Three essays on public economics and the environment

The world continues to warm at a rate well above historical averages. This situation causes environmental problems such as ecological imbalance, which is very difficult to compensate for, in other words, global warming and climate change problems. More concretely, in terms of ecological sustainability, most countries have unsustainable ecological deficits. In other words, biocapacity is far from meeting the ecological demand. Therefore, environmental sustainability is one of the biggest problems of the current century. In order to combat environmental problems and ensure environmental sustainability, several environmental policy actions are taken at both national and international levels. In this context, the importance of public economic instruments emerges. The main objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of selected public economic instruments on environmental quality and sustainability. The study analyses the impact of environmental taxes, environmental regulations, and environmental protection expenditures on environmental quality and environmental sustainability indicators such as ecological footprint and load capacity factor within the framework of three independent essays. In the first essay, the impact of environmental taxes, economic growth, renewable energy, and environmental technology on the ecological footprint in 10 OECD countries following a relatively stricter environmental tax policy than others is investigated using novel panel time series techniques. The long-run cointegration relationship between the series was identified, and the long-run coefficients were calculated with the AMG estimator. The findings indicate that environmental taxes and renewable energy reduce the ecological footprint, economic growth increases the ecological footprint, and environmental technology has no statistically significant effect. Therefore, while environmental taxes and renewable energy are effective policies that alleviate environmental pressure by reducing pollution, the economic growth process has the opposite effect. Contrary to expectations, environmental technology is not an effective environmental policy instrument. The findings were subjected to robustness analysis with DCCE and CS-ARDL methods, and it was determined that the findings were valid. In the second essay, the effects of environmental regulations, economic growth, and renewable energy on ecological footprint and load capacity factor in Turkey, which follows a different path compared to its peers and the group it is in, are analyzed within the framework of EKC and LCC hypotheses. Methodologically, Fourier-based econometric methodology is followed. Environmental regulations are examined both in general and compositionally in separate models. According to the findings, market-based environmental regulations implemented in Turkey are effective policies for alleviating environmental pressure and ensuring environmental sustainability. On the other hand, technology support and command and control regulations are ineffective policies on both indicators. Renewable energy policies have been identified as reducing environmental pollution and contributing to environmental sustainability. Finally, evidence favoring the validity of the EKC and LCC hypotheses in Turkey is found. In this context, while income level decreases environmental quality up to a certain point, it increases environmental quality after the turning point. The findings were subjected to robustness analysis with Fourier-based methods, and it was revealed that the findings were valid. The third essay analyzes the Netherlands, which has a stricter environmental protection expenditure and resource tax policy among both OECD and EU countries. The effects of environmental protection expenditures, resource tax, government effectiveness, economic growth, and renewable energy on environmental sustainability are investigated in this context. Methodologically, Fourier-based econometric methodology is followed. The findings imply that environmental protection expenditures and resource tax implemented in the Netherlands are effective policies in ensuring environmental sustainability. Similarly, renewable energy policies and the level of government effectiveness contribute positively to environmental sustainability. Finally, economic growth increases environmental pressure and negatively affects environmental sustainability. The findings were subjected to robustness analysis with Fourier-based methods, and it was determined that the findings were valid. The study's findings prove the role of selected public economic instruments in reducing environmental pollution and contributing to environmental sustainability. Such a finding implies that public economic instruments or, in other words, governments are an essential determinant in combating climate change. In addition, government effectiveness used as a proxy for institutional capacity is thought to increase the success of environmental policies. Again, the role of environmentally friendly renewable energy in improving environmental quality and the undesirable negative impact of the economic growth process on environmental quality has been confirmed.