The Inverted U-shape Relationship between Education and Environmental Degradation: Case of Seven ASEAN Countries Andryan Setyadharma, P Eko Prasetyo and Shanty Oktavilia
Universitas Negeri Semarang
Abstract
The empirical evidence on the impact of education on environmental degradation is not clear, with some studies find that education reduces environmental degradation, while others find the opposite direction. Compared to the previous studies, this paper suggests that the environmental degradation can be expressed as a quadratic function of education level to investigate the existence of inverted U-shape. The inverted U-shape means that at the beginning, increasing education level deteriorates environmental quality and at a certain level, the rise of the education level improves environmental quality. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of the existence of inverted U-shape relationship between education and environmental degradation. This study employs panel data regression from seven ASEAN countries during 2011 to 2017. this study sets an equation model with two main variables, i.e.: education level and square term of education level. The main results show that the education variable is statistically significant reducing the environmental quality while the square term of education level variable is statistically significant improving the environmental quality. In conclusion, this study confirms the existence of inverted U-shape relationship between education and environmental degradation. The policy implications are also discussed based on the findings.
Keywords: Education, Environmental Degradation, Inverted U-shape, Panel Data
