Carbon Dioxide Emissions among African Countries: An Application of the Sequential Panel Selection Method

Abstract

This paper investigates the existence of stochastic convergence in per capita carbon dioxide
emissions for a panel of 15 African countries using the Sequential Panel Selection Method
(SPSM) for the time period running from 1971 through 2011. This paper adopts the SPSM
because it has the ability to separate the series in the panel into stationary and nonstationary
groups. The results provide evidence in support of convergence in per capita carbon dioxide
emissions for the panel as a whole. However, for the individual countries in the panel, the
results suggest that the relative per capita carbon dioxide emissions for Niger, Mauritius,
Nigeria, Swaziland, Madagascar, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Tanzania, Algeria and Zimbabwe
have converged to the sample average emissions. For Congo, Zambia, Egypt and Botswana,
the results show that their relative per capita carbon dioxide emissions have diverged from
the sample average emissions. The findings of this study have implications for both national
and international environmental policies.