Does the environmental Phillips curve hypothesis hold within the Ghanaian context?
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Date
2024
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Scientific African
Abstract
This study examines the relationship between environmental quality and unemployment in
Ghana using annual data spanning the period from 1990 to 2019. It also assesses the impact of
gender-segregated unemployment rate on environmental quality. The study employed the
Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) error correction model to estimate the relationship
among the variables. In addition, the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and the
Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimation procedures were employed to check for
robustness of the ARDL results. Findings indicate a positive effect of total unemployment rate on
environmental quality in Ghana in the long-run and also in the short-run. In the case of the
gender-segregated unemployment, the findings reveal that in both short-run and long-run, a rise
in female unemployment causes a deterioration in environmental quality in Ghana. The results
also validated the Environmental Phillips Curve (EPC) hypothesis in the case of male unemployment. Thus, given that there is no general pattern in the findings, the study concludes that the
Environmental Phillips Curve (EPC) hypothesis does not hold within the Ghanaian context.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Environmental quality, CO2 emissions, Unemployment