Believe It or Not: COVID-19 Environmental Effects Are More Negatives Than Positives
Oduniyi, O. S., Riveros, J. M., Hassan, S.M., and Çıtak, F. (2021). Believe It Or Not: Covid 19 Environmental Effects Are More Negatives Than Positives. MSR Working paper Nr. 05.2021.
22 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2021
Date Written: July 12, 2021
Abstract
In addition to altering drastically people's daily lives, COVID-19 has slowed down economic activities, imposed restrictions, and enforced lockdown, altogether causing significant effects on the environment. Studying the direction, magnitude, and durability of these effects carries a serious lesson for the whole world. Preliminarily evidence suggests that COVID-19 has temporarily improved air quality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and noise pollution, yet, due to lock-down, the flourishing of delivery services has pulled up the single-use plastics, increased the usages of vehicles by a lower ratio of passengers/vehicle, and raised demand for energy. Using the approach of the Ambiental Kuznets curve, we investigate the impact of COVID-19 total cases on the monthly average of carbon monoxide emissions measured in micrograms per cubic across a sample of developed, heavy polluters, economies from 2014 to 2020. Driscoll-Kraay regressions confirm the COVID-19 long-run polluting impact by increasing monoxide emissions in countries of analysis.
Keywords: COVID-19, Environment, Monoxide emissions, Driscoll-Kraay regressions
JEL Classification: I15, Q53
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation