Is it right to see pollution as an inevitable by-product of sustainable economic growth? Analyzing impact of water, plastic and air pollution for asean countries

Abstract

In the developing and underdeveloped countries, economic growth comes usually with the price of pollution in the form of byproduct. The pollution is of various types such as water pollution, plastic pollution, air pollution etc. and all of them are majorly caused by the economic activities in different sectors of the country. In this context, the current study has been designed so that the impact casted by water, plastic and air pollution on the sustainable economic growth of the ASEAN countries can be studied. Therefore, the researcher has collected the information from ASEAN countries for the period of 30 years about the variables included in the study. The collected data has been analyzed by conducting tests such as panel entity root test, coefficient estimation test, panel cointegration test and Granger casualty test and the outcomes have been obtained. The results have clearly indicated that the effect of water, plastic and air pollution on sustainable growth of economy has been found as substantial and positive. Moreover the impact of control variables i.e. population and literacy rate has also been found as significant and positive. In addition, casual relationships between the variables have also been observed as per the Granger Casualty test results.