THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION ON HEALTH: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM TURKEY

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One of the consequences of rapid economic growth and industrialization in the developing economies has been deterioration in environmental conditions and health quality. The determi-nants of health quality have been intensively discussed by the theoretical and empirical studies in recent years. This study investigates the impact of economic growth and environmental pollution on health in case of Turkey over the period 1960-2011. In other words, the effect of per capita real income and carbon emissions on infant mortality rate is analyzed. The Johansen-Juselius and Phillips-Ouliaris cointegration methods and Granger causality test are used to test for the presence of cointegration and causality links between the variables. Empirical findings reveal that i) the variables are stable at their first differences, ii) there exists a long run relationship between the variables, iii) per capita real income negatively affects infant mortality rate, iv) carbon emissions positively affect infant mortality rate, v) there exists a bi-directional Granger causality between carbon emissions and infant mortality rate. The findings can present important policy implications.

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Economic Growth , Environmental Pollution , Health , Cointegration , Causality

Erciyes University Journal Of Economics an‎d Administrative Sciences

98

Erciyes University Journal Of Economics an‎d Administrative Sciences