Investigating the Nonlinear Effect of Structural Labor Change on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Iran’s Provinces Using the Panel Quantile Model

Climate change, caused by the increase in the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, is one of the critical issues that mankind has faced and has created significant risks for both humans and the environment. In recent decades, many researchers have studied the factors that cause and affect carbon dioxide and their control. Among the factors affecting the emission of carbon dioxide, we can mention the structural labor change, which can play an important role in increasing the emission of carbon dioxide through the increase of industrial activities and economic growth. Therefore, in the present study, the effect of structural labor change on carbon dioxide emissions in Iran’s provinces was investigated using the Quantile regression with non-additive fixed effects presented by Powell (2016). The results show that increasing labor transfer from the agricultural sector to other economic sectors, including services and industry, increases carbon dioxide emissions. Additionally, indirectly, the structural labor change index has a positive and significant effect on carbon dioxide emissions in Iran’s provinces. The study also confirmed an inverse N relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth. The coefficients obtained for income inequality are negative and significant, while those for per capita energy consumption, industrialization, and urbanization are positive and significant.