ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1550389
The Effect of Shadow Economy, Life Expectancy, Education, and Income on CO2 Emissions: An Analysis of BRICS Countries
Provisionally accepted
- 1Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Istanbul, Türkiye
- 2Bandirma Onyedi Eylül University, Bandirma, Türkiye
- 3Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
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Environmental impairment has become one of the leading global concerns as of 1950s and the drivers of increasing global CO2 emissions have begun to explored extensively. This study investigates the long-term effect of shadow economy, life expectancy, education, and income on CO2 emissions in the BRICS countries during the 1993-2020 duration under the presence of cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity by means of second-generation cointegration test, AMG (augmented mean group) estimator, and causality test. The results of the causal test uncover a unidirectional causality from shadow economy, education, and income to the CO2 emissions and a bidirectional causal nexus between life expectancy and CO2 emissions. The results of AMG estimation show that both indicators of shadow economy, life expectancy, and income positively affect CO2 emissions in BRICS countries, while improvements at education negatively impact CO2 emissions. Therefore, institutional and legal arrangements to combat shadow economy would be beneficial to decrease CO2 emissions. Foreign direct investments Kivyiro and Arminen (53), Muhammad and Long (54) Asghari (55) Chandran and Tang (56), Khachoo and Sofi (57), Haug and Ucal (58)
Keywords: Shadow economy, Life Expectancy, Education, Income, CO2 emissions, Cointegration test, Causality test
Received: 23 Dec 2024; Accepted: 05 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 SART, BAYAR, Sezgin, Danilina and Karamıklı Çetin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: YILMAZ BAYAR, Bandirma Onyedi Eylül University, Bandirma, Türkiye
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