Testing the environmental kuznet curve in selected West African countries: empirical evidence estimation

Environmental economics studied has become increasingly most popular in local and international community. In this paper, we empirically tested the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis by analysis the relationship between growth of environmental quality and growth of per capita income. The panel estimation such as fixed effect and random effect were applied. From the results, the fixed effect model for growth for CO2 revealed that growth for population density, growth of per capita income, growth of per capita income squared, growth of trade openness, growth of exchange rate, and growth of agriculture valued added were statistically significant. The results further indicated that growth of trade openness lead to an increases in growth of environmental quality. The growth of population density has positive and significant effects on the growth rate of environmental quality and has the a-priori expectation in our model.