Age Structures and Air Pollution: What Role Does Gender Play?

We investigate the influence of age structure and gender on air pollution, dividing the age structure into four groups and use CO₂ emissions as a measure of air pollution, which can be separated into four categories to obtain more complete findings, then employing panel cointegration techniques and panel-based error correction models. The data are collected from 29 OECD and 40 non-OECD countries in the period 1990-2014. For case of total CO₂ emissions, younger (people under 30) and older people (people 65 and above) emit less than people in the intermediate age group, but the impact of age group on CO₂ emissions is different when looking at CO₂ emissions from coal, gas, and oil. While we take gender into account, the causality between age structure and CO₂ emissions becomes significant, especially for the relationship between population and total CO₂ emissions in OECD and non-OECD countries. We also note that more people who are aged 15-29 increase total CO₂ emissions in OECD countries and more people who are aged 30-44 decrease CO₂ emissions from coal in non-OECD countries. Our findings suggest that an energy and environmental policy should consider both age structure and gender effects on environmental issues.