Environmental Policies and Energy Efficiency: its implications on environmental degradation among OECD countries

Environmental Policies and Energy Efficiency: its implications on environmental degradation among OECD countries | 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 Research Article Environmental Policies and Energy Efficiency: its implications on environmental degradation among OECD countries Michael Appiah This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7788867/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study examines the effectiveness of environmental policy stringency (EPS) and energy efficiency (EEI) in reducing the ecological footprint of OECD countries from 1990 to 2023. Using the Driscoll-Kraay fixed effects estimator, the analysis accounts for cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity to ensure robust inference. The findings reveal that while environmental policy alone has an insignificant effect on ecological footprint, energy efficiency contributes significantly to its reduction. More importantly, the interaction between EPS and EEI exhibits a strong negative effect on ecological footprint, suggesting that policy and efficiency measures reinforce each other in improving environmental outcomes. The results also confirm the existence of an inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve, indicating that environmental degradation initially rises with income but declines beyond a certain threshold. Additionally, EPS appears more effective in countries with relatively lower energy efficiency levels. The results highlight the critical role of integrating stringent environmental policies with technological and efficiency-oriented initiatives to achieve sustainable reductions in ecological pressure across OECD economies. Ecological footprint Environmental Policy Energy Efficiency OECD CUP-FMOLS Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 10 Oct, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 10 Oct, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 10 Oct, 2025 First submitted to journal 06 Oct, 2025 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-7788867","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":527571063,"identity":"34e09537-2d80-456e-a592-f6c2fb6060a4","order_by":0,"name":"Michael Appiah","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA6klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJCCA4wNbAwMzEDWBwaGBNK0MM4gVgsDYwOEZuYhRgv/7N6DB37u4Evczs587LNtm10eP3sD44ePObi1SNw5l3Cw9wxb4s5mtuTZuW3JxZI9B5glZ27DY82NHIMDvG1siRsO8xgz57YxJ264kcDGzItHizxQy8G/MC2WbfWEtRgAtRyG28LYdpiwFkOgXw7LtrEZbzjMlszYc+544syeg814/SJ3u/fwx7dtx2Q3nD98mOFHWXViP3vzwQ8f8XlfggdEHoNwGNnAZAMe9XAtNVDeH/yKR8EoGAWjYGQCAMewWACEnqkPAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"National Research University Higher School of Economics","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Michael","middleName":"","lastName":"Appiah","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-10-06 07:23:22","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7788867/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7788867/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":95528910,"identity":"0f5f176d-7c00-467b-8445-ba7bb291df84","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-10 10:16:36","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":626552,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"CCEMain.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7788867/v1_covered_b9da7c8e-69a8-4ac9-a2ac-1b8421b53622.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Environmental Policies and Energy Efficiency: its implications on environmental degradation among OECD countries","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"environmental-and-ecological-statistics","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"eest","sideBox":"Learn more about [Environmental and Ecological Statistics](http://link.springer.com/journal/10651)","snPcode":"10651","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10651/3","title":"Environmental and Ecological Statistics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Ecological footprint, Environmental Policy, Energy Efficiency, OECD, CUP-FMOLS","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7788867/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7788867/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis study examines the effectiveness of environmental policy stringency (EPS) and energy efficiency (EEI) in reducing the ecological footprint of OECD countries from 1990 to 2023. Using the Driscoll-Kraay fixed effects estimator, the analysis accounts for cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity to ensure robust inference. The findings reveal that while environmental policy alone has an insignificant effect on ecological footprint, energy efficiency contributes significantly to its reduction. More importantly, the interaction between EPS and EEI exhibits a strong negative effect on ecological footprint, suggesting that policy and efficiency measures reinforce each other in improving environmental outcomes. The results also confirm the existence of an inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve, indicating that environmental degradation initially rises with income but declines beyond a certain threshold. Additionally, EPS appears more effective in countries with relatively lower energy efficiency levels. The results highlight the critical role of integrating stringent environmental policies with technological and efficiency-oriented initiatives to achieve sustainable reductions in ecological pressure across OECD economies.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Environmental Policies and Energy Efficiency: its implications on environmental degradation among OECD countries","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-10 06:55:39","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7788867/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-10-10T09:23:27+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-10-10T09:12:16+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-10-10T08:54:46+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Environmental and Ecological Statistics","date":"2025-10-06T07:13:03+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"environmental-and-ecological-statistics","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"eest","sideBox":"Learn more about [Environmental and Ecological Statistics](http://link.springer.com/journal/10651)","snPcode":"10651","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10651/3","title":"Environmental and Ecological Statistics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"06de5065-2d96-466b-ba59-08f0bca95c38","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 10th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-22T09:43:03+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-10 06:55:39","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7788867","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7788867","identity":"rs-7788867","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}