Evaluating the Impact of Economic-Institutional-Energy Variables on the Ecological Footprint: The Application of the Panel Quantile Regression Model in Selected Countries of the MENA Region

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of economic indicators, institutional quality and energy efficiency on the ecological footprint (as an indicator to evaluate the degree of environmental degradation). For this purpose, the annual data of 15 MENA countries (Middle East and North Africa) for the period from 1990 to 2021 have been used with the quantile panel approach. The quantile panel model provides the possibility of investigating the effect of research variables on the ecological footprint during different quantiles. The findings indicate the effect of the coefficients of the variables on the ecological footprint in accordance with the expected theoretical foundations; In such a way that the gross domestic product per capita, the ratio of foreign direct investment, and the degree of urbanization and political instability have a positive and significant effect on the ecological footprint, while the index of trade openness, corruption control, the index of democracy, and energy efficiency have a negative and significant effect on the ecological footprint. This effect has not been constant in different quantiles; In such a way that the effect of the variables of GDP per capita, energy efficiency, foreign direct investment ratio, degree of urbanization, and political instability in the high quantiles is far more than the low quantiles, and the effect of the variables of trade openness index, control Corruption and democracy index in low quantiles are more than in high quantiles.