نوع مقاله : مقالات پژوهشی به زبان انگلیسی

نویسندگان

1 گروه اقتصاد، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه حکیم سبزواری، سبزوار، ایران

2 گروه اقتصاد، دانشگاه حکیم سبزواری، سبزوار، ایران

چکیده

کیفیت محیط‌زیست و عوامل تعیین کننده آن یکی از چالش‌های اصلی حال و آینده بشریت است و توسعه پایدار در راستای حفظ و بهبود محیط‌زیست تفسیر می‌شود. در سال‌های اخیر مطالعات زیادی در مورد عوامل موثر بر کیفیت محیطی انجام شده است. یکی از موضوعات اصلی که در مطالعات مرتبط کمتر مورد توجه قرار گرفته است، تأثیر حاکمیت بر کیفیت محیط‌زیست است. در این مطالعه تأثیر مؤلفه‌های حکمرانی خوب شامل آزادی اقتصادی، آزادی تجاری و آزادی سیاسی بر شاخص عملکرد زیست‌محیطی (EPI) و زیرشاخص‌های آن شامل سلامت محیط، سرزندگی اکوسیستم و تغییرات آب و هوایی بررسی می‌شود. داده‌های مورد نیاز برای تجزیه و تحلیل آماری مربوط به کشورهای منطقه خاورمیانه و شمال آفریقا و ترکیه (MENAT) طی سال‌های 2000-2021 می‌باشد. برای برآورد مدل و بررسی رابطه بین متغیرها از روش داده‌های پانل استفاده شده است. یافته‌ها نشان می‌دهد که بین آزادی اقتصادی و آزادی سیاسی با شاخص عملکرد محیطی (EPI) رابطه مثبت و معناداری وجود دارد و بین آزادی تجاری و EPI رابطه معناداری وجود ندارد. همچنین مشخص شد که آزادی اقتصادی تأثیر منفی بر سرزندگی اکوسیستم و تغییرات آب و هوایی دارد، اما تأثیر مثبتی بر سلامت محیط‌زیست داشته است. همچنین آزادی سیاسی بر سرزندگی اکوسیستم و تغییرات اقلیمی تأثیر مثبت دارد، اما تأثیر قابل توجهی بر سلامت محیط‌زیست ندارد. نتایج این تحقیق نشان داد که آزادی اقتصادی منجر به سرمایه‌گذاری بیشتر در بخش نفت و گاز کشورهای مذکور شده است و بنابراین انتشار فاضلاب و گاز تاثیر منفی بر حیات محیط‌زیست و تغییرات آب و هوایی داشته است، اما با افزایش تولید و فروش نفت و گاز، درآمد سرانه کشورها افزایش یافته و بهداشت محیط بهبود یافته است. همچنین با توجه به اینکه آزادی سیاسی در میان منطقه خاورمیانه و شمال آفریقا از تنوع زیادی برخوردار است، نتایج نشان داد که کشورهای دارای آزادی سیاسی بیشتر، از طریق آگاهی بیشتر جامعه و پاسخگویی بیشتر دولت‌ها و وضع قوانین حفاظت از محیط زیست، از وضعیت محیط زیست بهتری برخوردار بوده‌اند. البته شاخص بهداشت محیط بیشتر تحت تأثیر وضعیت اقتصادی و تولید سرانه کشورهاست و آزادی سیاسی تأثیر چندانی بر آن ندارد.

کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات

عنوان مقاله [English]

Freedom and Environmental Performance: Evidence from MENAT Countries

نویسندگان [English]

  • S.E. Alavi 1
  • M. Mohammadi 2

1 Department of Economics, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

2 Department of Economics, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

چکیده [English]

Environment quality and its determinants are one of the main challenges of the present and future of humanity and sustainable development is interpreted in the direction of preserving and improving the environment. In recent years, many studies have been conducted on the factors affecting environmental quality. One of the main topics that have been less considered in the related studies is the impact of governance on the quality of the environment. In this study, the impact of good governance components, including economic freedom, trade freedom, and political freedom, on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and its sub-indices including environmental health, ecosystem vitality, and climate change is investigated. The data required for statistical analysis are related to Middle East and North Africa region countries and Turkiye (MENAT) during 2000-2021. The panel data method was used to estimate the model and examine the relationship between the variables. The findings show that there is a positive and significant relationship between economic freedom and political freedom with the environmental performance index (EPI), and there is no significant relationship between trade freedom and EPI. In addition, the study found that economic freedom had a detrimental effect on ecosystem vitality and climate change, leading to negative impacts in these areas. However, it had a positive impact on environmental health, indicating that it contributed positively to this aspect. On the other hand, political freedom was observed to have a positive effect on the vitality of the ecosystem and climate change. However, it did not have a significant impact on the overall health of the environment, suggesting that its influence was more prominent in specific areas related to ecosystem vitality and climate change. The result of this research showed that economic freedom has led to more investment in the oil and gas sector of MENA countries, and therefore wastewater and gas emissions have had a negative impact on the vitality of the environment and climate change, but with the increase in production and sales of oil and Gas, per capita income of countries has increased, and environmental health has improved. Also, considering that political freedom among the MENA region has a lot of diversity, the results showed that the countries with more political freedom, through greater awareness of the society and more accountability of the governments and the establishment of environmental protection laws, had a positive impact on the environment. Of course, the environmental health index is more influenced by the economic situation and per capita production of countries and political freedom has little effect on it.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Environmental performance
  • Economic freedom
  • Political freedom
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