The effect of democracy on CO2 emissions in emerging countries: Does the level of income matter?

Using quantile regression technique, this paper explores the interaction effects of democracy and income on CO2 emissions in 19 emerging countries over the period 1997-2010. The results indicate a stronger and significant interaction impact on CO2 emissions only at the lower emission countries. Moreover, democracy reduces CO2 emissions but only if the country has already reached to a certain income level. The new empirical evidence from this study provides a more complete picture of the determinants of emissions throughout the conditional distribution, and these novel findings not only help advance the existing literature, but also can be of special interest to the country's policy makers, especially among the most democracy and least democracy nations.