Globalization and Environmental Pollution in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Using data from 38 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period from 1980 to 2017, this paper investigates the effects of globalization on environmental pollution by making distinction between the de jure and de facto aspects. The de facto globalization measures include variables that represent flows and activities whereas the de jure measures include variables that represent economic policies that, in principle, orient flows and activities. The second generation panel data tests by Pesaran enables to check the cross-sectional dependence and unit root of the variables. The panel specification with the estimation approach by Hoechle is used to account for spatial dependence, heteroscedasticity and errors autocorrelation. We find that globalization and its de jure and de facto aspects contribute positively to environmental pollution in SSA by increasing the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. Policymakers must take action to control long-run CO2 emission for sustainable development.