FREEDOM TO POLLUTE

Öz

Çalışma, Türkiye’de gelir ve demokrasinin çevresel kalite üzerindeki rolünü analiz etmektedir. Ekonomik büyüme ve demokratikleşme Türkiye’nin başlıca iki ana amacı olduğundan, demokrasideki iyileşmelerin ve ekonomik büyüme oranındaki artışın çevre üzerine olumlu etkisi olacağı beklenmektedir. Dolayısıyla, gelir ve demokrasinin kısa ve uzun dönem etkilerini incelemek amacıyla, 1960-2011 periyodu için Türkiye’de kişi başı CO2 emisyon seviyesi ARDL sınır testi ile analiz edilmiştir. Sonuçlara göre, gelir ve CO2 emisyon seviyesi arasında, ve demokrasi ve CO2 emisyon seviyesi arasında, ters U eğrisi şeklinde ilişki bulduk. Türkiye’de demokrasideki iyileşmelerin çevresel bozulmalara yol açtığını bulduk. Analiz sonuçları ayrıca, ticari açıklık ve finansal gelişmenin karbon emisyon seviyesi üzerinde pozitif etkileri olduğu bulunurken, yenilenebilir enerjinin karbon emisyon seviyeleri üzerinde negatif anlamlı etkisi olduğu bulunmuştur.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• ARDL Modeli
• Demokrasi
• Çevresel Kuznets Eğrisi
• Türkiye

FREEDOM TO POLLUTE

Öz

The study analyzes the role of income and democracy on environmental quality in Turkey. Since economic growth and democratization are two main objectives of Turkey for decades, it is expected that improvements in democracy and increases in economic growth rate may have positive impacts on environment. Thus, to observe the short and long run impacts of income and democracy, an ARDL bounds test on per capita CO2 emission level in Turkey is employed for the 1960-2011 period. According to the results, we have found that an inverted U-Shape type relationship between income and CO2 emission level, and democracy and CO2 emission level. We have found that improvement in democracy leads to environmental degradation for Turkey. The findings of the analysis also show that renewable energy has a negative significant effect on carbon emission level, while trade openness and financial development have positive significant effects on it.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• ARDL Model
• Democracy
• Environmental Kuznets Curve
• Turkey

Kaynakça

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