The Comprehensive Analysis of the Impact of Globalization on Environmental Pollution in Iran with Emphasizing on Triple Dimensions and Dual Components

Abstract

In recent decades, the industrialization of countries has been one of the main factors in increasing greenhouse gas emissions, which has caused serious damage to the environment such as global warming, temperature inversion and so on. Also, the increase in environmental pollutants, in the long run, can have a negative impact on individuals' health and thus increase government health care spending. In addition to various factors that influence on greenhouse gas emissions, globalization (economic, social, and political) can also affect the environment by different channels. For example, economic globalization affects the environment through income, composition and technological channels. Moreover, Social globalization is able to alter the state of the environment through the media, the principle of mental distance, transportation and access to knowledge and international events. Political globalization is also able to affect the environment via the efficiency of intergovernmental organizations and international treaties. Therefore, considering the possible role of globalization (economic, social and political) on the environment, the present study attempts to examine the relationship between globalization (economic, social and political) and carbon dioxide emissions in Iran during 1979- 2017 based on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. Besides, this study tested the hypothesis of Martens et al. (2015) on the effectiveness of the results of the Globalization Index in the form of components (de facto and de jure). Besides, the study also tested the hypothesis of Martens et al. (2015). To more clarification, the study examined the above hypothetic based on three dimensions of economic, social, political. In this research, the KOF globalization index has been used, which consists of three dimensions: economic, social and political, and each of the dimensions has two de facto and de jure components. Obviously, the effect of each of these dimensions of globalization and their components on the emission of environmental pollutants can be different. Also, it should be stated that the two de facto and de jure components in the KOF Globalization Index is known as a new classification, which introduced by Martens et al. (2015).The results of the data descriptions show that the dimensions and components of the globalization index have different motion trends. Carbon dioxide emissions have had an increasing trend since Iran's Islamic Revolution. The estimation results of the models (general and components format) indicate that in the short term, the economic and social globalization indexes have a positive effect on carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, the de facto component of total and economic globalization has a negative effect on CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the de facto component of social and political globalization index has a positive effect on carbon dioxide emissions, while the de facto component of total and economic globalization with one-year lag have a positive effect on carbon dioxide emissions. In the long run, the total globalization index does not have a significant effect on carbon dioxide emissions, but two dimensions of social and economic globalization have a direct effect on carbon dioxide emissions. Besides, the de jure component of the total Globalization Index and de jure component of economic, social and political dimensions directly affect carbon dioxide emissions, but de facto component of total and economic globalization index has an indirect effect on carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, Energy consumption and population have a direct effect on CO2 emissions, and the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis cannot be rejected in Iran. Also, the hypothesis of Martens et al. (2015) is not rejected in this study.