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Examining the EKC Model for African Continent


Abdulrahman Malik, Ahmed R. M. Alsayed
Abstract

The African economy has been rapidly growing in the last decade, but the inequalities and poverty are still high which are being caused as a result of environmental degradation in the continent. Researches have shown that an increase in environmental activities would lead to environmental degradation. This research aims to examine the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model between environmental quality which is using CO2 emission as a proxy, and the GDP per capita is used as a proxy of economy growth in Africa. An annual data of forty-eight (48) African countries for the period from 1960 to 2014 is used to analyzed by applying panel data regression technique. The main significant finding shows that there is a significant positive relationship between CO2 emission and GDP in African countries at a 1% level of significance, with an evidence of existence of an inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis with a higher turning point for the African countries, which implies that increasing of GDP increases the CO2 emission, but when the GDP reaches the turning point where the CO2 emission will start decreasing. Hence, based on these results, we can recommend that the policymakers should adopt efficiency improvement policy interventions to prevent environmental degradation and environmental pollution on the continent.

Volume 11 | 12-Special Issue

Pages: 24-29