Title: The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for CH₄ emissions: evidence from ARDL bounds testing approach in Argentina

Authors: Joel Alejandro Rosado-Anastacio

Addresses: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, ESPOL, ESPOL Polytechnic University, Campus Gustavo Galindo Km 30.5 Vía Perimetral, P.O. Box 09-01-5863, Guayaquil, Ecuador; Public Procurement Risk Department, SERCOP Ecuadorian Nacional Public Procurement Service, Av. Los Shyris 38-28 y el Telégrafo, Quito, Ecuador

Abstract: This paper investigates the relation among CH₄ emissions and gross domestic product of Argentina with two additional variables such as electricity power consumption and agriculture land use trying to prove the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve. Our main results are as: 1) there is an environmental Kuznets curve in Argentina; 2) there is long run relationship among the variables; 3) CH₄ emissions has positive relation with gross domestic product; 4) electric power consumption and agriculture use have positive effect on the gross domestic product of Argentina; 5) there is no short run relationship among the variables according to Granger causality test results in the model 1, model 2 presents bi-causality among CH₄ emissions and agriculture use. Further, several recommendations were formulated to continue with undertake any conservative policy in order to reduce emissions without major consequences on economic sectors.

Keywords: environmental Kuznets curve; EKC; methane emissions; electricity power consumption; agriculture land use; autoregressive distributed lag; ARDL; Argentina.

DOI: 10.1504/LAJMSD.2018.091312

Latin American Journal of Management for Sustainable Development, 2018 Vol.4 No.1, pp.1 - 23

Received: 25 Aug 2017
Accepted: 13 Nov 2017
Published online: 24 Apr 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article