The impact of trade liberalization on the environment in some East Asian countries: An empirical study

4.1 Abstract We examine a crosscountry data set of 6 East Asian countries 1 for the period of 19802006 with the aim to study the interrelationship between trade liberalization and environmental degradation. On the basis of the parametric econometric model, we investigate trade liberalization’s impact on the environment quality 2 . We take two environmental indicators for analyses that are carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the consumption of energy and primary energy consumption for analysis. The parametric model with linearity, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation is examined for the environmental degradation. We also try to investigate the existence of an Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) to describe the interrelation between per capita income and the environment quality, and then determinants influence the environment in the process of trade liberalization and globalization. There is no evidence for the existence of an EKC for the relation between per capita income and environmental indicators of carbon dioxide and energy consumption. It has an evidence to support the pollution heaven hypothesis. This hypothesis indicates that the more liberalization in trade would increase the level of carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption in these East Asian countries. There is also an evidence for the monotonically increasing linear trend between per capita income and both pollutants. Further insightful