The relationship between foreign direct investment and CO2 emissions:The case of Turkey (1974-2010)

With wide speared globalization borders between countries have been broken up and FDI began to from one country to another country. For reasons such as lack of strict environmental regulations the dirty industries flows from developed countries into developing counties and the shift towards pollution emissions in developing countries has been raised. In the literature, this is defined as "pollution haven hypothesis". The aim of this study is to determine relations between FDI and CO2 emissions in Turkey. This study examines the relationship between CO2 emissions and FDI using the Engle-Granger cointegration test and Toda and Yamamoto causality test with annual data for 1974-2010. The results obtained from cointegration test indicate that CO2 emissions and FDI are cointegrated. Moreover, the results of Error Correction model and Toda and Yamamoto causality test reveal that there is a bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions and FDI. The significance of these emprical results is that pollution haven hypothesis is valid for Turkey. Key Words: Foreign Direct Investment, Cointegration, Causality, Pollution Haven Hypothesis