Is carbon dioxide emission convergence in the ten largest economies?

This study applies stationary test with a flexible Fourier function proposed by Enders and Lee (Enders, W. and J. Lee. 2012. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 74:574–99) to test the validity of carbon dioxide emission to assess its convergence, and the rationality of the existing policies in the 10 largest economies of the world. We find that our approximation has higher power to detect smooth breaks than the linear method, as the true data generating process of carbon dioxide emission convergence is in fact a stationary nonliner process. We examine the validity of carbon dioxide emission from the nonlinear point of view and provide robust evidence that clearly indicates that carbon dioxide emission is convergence in most countries, not depending on their development pattern. It implies that the existing policies in most countries are rational, and the United States, Japan, and Germany need more efforts in reducing the carbon dioxide emission.