Browsing by Author "Mensah, A.C.E."
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Item Trade-Induced Environmental Effects: The Role of Factor Endowment and Environmental Regulation(University Of Ghana, 2017-07) Mensah, A.C.E.This study investigates the effect of economic growth and international trade openness on carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrogen oxide (N2O) and the fluorinated gases (F-gases) emissions. It also examines whether the trade-induced emissions originate from countries‟ relative factor endowment or/and environmental regulations using panel data for 18 African countries, spanning from 1990 to 2014 and the Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) estimation technique. The results indicate that with the exception of CO2 where income negatively and significantly impacted on emissions, income did not significantly explain emission of the other gases. With the exception of CH4whose trade impact appears to be inconclusive, trade impacted positively on emission of all the other gases under consideration, signifying that increased trade openness is detrimental to the environmental quality. A notable conclusion is that the trade-induced pollutions originated from factor endowment effect and not the environmental regulation effect. It is therefore recommended that countries in Africa should strengthen existing institutions in charge of ensuring environmental protection and enforce stricter environmental regulations, which will require polluting firms to pay abatement cost. Also, to environmentally sustain income growth, modification should be made to input compositions that will ensure efficient energy use.Item Trade-induced environmental quality: the role of factor endowment and environmental regulation in Africa(Climate and Development, 2019-01) Twerefou, D.K.; Akpalu, W.; Mensah, A.C.E.This paper investigates whether trade liberalization affects environmental quality (proxied by CO2 emissions) and, if so, whether the trade-induced emissions originate from differences in countries’ economic growth, factor endowment or environmental regulations. We used panel data on 30 African countries and the Generalized Method of Moment estimation techniques. Though we found that trade openness is associated with elevated levels of CO2 emissions due to comparative advantage originating from factor endowment (i.e. composition effect), the overall effects of trade are seen to have some beneficial effects on environmental quality. Also, relative economic growth lowers emissions (scale effect) perhaps due to technology transfer. Furthermore, the differences in environmental regulations do not directly affect CO2 emissions while past levels of CO2 emissions significantly increase the current level due to the cumulative effect of CO2 emissions. To achieve a significant reduction in emissions, environmental regulations must be enforced in tandem with growth enhancing and production technology choice policies.Item Trade-induced environmental quality: the role of factor endowment and environmental regulation in Africa(Climate and Development, 2019) Twerefou, D.K.; Akpalu, W.; Mensah, A.C.E.This paper investigates whether trade liberalization affects environmental quality (proxied by CO2 emissions) and, if so, whether the trade-induced emissions originate from differences in countries’ economic growth, factor endowment or environmental regulations. We used panel data on 30 African countries and the Generalized Method of Moment estimation techniques. Though we found that trade openness is associated with elevated levels of CO2 emissions due to comparative advantage originating from factor endowment (i.e. composition effect), the overall effects of trade are seen to have some beneficial effects on environmental quality. Also, relative economic growth lowers emissions (scale effect) perhaps due to technology transfer. Furthermore, the differences in environmental regulations do not directly affect CO2 emissions while past levels of CO2 emissions significantly increase the current level due to the cumulative effect of CO2 emissions. To achieve a significant reduction in emissions, environmental regulations must be enforced in tandem with growth enhancing and production technology choice policies.