Relationship between population growth, price level, poverty incidence, and carbon emissions in a panel of 98...

The objective of the study is to examine the dynamic linkages between population growth, price level, poverty headcount ratio, and carbon emissions under investigation of different plausible hypothesis, including "population-induced poverty trap," "welfare-reducing effects," "environmental Kuznets curve," and "pollution haven" hypotheses in the cross-sectional setting of 98 developed and developing countries for the period of 2011. The study used cross-sectional regression and switching regression regime for empirical analysis. The result shows a positive relationship between changes in price level and carbon emissions that verify "welfare-reducing effects," while there is a negative relationship between population growth and poverty at varying poverty threshold to support the "Gary Becker human capital theory." Further, there is a positive relationship between poverty rates and carbon emissions across countries. The results verified the "pollution haven" hypothesis in account of increase in pollution through financial liberalization policies. A U-shaped relationship is found between economic growth and carbon emissions in a given time period. The study concludes that globalized world should have to be careful when devising environmental sustainability policies, as it is important to provide social safety nets to the lower income strata group; hence, it would be helpful to achieve global green development agenda.