Democracy and Environment Quality in Selected Countries: An Application of Panel Data

This study investigates the relationship between quality of environment and democracy among different countries over the period of 2002 - 2012. Democracy and accumulated democracy indices have been considered as political inequality variables influencing the quality of the environment among different countries in the reduced form of Kuznets’ environmental curve (EKC) hypotheses model. The empirical analysis is conducted using four panel data sets for countries with different HDI from 2002 to 2012. The results indicate a significant positive relationship between the level of democracy and capital accumulation of democracy among all country groups. This relationship in group of countries with high human development index acts in form of N reversed which is the environmental Kuznets curve. This relationship in groups of countries with high, medium and low human development indices is in form of N. Based on the results, improvement of democracy indices leads to a better environment quality. Therefore, applying the relevant policies with democracy condition improvement in different countries, specifically in countries with low and medium human development indices, can make a positive impact on improving the quality of environment in these countries.