Persistence in carbon footprint emissions: an overview of 92 countries

Abstract

The existing studies on persistence of ecological footprint have majorly concentrated on the
\naggregate ecological footprint without adequately considering its components. The aim of
\nthis paper is to contribute to the existing papers on ecological footprint by examining the
\npersistence of carbon footprint emissions for a group of 92 countries. Unlike the extant
\npapers, we use fractional integration, which allows us to consider the stationary I(0) and the
\nnonstationary I(1) cases as particular models of interest, being therefore more general and
\nflexible than these two classical representations. The results indicate that only 25 out of the
\n92 countries display mean reversion, with orders of integration strictly below 1 and showing
\ntransitory shocks, most of them belonging to lower-middle and low income countries. In
\nthese 25 countries it might not be easy to change the long run path of the carbon footprint as
\nany policy shocks will have temporary effect. The foregoing findings can help policymakers
\nin each nation to design efficient emission reducing policies.