Assessing the Effects of Economic Factors on Environmental Pollution in Iran

Reducing pollution and achieving economic benefits with cleaner environment is one of the most important issues in recent decades. In this research, a macro approach was applied to assess the economic factors affecting environmental pollution in Iran during the years 1971-2013. The results indicated that the effect of variable energy consumption was at high levels of statistical significance, so that by 10 percent increase per capita energy consumption is expected that per capita emissions increased in the long-term and short-term by about 8 and 6 percent respectively. Also by 10 percent increase in urban population growth is expected that per capita emissions reduced in the long-term and short-term about1.2 and 0.86 percent respectively. Trade liberalization had negative impact on the emissions. Thus Iran can not be considered naturally immune against environmental concerns and we propose that at levels of per capita income of over $ 2,300 (second concave curve), that pollution increases more quickly so that politicians should look for more pollution control methods.