Title: Corruption and carbon emission: an empirical investigation

Authors: Devlina; Raghuttama Raghavendra Rao; Santosh Kumar Sahu

Addresses: Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600036, India ' Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600036, India ' Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600036, India

Abstract: This paper attempts to find empirical linkages between corruption and per capita carbon emissions using panel data from over 200 countries from 2005-2016. We see a negative and significant relationship between corruption and per capita CO₂ emissions for all countries taken together and for upper-middle, lower-middle, and low-income groups of countries separately. However, this relationship is positive for high-income countries. We also find a significant impact of a country's overall institutional development (a factor that includes corruption) on its per capita emissions. However, this relationship is of a lower degree and less robust than corruption, indicating that corruption has a more significant impact on emissions than other institutional development indicators. We also find evidence of carbon leakage from high-income countries to low and upper-middle-income countries through relocation of manufacturing to lower/upper-middle-income countries, a sort of moral corruption not captured in reported emissions.

Keywords: corruption; carbon emission; institutional quality; Gini; income categories.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGE.2022.129000

International Journal of Green Economics, 2022 Vol.16 No.4, pp.355 - 388

Received: 04 Mar 2022
Accepted: 28 Oct 2022
Published online: 13 Feb 2023 *

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