The effect of social capital and human capital on air pollution in Iranian provinces

Environmental issues are related to social capital. Increasing human capital can reduce environmental pollution. The main of this paper is to investigate the effects of social capital and human capital on air pollution in Iranian provinces during the period of 2000-2015. In this regard, using fuzzy logic of social capital was estimated in each province of the country and resulted showed large difference between provinces. Then, considering the dynamism of the research model, the effects of social capital and human capital along with the control variables on air pollution emission were studied using GMM method. The results showed that social capital and human capital have a significant negative effect on air pollution in Iranian provinces. Therefore, the government can reduce the spread of air pollution by planning in the field; increasing expertise, improving the quality of manpower, raising awareness, reducing corruption, increasing people's participation, and reducing the gap between people and government. Other results of the study showed that economic growth, industrialization, energy intensity, urbanization, and past pollution contributed significantly to air pollution in Iran's provinces. However, squared per capita income variable have no significant effect on air pollution, so the Kuznets environmental hypothesis is not confirmed in Iran's provinces. Therefore, in order to establish this EKC, special attention should be paid to the role of variables of social capital and human capital.