Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis empirical analysis: Turkey example

The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis which explain the presence of inverted-U shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution for the period of 1960-2014 in Turkish economy. For this purpose, three different regression models were developed by using carbon dioxide emissions, per capita real income, the square of per capita real income, energy consumption and trade openness. In the study, ADF, PP and KPSS unit root tests were used to determine the stationarity properties of the variables. The unit root test results allow the use of the ARDL bounds test to determine the long term relationship between the variables. For this reason, the ARDL bounds test was used to examine the cointegration relationship between variables in the study. In the last stage, the long and short term coefficients of variables were estimated in the context of ARDL model. The obtained results support the validity of the EKC hypothesis for Turkey's economy hypothesis in three models. The results also can provide important policy implications for Turkey's economy.