Testing the environmental kuznets curve: Evidence from turkey-bounds test analysis

Turkey is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but it has doubled its greenhouse gas emissions since the 1990s. Turkey is located in the Mediterranean Basin, which is one of the most disadvantaged regions in terms of climate change. The purpose of this study was to test the Environmental Kuznet’s Curve (EKC) theory for Turkish data between the years 1960-2013. EKC models long term elasticities were estimated using the bound test. The effect of GDP on carbon emissions is significantly positive (10.17) in the long term. However, the negative and significant quadratic term of GDP (-0,57) supports the EKC theory of environmental economics for Turkey. CO2 emissions and GDP relationship is monotonic, whereas CO2 emissions show a decreasing trend due to environmental green growth policies. This study estimated that the turning point for CO2 emissions in Turkey is $7279 (GDP per capita).