hicham & Abbas, Shujaat & Nakhli, Mohamed Sahbi & Jibir, Adamu & Shahzad, Umer, 2023. "Industrial growth, health care policy uncertainty and carbon emissions: Do trade and tax policy uncertainties matter for sustainable development in the USA?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 151-160.

    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. Hang Su & Yong Geng & Xi-Qiang Xia & Quan-Jing Wang, 2022. "Economic Policy Uncertainty, Social Development, Political Regimes and Environmental Quality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-15, February.
    2. Ioannis Dokas & Georgios Oikonomou & Minas Panagiotidis & Eleftherios Spyromitros, 2023. "Macroeconomic and Uncertainty Shocks’ Effects on Energy Prices: A Comprehensive Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-35, February.
    3. Abiodun Moses Adetokunbo & Afe Success Mevhare, 2024. "The interconnectivity between green stocks, oil prices, and uncertainty surrounding economic policy: indications from the United States," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 1-26, February.
    4. Quan-Jing Wang & Yong Geng & Xi-Qiang Xia, 2021. "The Impact of Globalization on Forest Growth: Evidence from Multinational Panel Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Wang, Yilei & Cheng, Sheng & Cao, Yan, 2022. "How does economic policy uncertainty respond to the global oil price fluctuations? Evidence from BRICS countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Ruixin Su & Jianguo Du & Fakhar Shahzad & Xingle Long, 2020. "Unveiling the Effect of Mean and Volatility Spillover between the United States Economic Policy Uncertainty and WTI Crude Oil Price," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-12, August.
    7. Wei, Wei & Hu, Haiqing & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2022. "Why the same degree of economic policy uncertainty can produce different outcomes in energy efficiency? New evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 467-481.
    8. Sheng Cheng & Wei Liu & Qisheng Jiang & Yan Cao, 2023. "Multi–Scale Risk Connectedness Between Economic Policy Uncertainty of China and Global Oil Prices in Time–Frequency Domains," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 61(4), pages 1593-1616, April.
    9. Jian, Peng & Zhengjie, Sun, 2024. "Navigating the green future: Unraveling the role of fintech, decentralization, natural resources, and monetary policy uncertainty in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    10. Claudiu Tiberiu Albulescu, 2020. "Coronavirus and oil price crash," Working Papers hal-02507184, HAL.
    11. Charemza, Wojciech & Makarova, Svetlana & Rybiński, Krzysztof, 2022. "Economic uncertainty and natural language processing; The case of Russia," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 546-562.
    12. Wei Yang & Yifu Zhang & Yuan Hu, 2022. "Heterogeneous Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Provincial Environmental Pollution Emissions in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-13, April.
    13. Yifei Li & Yuhang Bai, 2023. "Research on the Impact of Global Economic Policy Uncertainty on Manufacturing: Evidence from China, the United States, and the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-18, July.
    14. Tunc, Ahmet & Kocoglu, Mustafa & Aslan, Alper, 2022. "Time-varying characteristics of the simultaneous interactions between economic uncertainty, international oil prices and GDP: A novel approach for Germany," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Shabir, Mohsin & Jiang, Ping & Bakhsh, Satar & Zhao, Zhongxiu, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty and bank stability: Threshold effect of institutional quality and competition," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    16. Jun, Xiao & Huang, Wenwei & Guo, Yiting & Cao, Yuqiang & Lu, Meiting, 2023. "Why does economic policy uncertainty increase firm-level pollutant emission?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    17. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Yan, Xing-Xing, 2020. "The impact of US economic policy uncertainty on WTI crude oil returns in different time and frequency domains," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 750-768.
    18. Qin, Meng & Su, Chi-Wei & Hao, Lin-Na & Tao, Ran, 2020. "The stability of U.S. economic policy: Does it really matter for oil price?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    19. Saadaoui, Zied & BOUFATEH, Talel & JIAO, Zhilun, 2023. "On the transmission of oil supply and demand shocks to CO2 emissions in the US by considering uncertainty: A time-varying perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    20. Ying Chen & Xiaoqian Shen & Li Wang, 2021. "The Heterogeneity Research of the Impact of EPU on Environmental Pollution: Empirical Evidence Based on 15 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-13, April.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:4-:d:707282. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.