Title:
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AIR QUALITY AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF NEPAL

Authors:
Pathak, Amrit ; Paudel, Kapil; Acharya, Basistha

Volume - 2 Issue - 9, Pages - 4401-4413

Abstract:
Economic development activities are often taken as the key source of environmental degradation, but recently the realization is that evaluating the state of environment in a country cannot be detached from its political development. There are studies accounting the relationship between political development and environmental performance. Those studies have put forward a political EKC hypothesis. This study aims to test the political EKC hypothesis for three different indicators of air pollution: carbon dioxide (CO2 ), sulphur oxide (SOx) and particulate matter (PM10) using time series data for a single country, Nepal. The study specifies an econometric model and the data are analysed using maximum likelihood regression technique. The study posits two important findings. The empirical evidence for the political EKC hypothesis for CO2 and SOx does not exist for Nepal, however, CO2 and SOx emissions have positive linear relationship with the level of democracy. Second, the level of democracy as measured by the Polity index does not appear as a dominant factor in explaining degradation of air quality. Factors like population and income keep more explanatory power compared to democracy in accounting degradation of air quality.

Cite this Article:

[Pathak, Amrit, et al. "THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AIR QUALITY AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF NEPAL." International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 2, no. 9, 2017, pp. 4401-4413. September.]