The demographic implications of carbon emissions and economic growth in China and the Philippines

• Main Authors: Rivera, John Paolo R., See, Kurt Gerrard T.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Atmospheric carbon dioxide—Physiological effect—China; Atmospheric carbon dioxide—Physiological effect—Philippines; Fertility, Human—Environmental aspects—China; Fertility, Human—Environmental aspects—Philippines; Demography, Population, and Ecology; Environmental Studies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/8749
• Institution: De La Salle University

Environmental degradation has become one of the most urgent and pressing issues that the global society confronts today. Given is grave consequences on human welfare as manifested in the rise of pollution-related illnesses and climate change, it is apparent that the rise of toxic emissions poses a potent threat to the existing human population. However, many have failed to consider whether or not the same consequences extend to those who are yet to be born-an important demographic within the fields of population growth and human resources. Hence, it is interesting to determine the relationship that carbon emissions and birth rates hold with each other. This study focuses on the case of the Philippines and China in order to compare and contrast the type of relationship the selected variables will have within a less industrialized nation juxtaposed to a more industrialized economy. With the use of Ordinary Least Squares, the Granger Causality Test, and the Johansen Cointegration Test, this study is able to pinpoint the true relationship both emissions and birth rates hold with each other. Results suggest that in China's case, carbon emissions and live births do hold a significant statistical relationship with each other. On the other hand, the Phillippines's case presents a counterintuitive yet still explicable result stating that emissions and live birth hold a positive relationship with each other.