Is food production vulnerable to environmental degradation? A global analysis

The issue on whether food production has a severe impact on the environment has been receiving increased attention in recent years. By utilizing three different estimators, this paper investigates the effect of environmental degradation on food production underlying the Cobb–Douglas production funct...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental and ecological statistics 2021-12, Vol.28 (4), p.761-778
Main Authors: Ching, Suet-Ling, Yii, Kwang-Jing, Ng, Cheong-Fatt, Choong, Chee-Keong, Lau, Lin-Sea
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide emissions
Causality
Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Computer Science
Ecology
Emissions
Environmental degradation
Environmental effects
Environmental impact
Estimators
Food
Food production
Foods
Health Sciences
Labour
Life Sciences
Math. Appl. in Environmental Science
Medicine
Physics
Pollution
R&D
Research & development
Statistics for Engineering
Statistics for Life Sciences
Theoretical Ecology/Statistics
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Summary:The issue on whether food production has a severe impact on the environment has been receiving increased attention in recent years. By utilizing three different estimators, this paper investigates the effect of environmental degradation on food production underlying the Cobb–Douglas production function. We also test the role of R&D, capital and labour on food production. All three estimators provide consistent results using a panel of 53 countries for the period 1996–2017. First, CO 2 emissions are harmful to food production. Second, both capital and R&D are found to have a positive relationship with food production. Meanwhile, an increase in labour tends to reduce food production. Furthermore, the Dumitrescu–Hurlin (DH) panel Granger causality test reveals that there is bidirectional causality between (i) food production and CO 2 emissions, (ii) R&D and food production. The findings of our study not only contribute significantly to the existing literature but also bring about a better understanding on the pollution-food production nexus. Based on our findings, policies aimed at reducing CO 2 emissions and stimulating R&D efforts are recommended.
ISSN:1352-8505
1573-3009
DOI:10.1007/s10651-021-00493-5