Testing the ecological footprint of economic growth in developing countries. The case of Vietnam

Abstract

This study focuses on the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation, by testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis in Vietnam, a main export-oriented country that features a long period of economic growth. The main originality of this work is that, unlike previous studies, it uses ecological footprint as the main indicator for environmental degradation. This allows to reconsider the results from previous studies that only focus on CO₂ emissions performances. The cointegration between the analysed variables is investigated using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. To determine the parameters of the Environmental Kuznets Curve in the sample, this work additionally analyses long- and short-run estimations. The paper shows that the EKC hypothesis holds in the long term for Vietnam when using ecological footprint. Nevertheless, it also shows that not only growth but also primary energy consumption contributes to increased environmental destruction. An active ecological policy and the decrease of fossil energy use seem necessary to allow Vietnam to keep a high level of economic growth and reduce environmental degradation.