Environmental sustainability in Turkey: an environmental Kuznets curve estimation for ecological footprint

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to detect the determinants of ecological footprint (EF) in Turkey within the scope of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis over the period 1970–2016. For this purpose, the paper sets up an empirical model including GDP, the square of GDP, foreign direct investments, renewable energy consumption, and industrialization. Hence, the paper also searches for the validity of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) for Turkey. The findings of the paper indicate that the EKC hypothesis prevails, whereas the PHH does not dominate in Turkey. The findings also imply EF is negatively related to renewable energy consumption while industrialization does not affect EF. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable development
• ecological footprint
• environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis
• pollution haven hypothesis
• renewable energy
• Turkey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Among others, see Ewing et al. (2010) for details about how the EF is calculated.