Impact of Financial Development, Economic Growth and Energy Consumption On Environmental Degradation: Evidence from Pakistan

With the advent of globalization and industrialization, the life of human being has become luxurious, efficient and comfortable but at the same time, the economies are facing the challenge of environmental degradation. Environmental degradation has become the significant problem around the world and increasing day by day. Amongst many, the key reasons of this environmental degradation are the financial development and energy consumption. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of financial development, economic growth and energy consumption on environmental degradation in Pakistan. We construct financial development index for Pakistan by applying principle component method on the major four proxies of financial development available in literature namely; domestic credit by banking sector, domestic credit to private sector, stock market capitalization, and liquid liabilities. The unit root test, co-integration test, and ordinary least square analyses have been applied on the historical data over the period of 1972-2014. The empirical evidence shows that all the variables have a significant positive effect on environmental degradation which means an increase in any variable will increase the environmental degradation. This study will be beneficial for the strategy makers and government of Pakistan in the formulation of eco-friendly strategies