Abstract
Validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is consistently and widely debated among economists and environmentalists alike throughout time. In Malaysia, transport is one of the “dirtiest” sectors; it intensively consumes energy in powering engines by using fossil fuels and poses significant threats to environmental quality. Therefore, this study attempted an examination into the impact of corruption on transport carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. By adopting the fully modified ordinary least squares, canonical cointegrating regression, and dynamic ordinary least squares in performing long-run estimations, the results obtained based on the annual data spanning from 1990 to 2017 yielded various notable findings. First, more corruption would be attributable towards increased transport CO2 emissions. Second, a monotonic increment of transport CO2 emission was seen with higher economic growth and thus invalidated the presence of EKC. Overall, this study suggests that Malaysia has yet to reach the level of economic growth synonymous with transport CO2 emission reduction due to the lack of high technology usage in the current system implemented. Therefore, this study could position policy recommendations of use to the Malaysian authorities in designing the appropriate economic and environmental policies, particularly for the transport sector.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdallah KB, Belloumi M, De Wolf D (2013) Indicators for sustainable energy development: a multivariate cointegration and causality analysis from Tunisian road transport sector. Renew Sust Energ Rev 25:34–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.03.066
Abid M (2016) Impact of economic, financial, and institutional factors on CO2 emissions: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa economies. Util Policy 41:85–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2016.06.009
Alshehry AS, Belloumi M (2017) Study of the environmental Kuznets curve for transport carbon dioxide emissions in Saudi Arabia. Renew Sust Energ Rev 75:1339–1347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.122
Altıntaş H, Kassouri Y (2020) Is the environmental Kuznets curve in Europe related to the per-capita ecological footprint or CO2 emissions? Ecol Indic, 113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106187
Apergis N, Garćıa C (2019) Environmentalism in the EU-28 context: the impact of governance quality on environmental energy efficiency. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:37012–37025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06600-1
Azlina AA, Law SH, Mustapha NHN (2014) Dynamic linkages among transport energy consumption, income and CO2 emission in Malaysia. Energy Policy 73:598–606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2014.05.046
Briggs HG, Leong HK (2016) Malaysia stocktaking report on sustainable transport and climate change. http://www.mot.gov.my/SiteCollectionDocuments/Darat/MY_StockTakingReport_Final.pdf. Accessed 16 Feb 2019
Cai B, Yang W, Cao D, Liu L, Zhou Y, Zhang Z (2012) Estimates of China’s national and regional transport sector CO2 emissions in 2007. Energy Policy 41:474–483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.008
Callen M, Long JD (2015) Institutional corruption and election fraud: evidence from a field experiment in Afghanistan. Am Econ Rev 105(1):354–381. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20120427
Chandran VG, Tang CF (2013) The impacts of transport energy consumption, foreign direct investment and income on CO2 emissions in ASEAN-5 economies. Renew Sust Energ Rev 24:445–453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.03.054
Chowdhury RR, Moran EF (2012) Turning the curve: a critical review of Kuznets approaches. Appl Geogr 32(1):3–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2010.07.004
Cole MA (2007) Corruption, income and the environment: an empirical analysis. Ecol Econ 62(3-4):637–647. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.08.003
Cole MA, Rayner AJ, Bates JM (1997) The environmental Kuznets curve: an empirical analysis. Environ Dev Econ 2(4):401–416. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X97000211
Cox A, Collins A, Woods L, Ferguson N (2012) A household level environmental Kuznets curve? Some recent evidence on transport emissions and income. Econ Lett 115(2):187–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2011.12.014
Damania R, Fredriksson PG, List JA (2003) Trade liberalization, corruption, and environmental policy formation: theory and evidence. J Environ Econ Manag 46(3):490–512. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0095-0696(03)00025-1
Fredriksson PG, Svensson J (2003) Political instability, corruption and policy formation: the case of environmental policy. J Public Econ 87(7-8):1383–1405. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2727(02)00036-1
Fredriksson PG, List JA, Millimet DL (2003) Bureaucratic corruption, environmental policy and inbound US FDI: theory and evidence. J Public Econ 87(7-8):1407–1430. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2727(02)00016-6
Fredriksson PG, Vollebergh HR, Dijkgraaf E (2004) Corruption and energy efficiency in OECD countries: theory and evidence. J Environ Econ Manag 47(2):207–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2003.08.001
Go YH, Lau LS, Yii KJ, Lau WY (2020) Does energy efficiency affect economic growth? Evidence from aggregate and disaggregate levels. Energy Environ 31:983–1006. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958305X19882395
Habib S, Abdelmonen S, Khaled M (2018) The effect of corruption on the environmental quality in African countries: a panel quantile regression analysis. J Knowl Econ 11:1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-018-0571-8
Hansen BE (1992) Tests for parameter stability in regressions with I(1) processes. J Bus Econ Stat 10:321–335. https://doi.org/10.1198/073500102753410381
He K, Huo H, Zhang Q, He D, An F, Wang M, Walsh MP (2005) Oil consumption and CO2 emissions in China’s road transport: current status, future trends, and policy implications. Energy Policy 33(12):1499–1507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2004.01.007
Hilton FH, Levinson A (1998) Factoring the environmental Kuznets curve: evidence from automotive lead emissions. J Environ Econ Manag 35(2):126–141. https://doi.org/10.1006/jeem.1998.1023
Hosseini HM, Kaneko S (2013) Can environmental quality spread through institutions? Energy Policy 56:312–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.12.067
Johansen S (1988) Statistical analysis of cointegrating vector. J Econ Dyn Control 12:231–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1889(88)90041-3
Lægreid OM, Povitkina M (2018) Do political institutions moderate the GDP-CO2 relationship? Ecol Econ 145:441–450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.11.014
Lanne M, Lütkepohl H, Saikkonen P (2002) Comparison of unit root tests for time series with level shifts. J Time Ser Anal 23(6):667–685. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9892.00285
Leitao A (2010) Corruption and the environmental Kuznets curve: empirical evidence for sulfur. Ecol Econ 69(11):2191–2201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.06.004
Lewis DE (2007) Testing Pendleton’s premise: do political appointees make worse bureaucrats? J Polit 69(4):1073–1088
Liddle B (2015) Urban transport pollution: revisiting the environmental Kuznets curve. Int J Sustain Transp 9(7):502–508. https://doi.org/10.1080/15568318.2013.814077
Liu X, Latif K, Latif Z, Li N (2020) Relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions: does governance matter? Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08142-3
Lopez R, Mitra S (2000) Corruption, pollution, and the Kuznets environment curve. J Environ Econ Manag 40(2):137–150. https://doi.org/10.1006/jeem.1999.1107
Lu IJ, Lewis C, Lin SJ (2009) The forecast of motor vehicle, energy demand and CO2 emission from Taiwan’s road transportation sector. Energy Policy 37(8):2952–2961. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.03.039
Lv Q, Liu H, Yang D, Liu H (2019) Effects of urbanization on freight transport carbon emissions in China: common characteristics and regional disparity. J Clean Prod 211:481–489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.182
Malaysian Automotive Association (2018) Malaysia automotive info-summary of sales and production data. http://www.maa.org.my/info_summary.htm. Accessed 16 Feb 2019
Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (2013) Reports. https://www.miros.gov.my/xs/penerbitan.php?pagetype=15. Accessed 16 Feb 2019
Masron TA, Subramaniam Y (2018) The environmental Kuznets curve in the presence of corruption in develo** countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25(13):12491–12506. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-1473-9
Newey WK, West KD (1987) A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix. Econometrica 55:703–708
Ozturk I, Al-Mulali U, Solarin SA (2019) The control of corruption and energy efficiency relationship: an empirical note. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26(17):17277–17283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05016-1
Pablo-Romero MP, Cruz L, Barata E (2017) Testing the transport energy-environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the EU27 countries. Energy Econ 62:257–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2017.01.003
Paladugula AL, Kholod N, Chaturvedi V, Ghosh PP, Pal S, Clarke L, Qamar S (2018) A multi-model assessment of energy and emissions for India’s transportation sector through 2050. Energy Policy 116:10–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.01.037
Park JY (1992) Canonical cointegrating regressions. Econometrica 60(1):119–143 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2951679
Pellegrini L, Gerlagh R (2006) Corruption, democracy, and environmental policy: an empirical contribution to the debate. J Environ Dev 15(3):332–354. https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496506290960
Phillips PC, Hansen BE (1990) Statistical inference in instrumental variables regression with I (1) processes. Rev Econ Stud 57(1):99–125. https://doi.org/10.2307/2297545
Phillips PC, Perron P (1988) Testing for a unit root in time series regression. Biometrika 75(2):335–346. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/75.2.335
Pongthanaisawan J, Sorapipatana C (2013) Greenhouse gas emissions from Thailand’s transport sector: trends and mitigation options. Appl Energy 101:288–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.09.026
Saboori B, Sapri M, Bin Baba M (2014) Economic growth, energy consumption and CO2 emissions in OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)’s transport sector: a fully modified bi-directional relationship approach. Energy 66:150–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2013.12.048
Sekrafi H, Sghaier A (2018) The effect of corruption on carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption in Tunisia. PSU Res Rev 2(1):81–95. https://doi.org/10.1108/PRR-11-2016-0008
Sinha A, Gupta M, Shahbaz M, Sengupta T (2019) Impact of corruption in public sector on environmental quality: implications for sustainability in BRICS and next 11 countries. J Clean Prod 232:1379–1393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.066
Solaymani S (2019) CO2 emissions patterns in 7 top carbon emitter economies: the case of transport sector. Energy 168:989–1001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.11.145
Stock JH, Watson MW (1993) A simple estimator of cointegrating vectors in higher order integrated systems. Econometrica: 783-820. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2951763
Talbi B (2017) CO2 emissions reduction in road transport sector in Tunisia. Renew Sust Energ Rev 69:232–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.208
Tanishita M, Miyoshi H (2007) Safety and fuel economy of passenger cars. ITEC working paper series 07-03
Timilsina GR, Shrestha A (2009a) Factors affecting transport sector CO2 emissions growth in Latin American and Caribbean countries: an LMDI decomposition analysis. Int J Energy Res 33(4):396–414. https://doi.org/10.1002/er.1486
Timilsina GR, Shrestha A (2009b) Why have CO2 emissions increased in the transport sector in Asia? Underlying factors and policy options. The World Bank
Varoudakis A, Tiongson ER, Pushak T (2007) Public finance, governance, and growth in transition economies: empirical evidence from 1992-2004. The World Bank
Wang C, Cai W, Lu X, Chen J (2007) CO2 mitigation scenarios in China’s road transport sector. Energy Convers Manag 48(7):2110–2118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2006.12.022
Wang Z, Danish ZB, Wang B (2018a) The moderating role of corruption between economic growth and CO2 emissions: evidence from BRICS economies. Energy 148:506–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.01.167
Wang B, Sun Y, Chen Q, Wang Z (2018b) Determinants analysis of carbon dioxide emissions in passenger and freight transportation sectors in China. Struct Chang Econ Dyn 47:127–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2018.08.003
World Bank (2019) CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/en.atm.co2e.pc. Accessed 16 Feb 2019
World Health Organization (2019) Health and sustainable development. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/sustainable-development/transport/health-risks/climate-impacts/en/. Accessed 16 Feb 2019
Xu B, Lin B (2015) Factors affecting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in China’s transport sector: a dynamic nonparametric additive regression model. J Clean Prod 101:311–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.03.088
Zhang M, Li H, Zhou M, Mu H (2011) Decomposition analysis of energy consumption in Chinese transportation sector. Appl Energy 88(6):2279–2285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.12.077
Zhang YJ, ** YL, Chevallier J, Shen B (2016) The effect of corruption on carbon dioxide emissions in APEC countries: a panel quantile regression analysis. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 112:220–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.05.027
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees of the journal for their extremely useful suggestions to improve the quality of the article. This article is the revised version of an earlier work presented at Belt & Road Forum: The 4th International Energy Finance Conference 2019 held at School of Economics and Management, **’an University of Technology, **’an, China on 21 April 2019.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Eyup Dogan
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(XLSX 14 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Go, YH., Lau, LS., Liew, FM. et al. A transport environmental Kuznets curve analysis for Malaysia: exploring the role of corruption. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 3421–3433 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10736-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10736-w