What is the role of environmental stress on public health? Asymmetric evidence on carbon emissions, ecological footprint, and load capacity factor

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the effects of carbon emission, ecological footprint, which takes into account the demand side of the environment, and load capacity factor, which takes into account both the supply and demand sides of the environment, on health expenditures with conventional and quantile methods. According to the conventional co-integration approach, there is no relationship between the environment and health expenditures. The other side, the findings obtained from the quantile co-integration method, which can give robust results in the presence of tailed distributions and possible endogeneity problems and consider the asymmetric structure in the data set, show the existence of a long-term relationship between the variables. According to the coefficient estimates, while carbon emission and ecological footprint increase health expenditures, the load capacity factor decreases.

Keywords

• Asymmetry
• health expenditures
• load capasity factor
• quantile co-integration

References

1. World Health Organization, “Air pollution,” https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1 Accessed on Jan 17, 2023.
2. EEA, “European Environment Agency, 2023. https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/human/intro Accessed on Jan 10, 2023.
3. World Health Organization, “Environmental health,” https://www.who.int/health-topics/environmental-health#tab=tab_2 Accessed on Jan 17, 2023.
4. World Health Organization, “Climate change,” https://www.who.int/health-topics/climate-change#tab=tab_1 , World Health Organization website. Accessed on Jan 17, 2023.
5. I. L. Pepper, C. P. Gerba, and M. L. Brusseau, “The Extent of Global Pollution,” I. L. Pepper, C. P. Gerba, and M. L. Brusseau, (Eds.), Environmental and pollution science. Academic Press, Elsevier Inc., pp. 3-12, 2006.
6. UN, “United Nations,” 2023, https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/biodiversity/ Accessed on Jan 10, 2023.
7. World Meteorological Organization. https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/weather-related-disasters-increase-over-past-50-years-causing-more-damage-fewer Accessed on Jan 10, 2023.
8. M. J. Ahern, and A. J. McMichael, “Global environmental changes and human health,” R. E. Hester, and R. M. Harrison, (Eds.), Global environmental change-issues in environmental science and technology. The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 2002. [CrossRef]

9. United Nations, “Report of the United Nations conference on the human environment, “Stockholm, 5-16 June 1972, United Nations, New York, 1973.
10. United Nations, “Report of the United Nations conference on environment and development,” Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992, United Nations, New York, 1993.
11. United Nations, “United Nations millennium declaration, resolution adopted by the general assembly,” Fifty-Fifth Session Agenda Item 60 (b), General Assembly, United Nations, 2000.
12. United Nations, “Keeping The Promise: United to Achieve The Millennium Development Goals,” Resolution Adopted by The General Assembly on 22 September 2010, Fifty-Fifth Session Agenda Item 13 and 115, General Assembly, United Nations, 2010.
13. United Nations, “Paris aggrement, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf, 2015.
14. United Nations, “Climate change Paris-agreement,” https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/paris-agreement. Accessed on Jan 22, 2023.
15. United Nations, “Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity,” https://www.stockholm50.global/ Accessed on Jan 22, 2023.
16. United Nations, “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” https://unfccc.int/cop27 , Accessed on Jan 22, 2023.
17. UN, “UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Sustainable Development,” https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3 Accessed on Jan 10, 2023.
18. Ministry of Health. National Program and Action Plan for Reducing the Negative Effects of Climate Change on Health, Turkiye Public Health Institution, Department of Environmental Health, Ministry Publication No: 998, 2015.
19. Ministry of Health. 2019-2023 Strategic plan (Updated version-2022), Publication No: 1223, 2022.
20. A. Çelekli, and Ö. E. Zariç, “From emissions to environmental impact: understanding the carbon footprint,” International Journal of Environment and Geoinformatics, Vol. 10(4), pp. 146-156, 2023. [CrossRef]
21. S. Chaabouni, and K. Saidi, “The dynamic links between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, health spending and GDP growth: A case study for 51 countries,” Environmental Research, Vol. 158, pp. 137-144, 2017. [CrossRef]
22. B. Yang, and M. Usman, “Do industrialization, economic growth and globalization processes influence the ecological footprint and healthcare expenditures? Fresh insights based on the STIRPAT model for countries with the highest healthcare expenditures,” Sustainable Production and Consumption, Vol. 28, pp. 893-910, 2021. [CrossRef]
23. Y. Shang, A. Razzaq, S. Chupradit, N. B. An, and Z. Abdul-Samad, “The role of renewable energy consumption and health expenditures in improving load capacity factor in ASEAN countries: Exploring new paradigm using advance panel models,” Renewable Energy, Vol. 191, pp. 715-722, 2022. [CrossRef]
24. B. N. Abbasi, Z. Luo, A. Sohail, L. Yang, L. Huimin, and C. Rongrong, “Global Shocks of Education, Health, and Environmental Footprint on National Development in the Twenty-First Century: A Threshold Structural VAR Analysis,” Journal of the Knowledge Economy, pp. 1-37, 2023. [CrossRef]
25. OECD (2001). “OECD Environmental Outlook - Human Health and the Environment,” OECD Publications, 2001.
26. N. Kongbuamai, Q. Bui, H. M. A. U. Yousaf, and Y. Liu, “The impact of tourism and natural resources on the ecological footprint: a case study of ASEAN countries,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Vol. 27, pp. 19251-19264, 2020. [CrossRef]
27. A. E. Caglar, E. Yavuz, M. Mert, and E. Kilic, “The ecological footprint facing asymmetric natural resources challenges: evidence from the USA,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Vol. 29, pp. 10521–10534, 2022. [CrossRef]
28. Z. Wang, H. Chen, and Y. P. Teng, “Role of greener energies, high tech-industries and financial expansion for ecological footprints: Implications from sustainable development perspective,” Renewable Energy, Vol. 202, pp. 1424-1435, 2023. [CrossRef]
29. E. Yavuz, E. Ergen, T. Avci, F. Akcay, and E. Kilic, “Do the effects of aggregate and disaggregate energy consumption on different environmental quality indicators change in the transition to sustainable development? Evidence from wavelet coherence analysis,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, pp. 1-21, 2023. [CrossRef]
30. M. Shahbaz, and A. Sinha, “Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: a literature survey,” Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 46(1), pp. 106-168, 2019. [CrossRef]
31. U. K. Pata, M. Aydin, and I. Haouas, “Are natural resources abundance and human development a solution for environmental pressure? Evidence from top ten countries with the largest ecological footprint,” Resources Policy, Vol. 70, Article 101923, 2021. [CrossRef]
32. U. K. Pata, and C. Isik, “Determinants of the load capacity factor in China: a novel dynamic ARDL approach for ecological footprint accounting. Resources Policy, Vol. 74, Article 102313, 2021. [CrossRef]
33. D. Xu, S. Salem, A. A. Awosusi, G. Abdurakhmanova, M. Altuntaş, D. Oluwajana, D. Kirikkaleli, and O. Ojekemi, “Load capacity factor and financial globalization in Brazil: the role of renewable energy and urbanization,” Frontiers in Environmental Science, Vol. 9, Article 823185, 2022. [CrossRef]
34. E. Yavuz, E. Kilic, and A. E. Caglar, “A new hypothesis for the unemployment-environment dilemma: is the environmental Phillips curve valid in the framework of load capacity factor in Turkiye?,” Environment, Development and Sustainability, pp. 1-18, 2023. [CrossRef]
35. Z. Xiao, “Quantile cointegrating regression,” Journal of Econometrics, Vol. 150(2), pp. 248-260, 2009.
36. B. Brunekreef, and S. T. Holgate, “Air pollution and health,” The Lancet, Vol. 360(9341), pp. 1233-1242, 2002. [CrossRef]
37. M. Jerrett, J. Eyles, C. Dufournaud, and S. Birch, “Environmental influences on healthcare expenditures: an exploratory analysis from Ontario, Canada,” Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, Vol. 57(5), pp. 334-338, 2003. [CrossRef]
38. P. K. Narayan, and S. Narayan, “Does environmental quality influence health expenditures? Empirical evidence from a panel of selected OECD countries,” Ecological Economics, Vol. 65(2), pp. 367-374, 2008. [CrossRef]
39. H. Abdullah, M. Azam, and S. K. Zakariya, “The impact of environmental quality on public health expenditure in Malaysia,” Asia Pacific Institute of Advanced Research, Vol. 2(2), pp. 365-379, 2016.
40. N. Apergis, R. Gupta, and C. K. M. Lau, and Z. Mukherjee, “US state-level carbon dioxide emissions: does it affect health care expenditure?,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 91, pp. 521-530, 2018. [CrossRef]
41. O. Y. Alimi, K. B. Ajide, and W. A. Isola, “Environmental quality and health expenditure in ECOWAS,” Environment, Development and Sustainability, Vol. 22, pp. 5105-5127, 2020. [CrossRef]
42. S. Nasreen, “Association between health expenditures, economic growth and environmental pollution: Long‐run and causality analysis from Asian economies,” The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Vol. 36(3), pp. 925-944, 2021. [CrossRef]
43. Z. Xing, and X. Liu, “Health expenditures, environmental quality, and economic development: State-of-the-art review and findings in the context of COP26,” Frontiers in Public Health, Vol. 10, Article 954080, 2022. [CrossRef]
44. J. Bu, and K. Ali, “Environmental degradation in terms of health expenditure, education and economic growth. Evidence of novel approach,” Frontiers in Environmental Science, Vol. 10, Article 1046213, 2022. [CrossRef]
45. M. Benli, “Carbon emission as a determinant of health expenditures,” Social Sciences Research Journal, Vol. 11(2), pp. 250-257, 2022.
46. U. K. Pata, and A. Samour, “Do renewable and nuclear energy enhance environmental quality in France? A new EKC approach with the load capacity factor,” Progress in Nuclear Energy, Vol. 149, Article 104249, 2022. [CrossRef]
47. R. Siche, L. Pereira, F. Agostinho, and E. Ortega, “Convergence of ecological footprint and emergy analysis as a sustainability indicator of countries: Peru as case study,” Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, Vol. 15(10), pp. 3182-3192, 2010. [CrossRef]
48. Z. Fareed, S. Salem, T. S. Adebayo, U. K. Pata, and F. Shahzad, “Role of export diversification and renewable energy on the load capacity factor in Indonesia: a Fourier quantile causality approach,” Frontiers in Environmental Science, Vol. 9, Article 770152, 2021. [CrossRef]
49. X. Liu, V. O. Olanrewaju, E. B. Agyekum, M. F. El-Naggar, M. M. Alrashed, and S. Kamel, “Determinants of load capacity factor in an emerging economy: The role of green energy consumption and technological innovation,” Frontiers in Environmental Science, Vol. 10, Article 2071, 2022. [CrossRef]
50. U. K. Pata, M. T. Kartal, T. S. Adebayo, and S. Ullah, “Enhancing environmental quality in the United States by linking biomass energy consumption and load capacity factor,” Geoscience Frontiers, Vol. 14(3), Article 101531, 2023. [CrossRef]
51. A. E. Caglar, and E. Yavuz, “The role of environmental protection expenditures and renewable energy consumption in the context of ecological challenges: Insights from the European Union with the novel panel econometric approach,” Journal of Environmental Management, Vol. 331, Article 117317, 2023. [CrossRef]
52. W. X., Zhao, A. Samour, K. Yi, and M. A. S. Al-Faryan, “Do technological innovation, natural resources and stock market development promote environmental sustainability? Novel evidence based on the load capacity factor,” Resources Policy, Vol. 82, Article 103397, 2023. [CrossRef]
53. U. Khan, A. M. Khan, M. S. Khan, P. Ahmed, A. Haque, and R. A. Parvin, “Are the impacts of renewable energy use on load capacity factors homogeneous for developed and developing nations? Evidence from the G7 and E7 nations,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Vol. 30(9), pp. 24629-24640, 2023. [CrossRef]
54. B. Guloglu, A. E. Caglar, and U. K. Pata, “Analyzing the determinants of the load capacity factor in OECD countries: Evidence from advanced quantile panel data methods,” Gondwana Research, Vol. 118, pp. 92-104, 2023. [CrossRef]
55. M. Gündüz, “Healthcare expenditure and carbon footprint in the USA: evidence from hidden co-integration approach,” The European Journal of Health Economics, Vol. 21(5), pp. 801-811, 2020. [CrossRef]
56. D. Qaiser Gillani, S. A. S. Gillani, M. Z. Naeem, C. Spulbar, E. Coker-Farrell, A. Ejaz, and R. Birau, “The nexus between sustainable economic development and government health expenditure in Asian countries based on ecological footprint consumption,” Sustainability, Vol. 13(12), Article 6824, 2021. [CrossRef]
57. R. Triki, B. Kahouli, K. Tissaoui, and H. Tlili, “Assessing the link between environmental quality, green finance, health expenditure, renewable energy, and technology innovation,” Sustainability, Vol. 15(5), Article 4286, 2023. [CrossRef]
58. O. Y. Alimi, and K. B. Ajide, “The role of institutions in environment–health outcomes Nexus: empirical evidence from sub-Saharan Africa,” Economic Change and Restructuring, Vol. 54(4), pp. 1205-1252, 2021. [CrossRef]
59. T. S. Adebayo, and A. Samour, “Renewable energy, fiscal policy and load capacity factor in BRICS countries: novel findings from panel nonlinear ARDL model,” Environment, Development and Sustainability, pp. 1-25, 2023. [CrossRef]
60. S. Demir, H. Demir, C. Karaduman, and M. Cetin, “Environmental quality and health expenditures efficiency in Turkiye: The role of natural resources,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Vol. 30(6), pp. 15170-15185, 2023. [CrossRef]
61. M. Aydin, and O. Bozatli, “The impacts of the refugee population, renewable energy consumption, carbon emissions, and economic growth on health expenditure in Turkey: new evidence from Fourier-based analyses,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Vol. 30(14), pp. 41286-41298, 2023. [CrossRef]
62. S. Erdogan, M. Kirca, and A. Gedikli, “Is there a relationship between CO2 emissions and health expenditures? Evidence from BRICS-T countries,” Business and Economics Research Journal, Vol. 11(2), pp. 293-305, 2020. [CrossRef]
63. A. Khan, J. Hussain, S. Bano, and Y. Chenggang, “The repercussions of foreign direct investment, renewable energy and health expenditure on environmental decay? An econometric analysis of B&RI countries,” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Vol. 63(11), pp. 1965-1986, 2020. [CrossRef]
64. M. A. Rehman, Z. Fareed, S. Salem, A. Kanwal, and U. K. Pata, “Do diversified export, agriculture, and cleaner energy consumption induce atmospheric pollution in Asia? Application of method of moments quantile regression,” Frontiers in Environmental Science, Vol. 9, Article 781097, 2021. [CrossRef]
65. L. Du, H. Jiang, T. S. Adebayo, A. A. Awosusi, and A. Razzaq, “Asymmetric effects of high-tech industry and renewable energy on consumption-based carbon emissions in MINT countries,” Renewable Energy, Vol. 196, pp. 1269-1280, 2022. [CrossRef]
66. T. S. Adebayo, U. K. Pata, and S. S. Akadiri, “A comparison of CO2 emissions, load capacity factor, and ecological footprint for Thailand’s environmental sustainability,” Environment, Development and Sustainability, Vol. 26, pp. 2203-2223, 2022. [CrossRef]
67. M. T. Kartal, A. Samour, T. S. Adebayo, and S. K. Depren, “Do nuclear energy and renewable energy surge environmental quality in the United States? New insights from novel bootstrap Fourier Granger causality in quantiles approach,” Progress in Nuclear Energy, Vol. 155, Article 104509, 2023. [CrossRef]
68. E. Akhayere, M. T. Kartal, T. S. Adebayo, and D. Kavaz, “Role of energy consumption and trade openness towards environmental sustainability in Turkey,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Vol. 30(8), pp. 21156-21168, 2023. [CrossRef]
69. Global Footprint Network, “Data,” https://data.footprintnetwork.org/?_ga=2.104275776.1558657453.1678090741-992159244.1678090741#/aboutthe Accessed on Jan 23, 2023.
70. OECD, “Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,” https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm Accessed on Jan 05, 2023.
71. “Our World In Data,” https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions Accessed on Jan 05, 2023.
72. “Global Footprint Network,” https://www.footprintnetwork.org/ Accessed on Jan 05, 2023.
73. C. M. Jarque, and A. K. Bera, “A Test for Normality of Observations and Regression Residuals,” International Statistical Review, pp. 163-172, 1987. [CrossRef]
74. D. W. Pearce, and R. K. Turner, “Economics of Natural Resources and The Environment, Johns Hopkins University Press.
75. R. F. Engle, and C. W. Granger, “Co-integration and error correction: representation, estimation, and testing,” Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, pp. 251-276, 1987. [CrossRef]
76. R. Koenker, and Z. Xiao, “Unit root quantile autoregression inference,” Journal of The American Statistical Association, Vol. 99(467), pp. 775-787, 2004. [CrossRef]
77. S. Portnoy, “Asymptotic behavior of regression quantiles in non-stationary, dependent cases,” Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Vol. 38(1), pp. 100-113, 1991. [CrossRef]
78. Q. R. Syed, W. S. Malik, and B. H. Chang, “Volatility spillover effect of federal reserve’s balance sheet on the financial and goods markets of Indo-Pak region,” Annals of Financial Economics, Vol. 14(03), Article 1950015, 2019. [CrossRef]
79. D. A. Dickey, and W. A. Fuller, “Distribution of the estimators for autoregressive time series with a unit root,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 74(366a), pp. 427-431, 1979. [CrossRef]
80. “World Bank” https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators Accessed on Jan 25, 2023.
81. “Turkish Statistical Institute,” https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Search/Search?text=motorlu%20kara Accessed on Jan 24.
82. “Turkish Statistical Institute,” https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Kategori/GetKategori?p=Nufus-ve-Demografi-109 , website. [Online]. Accessed on Jan 24.
83. S. Nazlioglu, TSPDLIB: GAUSS Time Series and Panel Data Methods (Version 2.1). Source Code, 2021. https://github.com/aptech/tspdlib Accessed on Jul 17, 2024.