How does globalization affect ecological pressures? A robust empirical analysis using the Ecological Footprint

While the relationship between environmental pressures and globalization is often claimed to be unambiguously positive, there is a substantial gap in the literature regarding systematic evidence. We fill this gap by empirically disentangling the nexus between globalization and environmental degradation while at the same time taking the multidimensionality of the concepts serious. The Ecological Footprint (EF) provides a holistic approach to environmental degradation. We generate a data set covering 146 countries over the 1981-2009 period and use an Extreme Bounds Analysis (EBA) to identify a robust set of controls testing different claims of the literature. Subsequently, we test our hypothesis regarding globalization controlling for this vector of controls. Our findings suggest that the simple positive correlation has to be interpreted with care, since the multivariate analysis reveals a more detailed picture of the complex relationship

Globalizations Globalisation Continues: The Maastricht Globalisation Index Revisited and Updated Globalisation Continues: The Maastricht Globalisation Index Revisited and Updated

ABSTRACT Globalisation is a complex process which leads to an increasing connectedness and interrelatedness in the political, economic, social and cultural, technological, and environmental domain on many different scales. While this is a truly global phenomenon, it also has different impacts and manifestations in different geographic localities. As a result, different nations exhibit different levels of globalisation or connectedness. Further, perspectives on globalisation are manifold and change over time, therefore it is crucial to continuously reflect upon and revise existing methodologies. Composite indices are a powerful tool to capture and measure complex concepts that allow for monitoring complex systems over time and yield relative rankings and comparisons. This article presents a revised and updated Maastricht Globalisation Index for 117 countries and three points in time-2000, 2008, and 2012-including a new calculation methodology and data. Results show that globalisation still continues but has slowed down, due to the recent economic crisis

Connectedness in times of ecological overshoot: a quantitative analysis of the sustainability of globalization

This thesis sets out on a research journey to quantitatively assess the sustainability of globalisation and to gain insights into the main research question ‘to what extent is globalisation as a process and policy discourse sustainable?’ We find “a world out of balance” as the emerging qualification for all four issues of globalisation: definition and measurement, recent trends, its consequences and the social robustness of the policy discourse. Hence, we conclude that globalisation is not sustainable in its recent form and that it needs to go into new directions if it is to contribute towards all aspects of sustainable development

Determinants of Ecological Footprints:What is the role of globalization?

This paper empirically analyzes the ecological consequences of globalization, by employing the Ecological Footprint (EF) as a proxy for human ecological demands and the KOF index of Globalization. We develop an unbalanced data set covering 146 countries over the 1981–2009 period and are thus able to address the influence of countries’ development over time. After empirically showing that globalization is an explanatory factor of ecological demands, an Extreme Bounds Analysis (EBA) identifies a robust set of impact factors. Subsequently, specific hypotheses on economic, political, social and overall globalization guide the empirical analysis. The findings suggest that economic globalization drives the EF of consumption, production, imports and exports. Social globalization correlates negatively with the EF of consumption and production, while increasing the EF of imports and exports. No effects are found for political globalization while overall globalization is positively correlated with EFs of imports and exports. The findings show that globalization may have different effects on EFs depending on the dimension (consumption, production, exports and imports) referred to

The effects of globalization on Ecological Footprints: an empirical analysis

Whether globalization is sustainable is a contested issue. The quantitative literature on the Maastricht Globalization Index (MGI) and the KOF index of globalization shows that globalization contributes positively to economic and human development, environmental performance, mortality, gender equality and physical integrity rights. However, globalization also drives within-country income inequality, especially in developing countries. Evidence on the effects of globalization on the ecological environment does not provide clear patterns; various dimensions of globalization have different effects on various pollutants. This article analyzes the statistical relationship between the most recent MGI (2012 edition) and the ecological dimension of sustainable development. The latter will be operationalized by considering four variants of the Ecological Footprint. The relation between globalization and sustainable development will be controlled for GDP per capita as a proxy for affluence and report the results for Pearson's correlations and multivariate regressions for up to 171 countries. We conclude that the overall index of globalization significantly increases the Ecological Footprint of consumption, exports and imports. The decomposition of globalization into different domains reveals that apart from the political dimension, all dimensions drive human pressures and demands on the environment. Globalization needs to go into new directions if it is to make a contribution toward all aspects of sustainable development