The relationship between foreign direct investment, economic growth, energy consumption and CO2 emissions: Evidence from ARDL model with a structural break for Turkey

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of foreign direct investments, energy consumption and economic growth on CO2 emissions in Turkey for the period of 1974-2015 by using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model with a structural break. FMOLS and DOLS estimations are employed to check robustness of the model. The findings reveal a long-run relationship between the variables, and show that FDI contributes positively to CO2 emissions, validating pollution haven hypothesis. Economic growth has significantly positive relationship with CO2 emissions whereas impact of its square on CO2 emissions is also significant, but negative which confirms Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. Energy consumption is also positively associated with CO2 emissions, meaning that higher levels of energy consumption lead to a higher environmental degradation. The dummy variable including the structural break is also statistically significant and positive. It is concluded that because of FDI inflows engender an increment in carbon emissions, Turkey should adopt cleaner technologies to avoid environmental pollution.