A novel lens of stock market capitalization and environmental degradation

This research article examines the impact of stock market capitalization on carbon emissions using forty high carbon-emitting countries from 1996 to 2018. This study adopts the Driscoll-Kraay method that simultaneously tackles heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation, and contemporaneous correlation issues. We find an inverted U relationship between stock market capitalization (SMC) and environmental degradation. We propose an extended environmental Kuznets curve based on SMC while energy intensity, industrialization, and urbanization increase emissions in sample countries. The quadratic method, SLM test, and derivative graphing detect the consensus of the inverted U relationship. The weak-negative SMC2 coefficient reveals that the dangerous impact of capitalization declines gradually and finally curbs the environmental degradation challenges. The relationship is strong in highly polluted countries with overvalued stock markets. The study catches no policy synergies between the growing stock market and increased carbon emissions. Stock market capitalization should be integrated into climate change adaptation strategies at national and regional levels, primarily to address the dark effect of environmental degradation.