Mounir Ben Mbarek

The impact of income, trade, urbanization, and financial development on CO2 emissions in 19 emerging economies

This study attempts to empirically examine the impact of financial development, income, trade openness, and urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions for the panel of emerging economies using the time series data over the period 1990–2013. Results showed a positive monotonic relationship between income and CO2 emissions. All models do not support the EKC hypothesis which assumes an inverted U-shaped relationship between income and environmental degradation. Financial development has a long-run negative impact on carbon emissions, implying that financial development minimizes environmental degradation. This means that financial development can be used as an implement to keep the degradation environmental clean by introducing financial reforms. The urbanization decreases the CO2 emissions; therefore, it is important for the policymakers and urban planners in these countries to slow the rapid increase in urbanization.

Dynamic relationship between CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in three North African countries

ABSTRACT This paper investigated the causal relationship between energy consumption (EC), carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and economic growth for three selected North African countries. It uses a panel co-integration analysis to determine this econometric relationship using data during 1980–2012. Recently developed tests for panel unit root and co-integration tests are applied. In order to test the Granger causality, a panel Vector Error Correction Model is used. The conservation hypothesis is found; the short run panel results show that there is a unidirectional relationship from economic growth to EC. In addition, there is a unidirectional causality running from economic growth to CO2 emissions. A unidirectional relationship from EC to CO2 emissions is detected. Findings shown that there is a big interdependence between EC and economic growth in the long run, which indicates the level of economic activity and EC mutually influence each other in that a high level of economic growth leads to a high level of EC and vice versa. Similarly, a unidirectional causal relationship from EC to CO2 emissions is detected. This study opens up new insights for policy-makers to design comprehensive economic, energy and environmental policy to keep the economic green and a sustainable environment, implying that these three variables could play an important role in the adjustment process as the system changes from the long run equilibrium.

The relationship between pollutant emissions, renewable energy, nuclear energy and GDP: empirical evidence from 18 developed and developing countries

ABSTRACT This document investigates the causal relationship between nuclear energy (NE), pollutant emissions (CO2 emissions), gross domestic product (GDP) and renewable energy (RE) using dynamic panel data models for a global panel consisting of 18 countries (developed and developing) covering the 1990–2013 period. Our results indicate that there is a co-integration between variables. The unit root test suggests that all the variables are stationary in first differences. The paper further examines the link using the Granger causality analysis of vector error correction model, which indicates a unidirectional relationship running from GDP per capita to pollutant emissions for the developed and developing countries. However, there is a unidirectional causality from GDP per capita to RE in the short and long run. This finding confirms the conservation hypothesis. Similarly, there is no causality between NE and GDP per capita.

The effects of population growth, environmental quality and trade openness on economic growth: a panel data application

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of population growth (PG), environmental quality and trade openness on economic growth of major developed and developing countries.,The authors have used the panel unit root and panel co-integration tests over the period 1960-2013. Granger causality test is used to find out the direction of causality between the variables.,There is a bi-directional relationship between economic growth and trade openness, and a unidirectional relation, running from trade openness to CO2 emissions in the three developed countries. PG has a positive effect on economic growth in three developing countries and there exists a bidirectional relationships between CO2 emissions and PG and a unidirectional relationship from PG to economic growth and from trade openness to economic growth. Furthermore, there is a unidirectional relationship from PG to economic growth and bidirectional relationships between trade openness and economic growth for the six selected countries.,This is the first comprehensive research that combined the selected three major developed and three major emerging countries of the world to explore the effects of three important variables on economic growth. The authors’ findings will help the policy makers as well as the people of these six countries. this study has shown the aggregate and disaggregate results, so a comparison between the groups of countries is possible. Therefore, this research has significant contributions.

Using fuzzy logic to renewable energy forecasting: a case study of France

The orientation toward renewable energy consumption has led to decrease pollutants such as greenhouse gases that affect human health, natural ecosystems, agriculture, and earth temperature. Despite the growing literature on renewable energy sources and its relationship with other energetic and economic variables, precise estimation and forecasting renewable energy is crucial for the policy and decision-making process in the energy and economic sector. This study presents a new fuzzy logic approach to forecast renewable energy production in France on the basis of quarterly data from 2001Q1 to 2012Q3. The result of the proposed approach has been compared to that of the vector autoregressive (VAR) model and a neural network modelling, such as NARX approach.