Convergence analysis of ecological footprint at different time scales: Evidence from Southern Common Market countries

This study investigates the convergence in ecological footprint per capita across Southern Common Market countries over the period 1961-2016 within the framework of the environmental convergence hypothesis. However, unlike the existing literature, which mainly tests the convergence for the overall period, this study follows a different path. First, the time series is decomposed into different frequencies using the discrete wavelet transform method. Then, using the Fourier Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root tests, convergence in ecological footprint per capita is tested for different time scales; short-run, medium-run, and finally long-run. The results indicate that countries show different convergence tendencies at different time scales. While the results support the convergence hypothesis for all countries in the short-run, the convergence hypothesis holds for only four and three of the five countries in the medium and long-run, respectively. Besides, the results show that the convergence hypothesis holds for only Uruguay for the whole period.