The Effects of Economic and Financial Developments on Environmental Quality; An Empirical Analysis in Selected OPEC Countries

During the last decades، global warming and climate change has created muchconcern across the world. These concerns coincided with the aim of achievinghigher economic growth، has become Environmental risks arising from economicactivity to a controversial issue. The main objective of this study is to investigate thelong run effects of economic and financial developments on environmental pollutionin selected Opec countries over the period 1973-2007. The results show thatfinancial development indicators have significantly negative impact on CO2emissions. Also، the results show that the relationship between economicdevelopment and CO2 emissions follow a N shaped relationship. Hence، therecommended policy is more financial development in order to improve the qualityof the environment.