The determinants of life expectancy and environmental degradation in Pakistan: evidence from ARDL bounds test approach

The current study aims to investigate factors affecting life expectancy in Pakistan with a special focus on environmental degradation measured by carbon emissions (CO2 emissions) on life expectancy from 1975 to 2020. The unit root test results show mixed order integration in the series. The bound F-test and Johansen cointegration test confirm the long-run association between the variables. The long-run estimates of autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) reveal that CO2 emissions, inflation rate, food production index, and death rate have negative effects on the life expectancy, implying that life expectancy shorten when CO2 increases, while per capita income, urbanization, population growth, birth rate, health expenditure, and education have positive effects on life expectancy, indicating that these factors prolong life expectancy. Moreover, the short-run estimates of ARDL reveal that food production index, urbanization, birth rate, infant mortality rate, and education have positive effects on the life expectancy, while inflation, per capita income, population growth rate, death rate, health expenditure, and CO2 emissions have negative effects on the life expectancy. The findings of the study suggest that the management authorities need to regulate carbon emissions in order to prolong life expectancy which is a key determinant of the economic growth.