The Impact of Population Growth on Environmental Quality and Gross Domestic Product (GDP): GMM System Analysis

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the impact of population growth on GDP and environmental quality. For this, we use the generalized moments in system method (GMM) with dynamic panel data for ten countries over the period 1980-2013. The main results of this study are: (i) the population have a positive and significant impact on economic growth while the capital has a positive but no significant effect on economic growth. (ii) For the environment, population growth has a positive and significant effect on CO2 emissions, the urbanization is negatively and significantly contributed to CO2 emissions, but trade openness has no effect on CO2 emissions. What is concluded that the effect of the population depends on other factors such as aging, hierarchical structure and the economic level of the country?

Keywords

• co2 emissions
• economic growth
• population growth
• panel data
• gmm system