UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL STUDIES HO CHI MINH CITY THE HAGUE VIETNAM THE NETHERLANDS VIETNAM - NETHERLANDS PROGRAMME FOR M.A IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS The impact of foreign direct investment and economic growth on CO2 emissions: Empirical study in ASIA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS By DO DANG NGOC GIAU Academic Supervisor: Dr. PHAM KHANH NAM HO CHI MINH CITY, NOVEMBER 2015 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION ―I certify that the substance of this thesis has not already been submitted for any degree and have not been currently submitted for any other degree. I certify that to the best of my knowledge and help received in preparing this thesis and all sources used have been acknowledged in this thesis.‖ HCMC, November 2015 Signature DO DANG NGOC GIAU 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This process of writing a thesis is a collaborative experience involving the support and helps from many people. I want to express my gratitude to those who give me the tremendous support to complete this thesis.
I greatly express my special thanks to my supervisor Dr. Pham Khanh Nam for all his academic recommendations through finishing this process. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Truong Dang Thuy for his suggestion which help me handle some problems in this thesis.
I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Vo Hong Duc who gives me some logical ways in order to present confidently in this thesis. During my time at VNP, I receive a great encouragement and help from some friends, so I am grateful to Mr.Vo Van Hung, Mr.Trinh Hoang Viet and Ms. Vo Tan Thanh Diep, for motivating me to overcome all difficulties in the process of thesis.
Especially, I greatly thanks to Mr. Pham Ngoc Thach and Mr. Nguyen Son Kien for their help and sharing of their econometric knowledge. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This paper is to investigate the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and economic growth on CO2 emissions in Asian countries over period from 1991 to 2013.
Under the complexity between these variables, this paper applied panel analysis method and structural equation model (SEM) to explore the influence of FDI, economic growth on CO2 emissions. The result indicates that FDI inflows contribute to reduce CO2 emission (improve environmental quality) while economic growth make CO2 emissions level increase. Moreover, the result shows the two-way linkages occur between CO2 emissions and FDI inflows, CO2 emissions and economic growth. In addition, the unidirectional nexus exists from economic growth to FDI inflows.
Keywords: Foreign direct investment; economic growth; CO2 emissions; SEM; Asian countries. 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABBREVIATIONS GDP: Gross Domestic Product FDI: Foreign Direct Investment CO2: Carbon Dioxide SEM: Structural Equation Modeling FEM: Fixed Effects Model REM: Random Effects Model OLS: Ordinary Least Squares PHH: Pollution Haven Hypothesis EKC: Environment Kuznets Curve 5 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION. Research Scope and Methodology. 11 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW.
Pollution Haven Hypothesis. Pollution Halos Hypothesis. Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis (Theory of economic growth – environmental quality). Empirical studies related to Pollution Haven Hypothesis.
Empirical studies related to Pollution Halos Hypothesis. Empirical studies on the impact of FDI, economic growth on CO2 emissions. Empirical studies on the three-way linkages between FDI-economic growth-CO2 emissions. 22 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Data and Defining Variables. 34 6 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Structural equation modeling. 43 CHAPTER 4 EMPIRICAL RESULT.
Overview about CO2 emissions, economic growth and FDI in Asia. Regression result from panel method. Regression result from structural equation model. 53 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS.
60 7 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Problem statement In recent years, climate change and environmental degradation are the major concerns toward many countries all over the world, especially in ASIA. These problems cause many difficulties in poverty reduction and economic development (World Bank, 2015). Moreover, human health is threatened as well as cost for health-care sector is increased by environmental degradation.
Neria (2014) suggested that approximately 3 million people worldwide die every year by environmental pollution. Many researchers found that one of major factors, which causes the climate change and environmental degradation is carbon dioxide (CO2 emissions) (Pittock, 2003; Solomon et al. They has pointed out that the surge of CO2 emissions level pushes greenhouse gases in atmosphere and leads to climate change threats to socio-economic systems. As a matter of fact, environmental degradation is caused by human activities such as industrialization, burning of fossils fuel and deforestation.
Human activities are operated to develop economy and improve life quality. Under enormous pressure of sustainable economic development goal, many countries increase extraction, production and especially industrialization. Consequently, these activities cause high pollution level. It goes to show that economic growth is one of the main reasons of environmental degradation (Dell et al.
The effects of economic growth on environmental quality (CO2 emissions) are analyzed by many previous studies. The link of emissions and economic growth is closely related to the context of Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The EKC theory suggests that the emission level increases with a rising in per capita growth of GDP, and it declines after reaching at ―turning point‖ (sustainable income level). From above discussions, this thesis will emphasize on analyzing the impact of economic growth on CO2 emissions.
Furthermore, the impacts of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) on environmental quality are discussed by many researches. The study of Smarzynska (2001) suggested 8 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com that FDI would be considered as main determinant of environmental quality. Even though FDI contributes to promote economic growth, it reduces the environmental quality. According to Pollution Haven Hypothesis, FDI leads to the decline in environmental quality since most of polluting industries from developed countries tend to move to developing countries in order to avoid abatement cost from stringent environmental legislation.
Thus, pollution may increase together with the rising in FDI at recipient countries. On the contrary, Pollution Halos Hypothesis claims that FDI may improve environmental quality in host countries via transferring superior technology and ―green‖ input products. Moreover, recipient countries obtain more chances to learn the skills of environmental management system from foreign countries. In both points of view, there are two possible impacts of FDI on environmental quality.
This thesis will examine the impact of FDI on CO2 emission base on two theories. In 2014, Asia was one of regions which received the highest amount of FDI in comparison with the rest of the world, accounting for 30 percent global FDI inflows (UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2014). More importantly, FDI is considered as vital resource of economic growth toward Asian countries. The increasing of FDI into Asia leads to promote economic growth in many Asian countries.
In addition, environmental degradation is one of the main concerns in many ASIAN countries. According to the statistic of World Health Organization in 2013, Asia has the highest number of polluted cities. As such, this pollution causes many damages to human health. Therefore, pollution becomes enormous pressure toward Asian countries.
Until now, there are many studies of the relationship between environmental quality, economic growth and FDI. The empirical results of these studies are ambiguous. Therefore, this thesis attempts to answer the question whether FDI and economic growth have influence on CO2 emissions for Asian countries. The finding from this thesis will provide evidence support the current literature related to the impact of FDI, economic growth on CO2 emissions.
Moreover, this study 9 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com gives several suggestions for policy maker in order to achieve the goal of reducing CO2 emissions as well as improving environmental quality in Asian countries. Research Objectives This thesis is to understand the impact of foreign direct investments (FDI) on environmental quality in the context of Asian countries, based on argument of Pollution Haven Hypothesis and Pollution Halos Hypothesis. In addition, this thesis attempts to investigate the relationship between economic growth and environment quality. The results would provide research evidences on the general relationship between FDI, economic growth and environmental quality.
This knowledge would be a contribution to the literature on the linkages between the economy and environment. Research Questions In order to achieve the research objectives, this thesis attempt to the answer these following questions: Does foreign direct investment lead to increase CO2 emissions in ASIA? Does economic growth cause an increase in CO2 emission in ASIA? 1. Research Scope and Methodology This thesis investigates the influence of FDI, economic growth and other determinants (trade openness, level of democracy and scale of economic activity) on CO2 emissions by using Asian countries sample. The data is collected from 1991 to 2013 due to its availability.
Since the possibility of endogeneity between CO2 emissions, economic growth and FDI (based on suggestion from previous studies that will present in empirical studies), this thesis applies Structural Equation Model (SEM) to estimate the simultaneous equation model which presents the effects of economic growth and FDI on CO2 emissions. 10 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Thesis Structure This thesis consists of five main chapters. Chapter 1: Introducing the research.
Chapter 2: Reviewing theoretical framework and previous empirical studies that related to the effects of economic growth, FDI on CO2 emission Chapter 3: Presenting the conceptual framework, the way to build model and econometric technique for estimating result of analysis. Chapter 4: Showing the estimation result that interprets the relationship between variables. Chapter 5: Summarizing the main finding and bringing out some limitation as well as suggestion for future studies. 11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents both the theoretical and empirical aspects of the relationship between FDI and CO2 emissions.
There are two sections in this chapter. The first section is to discuss about two of theory: Pollution Haven Hypothesis and Pollution Halos Hypothesis. The second section is about the empirical studies including previous studies that have investigate the relationship between FDI and CO2 emissions based on Pollution Haven Hypothesis and Pollution Halos Hypothesis. Moreover, this chapter will discuss about the empirical studies related to causal relationship between FDI-CO2 emissions and economic growth.
Pollution Haven Hypothesis. From the theoretical view, Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) prefers that FDI has a negative effect on environmental quality. PHH argues based on Heckscher-Ohlin theorem (Heckscher, (1919) and Ohlin (1933). According to, comparative advantage of Heckscher-Ohlin theorem, Pollution Haven Hypothesis has considered ―lax‖ of environmental regulation as a comparative advantage in polluting industries.
In addition, Dasgupta et al. (1999) supposes that the countries with low environmental standards might be a ―pollution haven‖ for polluting industries. As stated by Hechscher-Ohlin theorem, a region with an abundant factor such as labor or capital would have a comparative advantage in producing goods that use abundant locally factor. Therefore, this region should specialize in producing and exporting these comparable goods.
Accordingly, in developed countries, especially countries have a large of polluting industries, tightening up environmental policy is synonymous with the high abatement cost. An increase in production cost together with a high penalty fee will lead to the relocation in ―dirty‖ industries. In other words, cost of the inputs for pollution-intensive production is increased by stringent environmental law such as fee, taxes or permitting costs toward polluting goods. In order to avoid cost of the stringent environmental regulation, the relocation of polluting industries will be expanded to countries where 12 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com national environmental standards are lower.
With the low environmental regulation, a nation therefore has a comparative advantage in attracting polluting industries. As already discussed above, the pollution is likely to increase as a result of relocation of polluting industries and potential threat from foreign investment.