MARITIME TRANSPORTATION ELASTICITIES OF CO2 EMISSIONS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN IRAN: ENVIRONMENTAL KUZNETS CURVE AND POLLUTION HAVEN HYPOTHESIS

Maritime transportation plays an important role both in the environmental pollution and economic growth, especially in the developing and oil-exporting economies, linked to the open sea like Iran. Many believe that ships increase the CO2 emissions since they carry the huge bulk of cargos which requires the tremendous amount of energy, leading to greenhouse gas emissions [1]. However, the others claim that sea transportation decreases the CO2 emissions owing to its higher capability of carrying bulk cargos, compared with the other transportation modes [2]. The direction and intensity of the relationship among maritime transportation, environmental pollution, and economic growth play a helpful role in the environmental and economic policy-making. The main purpose of this study is to estimate the maritime transportation elasticities of the environment and economy of Iran in the short run and long run to find out the relationship between maritime transportation on the one hand, and environmental pollution and economic growth on the other hand.