Investigating the effect of economic policies of government on environmental quality in elected countries

The process of economic development and set of economic policies in recent decades have changed the environmental challenges to one of the most important concerns of policy makers. Therefore, investigating the role and impact of the economic policies of the government on environmental quality can be very important. In this study, the effect of government’s policies on environmental quality in 7 countries of Iran, Syria, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia in the Middle East and North of Africa (MENA) during 2007-1997 was investigated in the form of econometric models using panel data. The environmental quality, based on the amount of air pollutants as one of the important indicators of environmental pollution, was studied, and carbon dioxide emission and aerosols concentration were considered as the variables indicative of air pollution. The results show that depending on the type of index selected for the environmental quality, government's economic policies can have a direct and positive relationship with air pollutants. Indeed, the findings emphasize that investment of government is an important and influential variable in determining the amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the studied countries, and has put a positive impact on increase of carbon dioxide emissions. However, this result is not confirmed in the case of aerosols.