The Relationship between Economic Growth, Health and Air Pollution in Iran

The relationship between economic growth and environmental quality plays an important role in the perspective of economic development. Although economic growth can provide health promotion; in the absence of appropriate policies, pollution from economic growth can have negative effects on health. In this paper, the relationship between economic growth, health and air pollution are reviewed in the context of a TSLS equations model. Three structural equations are assumed to be able to explain the endogenous variables. Endogenous variables in a TSLS model are such as economic growth (GDP growth), health (life expectancy) and air pollution (carbon dioxide emissions). This model was estimated using a two-stage least squares method.The results show that economic growth and air pollution is associated with health status. The improvements in human development indicators by health indicators will result in GDP growth. Also, any increase in urban life and physical infrastructure are associated with increase in the GDP. Another result is that there is a direct correlation between GDP growth and increasing pollution and economic openness has a negative impact on pollution which means that the greater economic openness, more air pollution.