Economic growth and environmental pollution in Myanmar: an analysis of environmental Kuznets curve

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2017-09, Vol.24 (25), p.20487-20501
• Main Authors: Aung, Thiri Shwesin, Saboori, Behnaz, Rasoulinezhad, Ehsan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Autoregressive models; Carbon dioxide; Carbon Dioxide - analysis; Carbon dioxide emissions; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic analysis; Economic Development; Economic growth; Economic models; Economics; Ecotoxicology; Empirical analysis; Empirical Research; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental indicators; Environmental Kuznets curve; Environmental Pollution - economics; Environmental science; GDP; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Greenhouse Gases - analysis; Gross Domestic Product; Methane; Myanmar; Nitrous oxide; Pollution; Research Article; Trade liberalization; Urbanization; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-017-9567-3

This empirical study examines the short- and long-run relationship between GDP as an economic growth indicator and CO 2 emissions as an environmental pollution indicator in Myanmar by using annual time series data over the period of 1970–2014. It also carefully considered other proxies, such as trade openness, financial openness and urbanization, and structural breaks in the country. The fundamental objective of this study is to test the validity of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the context of Myanmar. The dynamic estimates of the long- and short-term relationship among greenhouse gases (CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O), GDP, trade intensity, financial openness, and urbanization growth are built through an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The empirical findings indicate that there is positive short- and long-run relationship between CO 2 and GDP and thus, no evidence of EKC hypothesis is found for CO 2 in Myanmar. Nevertheless, the existence of the EKC is observed for CH 4 and N 2 O. On the other hand, trade and financial openness have inverse relationship with CO 2 emissions. These results demonstrate that trade liberalization and financial openness will improve the environment quality in Myanmar in the long run.