Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve, pollution haven and pollution halo hypotheses in the transport industry: The case of selected EU countries

In recent years, the devastating effects of global warming and climate crisis have been occupying the agenda of states and societies intensively. These effects, which are caused by the wastes and emissions from released to the nature as a result of human-based activities, occur largely due to excessive consumption of natural resources and fossil fuels. The transportation industry, on the other hand, is one of the industries that is highly dependent on the fossil fuel consumption due to its conventional structure and emits the most greenhouse gas emissions in many regions of the world. In this study, it is aimed to investigates of the validity of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), pollution haven and pollution halo hypotheses in the transportation industry of European Union (EU) countries which stand out with advanced transportation infrastructures, high environmental standarts and stable economies. In this context, a panel data analysis was carried out using the data of 23 EU countries for the years 1995-2018. As a result of the econometric analyzes, although it was determined that the EKC hypothesis was valid for the panel, significant coefficients could not be reached for the pollution halo and pollution haven hypotheses. According to country-based results, on the other hand, it was concluded that the EKC hypothesis was valid in 4 countries, the pollution halo hypothesis was valid in 3 countries, and the pollution haven hypothesis was valid in 7 countries. In addition, the turning point of EKC was calculated as 147.116 billion Euro.