The Interaction of Economic Freedom and Governance on Ecological Footprint (Selected Developing Countries)

Abstract

Environmental degradation is one of the most important concerns in developing countries. One of the most important indicators whose study helps to understand the extent of the world's support for improving the quality of the environment is the ecological footprint (EF). EF is an indicator that shows the environmental constraints and the extent of human encroachment on these constraints. Numerous factors such as energy consumption, etc. are effective on the EF, but on the one hand due to the effective role of economic freedom and governance in the EF, and on the other hand, due to the lack of interaction between these two variables on the EF in any domestic studies, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the interaction of economic freedom and governance on the EF of selected developing countries during the period 1971-2017 and two econometric models (The first model: the effect of economic freedom and governance as independent variables on the EF and the second model: the interaction of economic freedom and governance on the EF) in the form of panel data method have been used. The results of the first model indicate that the effect of economic freedom and governance on the EF of selected developing countries are positive (and significant) and negative (and significant), respectively, but the results of the second model estimate indicate that the interaction of economic freedom and governance on the EF of selected developing countries is negative and significant.

Keywords

• economic freedom
• governance
• ecological footprint
• energy consumption
• interaction and selected countries