Attaining EKC in Africa : Why Institutions Really Matter

The paper examines the impact of institutions on growth and environmental quality relationship in Africa using a static panel approach for the period 1996-2014. It disaggregates African economies into three categories based on World Bank framework. These categories include: i. poor institutions ii. fair institutions, and iii. good institutions. The empirical result indicates the realization of the EKC hypothesis in African economies with good and fair institutions while no feasible turning point threshold could be as certain for economies with poor institutions. Similarly, our result suggests that environmental quality was more responsive to income growth with good institutions, implying that with African economies with sound institutions tends to turn the EKC faster