The Impact of Democracy and Happiness on Environmental Degradation in OECD Countries

ABSTRACT The objective of this article is to investigate the impact of happiness on environmental degradation utilizing annual data for 36 OECD nations from 2005 to 2021. To achieve this goal, GMM, Driscoll–Kray, and MMQR methodologies were employed. According to the empirical findings, happiness serves as a crucial variable in mitigating environmental degradation. Moreover, the investigation probed into the impact of income, technological advances, democracy, population, and renewable energy consumption on environmental degradation. The outcomes indicate that the EKC hypothesis holds for OECD countries that technological innovations, democracy, and renewable energy consumption have a mitigating impact on environmental degradation. In contrast, population growth, a factor that exacerbates environmental degradation, should be a cause for concern.