The impact of economic growth on pollution in developed European countries

In this paper, we empirically investigate the impact of economic growth on environmental degradation in developed European economies during the period of study from 1985 to 2015. For the econometric methodology, we utilise the Cobb-Douglas production function. From the cointegration tests of Kao and Fisher, we confirm the existence of a cointegration relationship between the economic growth and pollution. Also, we confirm the hypothesis of basic CEK which assumes the presence of a bidirectional relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions in developed European countries during the period of study (1985–2015). In addition, we find that there is a two-way causal relationship among energy consumption and pollution in developed European countries.