The Long-Run Association between Corruption and CO2 Emission: Evidence from Developing Economies

Given the motivation of that lax environmental regulations and policies are common in highly corrupted countries; this study seeks empirical evidence for hypothesis asserting that corruption worsens CO2 emission in a country in the long run. We used a balanced data of 127 developing economies for the period of 2002 and 2017 to implement our analyses. A cointegration association between corruption and CO2 emission was identified. According to the estimation results, an increase in the corruption significantly increases CO2 emission in the long run. In other words, CO2 emission goes up by 1.05% given a 1% rise in corruption. Also, a two-way causality between series of corruption and CO2 emission was found.