Remittances, Environmental Taxation, and Environmental Quality in Africa: Evidence from Panel Quantile and Threshold Regressions

Remittances, Environmental Taxation, and Environmental Quality in Africa: Evidence from Panel Quantile and Threshold Regressions | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Remittances, Environmental Taxation, and Environmental Quality in Africa: Evidence from Panel Quantile and Threshold Regressions Samuel Antwi, Anthony Buawolor Tetteh, Patience Asantewaa, Patience Armah This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9243465/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 8 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We investigate the effects of remittance inflows and environmental tax on environmental quality across 53 African countries over the period 2000–2024. Data were sourced from the IMF Climate Change Indicators, World Development Indicators, and International Energy Agency. The estimations employed are quantile regression and threshold regression to identify inflexion points. The quantile regression results show that remittance inflows significantly increase CO₂ emissions across low, median, and high levels of environmental quality, indicating that remittance-driven consumption consistently worsens environmental outcomes throughout the entire distribution. Environmental taxes exert a significant, distribution-dependent moderating effect that offsets the adverse impact of remittance inflows and enhances environmental quality across all quantiles, with the strongest improvement observed at the median. The threshold results also show that remittance inflows significantly reduce environmental quality when environmental tax levels are below the identified threshold, but improve environmental quality once the threshold is exceeded, indicating that stronger taxation effectively reverses remittance-driven environmental deterioration in Africa. These findings suggest that strengthening environmental taxation is essential for transforming remittance inflows from a source of environmental degradation into a driver of improved environmental quality in Africa. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences Environmental quality Environmental tax remittances Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 19 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 19 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 18 May, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 17 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 15 Apr, 2026 Editor invited by journal 14 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 13 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 13 Apr, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9243465","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":626058149,"identity":"1b8085a5-0eb8-4685-9c48-779c7a23c19b","order_by":0,"name":"Samuel Antwi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Professional Studies","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Samuel","middleName":"","lastName":"Antwi","suffix":""},{"id":626058150,"identity":"717c84ca-c987-4cec-afad-e6c7f580a0ae","order_by":1,"name":"Anthony Buawolor Tetteh","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"University of Professional Studies","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anthony","middleName":"Buawolor","lastName":"Tetteh","suffix":""},{"id":626058156,"identity":"3578298a-e5c2-4779-b2e1-cb0d74f0ab34","order_by":2,"name":"Patience Asantewaa","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Professional Studies","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Patience","middleName":"","lastName":"Asantewaa","suffix":""},{"id":626058157,"identity":"769b3fc7-3c25-4634-8fd5-cfa124fea1c6","order_by":3,"name":"Patience Armah","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Professional Studies","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Patience","middleName":"","lastName":"Armah","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-27 10:23:33","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9243465/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9243465/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":108006264,"identity":"7854c88d-9b8b-4c70-96d2-6e03a2d2e888","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-28 12:54:58","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":457112,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptwithTables.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9243465/v1_covered_4a37f227-8d8b-49d3-98ed-215cdd06ec5c.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Remittances, Environmental Taxation, and Environmental Quality in Africa: Evidence from Panel Quantile and Threshold Regressions","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Environmental quality, Environmental tax, remittances","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9243465/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9243465/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eWe investigate the effects of remittance inflows and environmental tax on environmental quality across 53 African countries over the period 2000\u0026ndash;2024. 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