Relating environmental performance with socioeconomic and cultural factors

Abstract

This study relies on a recently proposed methodology for constructing an environmental performance index. First, two different versions of the index are considered and compared having as reference point Greece and comparing it with other countries in the Mediterranean as well as in Northern Europe. Next, the index is used with some socioeconomic variables together with various cultural dimensions to model its behavior. Examining the relationship between the index and economic growth, we observe an inverted U-shape in the case of the Globe and Middle East and Africa, an N-shape for Europe while such a relationship is not found for Asia and Oceania. The turning points are high in all cases but their values are within the sample. The most important explanatory variable seems to be the life expectancy with a very high positive effect in all cases. The population density affects negatively the Environmental Performance Index but with a very low magnitude. Concerning the cultural dimensions, masculinity and power distance proved to be statistically insignificant with individualism and uncertainty avoidance affecting negatively Middle East and Africa and Europe, respectively, and positively Asia and Oceania; long-term orientation and indulgence affect negatively Asia and Oceania, with the latter affecting negatively also the Globe. © 2017, Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies and Springer Japan.