The effects of corruption control, political stability and economic growth on deforestation-induced carbon dioxide emissions

This article formulates an empirical model that measures the short- and long-run effects of political stability, corruption control and economic growth on CO₂ emissions from deforestation. Political stability and corruption have significant effects on forest cover in the short run and have lingering long-run effects. We derive a U-shaped forest–income curve where forest cover initially declines as per capita income increases, but starts to rise after an income turning point. Political stability and corruption control do not significantly affect the income turning point but both variables shift the forest–income curve up or down. The resulting CO₂ emission–income curve is downward sloping and is based on changes in the levels of variables affecting forest cover. Increased political stability flattens the CO₂ emissions–income curve, leading to smaller changes of CO₂ emissions per unit change in income.