School of Economics and Finance, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China.
University Institute of Management Sciences, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019 Mar;26(8):7926-7937. doi: 10.1007/s11356-019-04284-1. Epub 2019 Jan 25.
The paper investigates the effect of financial development and institutional quality on the environment in South Asia. Other determinants of environmental quality included are economic growth, energy consumption, FDI, trade openness and institutional quality. For empirical analysis, panel data is used for the period 1984 to 2015. The estimated results indicate that Environmental Kuznet Curve (EKC) hypothesis holds in South Asia, i.e., environment first deteriorates with economic development and then it starts improving. Empirical results reveal that 1% increase in economic growth worsens environment by 1.709%. However, further increase in economic growth improves environment by 0.104%. Energy consumption has deteriorating effect on environment. Financial development has degraded the environment in the region, which indicates that South Asian countries have used financial development for capitalization and not to improve technology. The estimated results show that 1% increase in financial development deteriorates environment by 0.147%. FDI, which is a measure of financial openness, has mitigating effect on pollution. In turn, trade openness has worsened the environmental quality in the region. Institutional quality has significant negative effect on carbon emissions. It also has significant negative moderating effects on carbon emissions. The findings show that 1% improvement in institutional quality will decrease pollution by 0.114%. The study suggests that South Asian countries should focus more on technology effect and not on scale effect of financial development.
本文研究了金融发展和制度质量对南亚环境的影响。环境质量的其他决定因素包括经济增长、能源消耗、外国直接投资、贸易开放度和制度质量。为进行实证分析，使用了 1984 年至 2015 年期间的面板数据。估计结果表明，南亚存在环境库兹涅茨曲线（EKC）假说，即环境首先随着经济发展而恶化，然后开始改善。实证结果表明，经济增长增加 1%会使环境恶化 1.709%。然而，进一步的经济增长会使环境改善 0.104%。能源消耗对环境有恶化作用。金融发展恶化了该地区的环境，这表明南亚国家利用金融发展进行资本化，而不是提高技术。估计结果表明，金融发展增加 1%会使环境恶化 0.147%。外国直接投资（FDI）是金融开放的衡量标准，对污染有缓解作用。反过来，贸易开放度恶化了该地区的环境质量。制度质量对碳排放有显著的负向影响。它对碳排放也有显著的负向调节作用。研究结果表明，制度质量提高 1%将使污染减少 0.114%。本研究表明，南亚国家应更加注重技术效应，而不是金融发展的规模效应。
