Corruption, Political Instability, and Environmental Degradation in South Asia: a Comparative Analysis of Carbon Footprint and Ecological Footprint

This study investigates the nexus between political instability, corruption, and environmental degradation for the selected South Asian countries over the time 1996 to 2019. After confirming cross-sectional dependency by using Breusch and Pagan (LM) test and Pesaran (CD) test, the second generational panel unit root test (CADF) of Pesaran is used to test the stationarity of variables and results reveal mixed order of integration. Furthermore, Westerlund (2007) test indicates that the variables are cointegrated and the panel ARDL approach is used to find the long-run and short-run relationship among the variables. Corruption and political instability have a positive and significant impact on carbon footprint and ecological footprint in the long run and short run except for corruption that has a negative effect on carbon footprint in the short run. Urbanization, foreign direct investment, and energy use have a significant positive impact on environmental degradation. The study also validates the existence of the Environment Kuznets curve (EKC) for South Asian countries. The findings suggest that to improve environmental quality, South Asian countries must enhance political stability and control of corruption.