The environmental impacts of globalisation and corruption: Evidence from a set of African countries

Achieving sustainable development while avoiding further environmental degradation is a crucial challenge faced by society today. The African countries in this study have shown considerable growth, but still face various barriers to comply with international environmental agreements. This paper analyses the effect of globalisation and corruption on the environmental performance of 23 African countries from 1999 to 2017. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag model with Driscoll-Kraay estimator was chosen as most suitable to achieve the aim of this analysis. The main findings provide confirmation of the advantage of analysing globalisation through three dimensions, namely, the economic, social, and political, and through two measures, the de jure and de facto. Economic globalisation de facto increases environmental degradation, suggesting the relocation of polluting industries to African countries. Economic and political globalisation de jure improves the environment. Stricter regulation could reduce the level of corruption and restrict the relocation of polluting industries. Foreign investment attracted to these countries should be directed to achieving sustainable development goals.