Impact of corruption in public sector on environmental quality: Implications for sustainability in BRICS and next 11 countries

This study investigates the impact of corruption in public sector on carbon emissions in presence of energy use segregation, following the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework. The study has been carried out for Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) and Next 11 countries over the period of 1990-2017. Along with the finding of inverted N-shaped EKC for both the cases, we find that incidents of corruption enhance environmental degradation by reducing the positive impact of renewable energy consumption on environmental quality, and increasing the negative impact of fossil fuel consumption. This study has also divulged that the corruptive practices are more prone in case of the countries, where the development is mature and institutionalization is more stringent. Based on these findings, we suggest that environmental policies should take account of the corruption, and thereby, making the policies more robust and effective. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.