Does the environmental Phillips curve hypothesis hold within the Ghanaian context?

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.