Yildirim Julide, Alpaslan Barış, Eker Erdener Emin
Department of Economics, TED University, Ankara, Turkey.
Department of Economics, Social Sciences University of Ankara, Ankara, Turkey.
J Appl Stat. 2020 Nov 10;48(13-15):2626-2642. doi: 10.1080/02664763.2020.1843609. eCollection 2021.
The existing literature has recognized the role and importance of social capital in natural resource management. Several studies provide empirical evidence that higher levels of social capital may positively affect individuals' behavior towards natural resources management. This study is therefore an attempt to investigate the environmental quality impacts of social capital and central government expenditures on environmental protection, taking spatial dimension into account from 2009 to 2017 for Turkey. A general-to-specific approach has been adopted where spatial variations in the relationships have been examined with a dynamic spatial Durbin model, using the panel data at NUTS3 level. The empirical results do not support the validity of an environmental Kuznets curve, rather a U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve is validated, which exhibits spatial dependence. Estimation results show that industrial production has detrimental effects on the environment, while social capital improves it. The central government expenditures on environmental protection are effective in the abatement of pollution, and its effectiveness is enhanced when social capital is controlled. In addition to spatial spillover effects, our results show the presence of strong path dependency; that is, there is certain pollution inertia. Moreover, environmental protection policies would be more effective if social capital levels are improved.
现有文献已经认识到社会资本在自然资源管理中的作用和重要性。一些研究提供了实证证据，表明较高水平的社会资本可能对个人在自然资源管理方面的行为产生积极影响。因此，本研究试图考察社会资本和中央政府环境保护支出对环境质量的影响，并考虑2009年至2017年土耳其的空间维度。本研究采用了从一般到具体的方法，使用NUTS3级别的面板数据，通过动态空间杜宾模型检验了关系中的空间变化。实证结果不支持环境库兹涅茨曲线的有效性，而是验证了呈空间依赖性的U形环境库兹涅茨曲线。估计结果表明，工业生产对环境有不利影响，而社会资本则能改善环境。中央政府的环境保护支出在减少污染方面是有效的，并且在控制社会资本时其有效性会增强。除了空间溢出效应，我们的结果还表明存在强烈的路径依赖性；也就是说，存在一定的污染惯性。此外，如果社会资本水平得到提高，环境保护政策将更有效。
