Analysis of Factors Affecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions with Emphasising on Fossil Fuel Consumption in Selected Oil-Base Developing Countries: An Application of PSTR Method

Understanding the factors that influence carbon dioxide emissions in oil-based developing countries plays an important role in designing control policies and reducing emissions. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the degree of urbanization, per capita GDP and total consumption of petroleum products on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, in terms of the ratio of consumption of heavy to the total products (HTR) as a transition function in the 8 selected OPEC member countries. For empirical analysis, the Panel Smooth Transition Approach (PSTR) has been used for the 1990 to 2017 period. The findings suggest that the inclusion of one transition function with one threshold for a model with HTR, which represents a two-regime model. The results of estimated coefficients in both regimes indicate that GDP per capita in both regimes has a positive effect on carbon dioxide emissions and its positive effect has decreased after passing from the threshold. Also, the degree of urbanization and total production of petroleum products also have a positive effect on carbon dioxide emissions in both regimes and its positive effect has increased regime 1.