Investigating the Effect of Research and Development on the Quality of the Environment with an Emphasis on the Structure of the Kuznets Curve

Extended Abstract
Introduction and

Considering that in the framework of the knowledge-based economy, research and development costs are known as a type of investment in the economy, and therefore, considering the role and importance of research and development in the economy of countries, the main goal of this research is to investigate the effect of research and development is on the quality of the environment with an emphasis on the structure of the Kuznets curve.

In this research, the ARDL model has been used to investigate the effect of research and development on the quality of the environment, and after checking the reliability of the variables using Eviews 10 software, first, short-term model estimation, long-term model estimation, and error correction model estimation have been done, and stability and diagnosis tests have also been performed for reliability. The model fit is done well. The data analyzed in this research was collected from the statistics published by the World Bank and the time period analyzed in this research is 2001-2019.

The research results confirm the theory of Kuznets in Iran. Also, the results showed that the research and development variable in the long term has a negative and significant relationship with the amount of CO2 gas emissions, and by increasing research and development costs, the amount of CO2 gas emissions can be reduced.

Therefore, in order to move towards an economy based on knowledge and basic resources, developing countries need to pay sufficient attention to the modernization and development of the national innovation system. For this reason, one of the appropriate policy tools in this field is paying subsidies to invest in R&D in order to make appropriate technical changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.