The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of environmentally related taxes on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the EU member states. The paper uses a dynamic panel threshold regression model to determine the nonlinear relationship between environmental taxes and CO₂ emissions in 15 EU member countries between 1995 and 2013. The results confirm asymmetrical relationships, in which the thresholds of the environmental taxes for total environmental taxes, energy taxes (including CO₂ taxes), transport taxes, and taxes on pollution and resources are 3.02%, 2.20%, 0.88%, and 0.23%, respectively. The findings reveal that, after exceeding the threshold level, the effect of environmentally related taxes (excluding transport taxes) on CO₂ emissions changes from insignificantly positive to significantly negative. However, the analysis shows a significant effect of transport taxes on CO₂ emissions neither below nor above the threshold.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effects of energy consumption on economic growth by means of a panel data analysis of 75 net energy-importing countries for the period 1990 to 2012. Design/methodology/approach: For the purpose of the analysis, the countries are classified into two groups, and each group is then classified into subgroups. The first group is formed based on the energy import dependence of the countries and is classified into two subgroups according to whether their dependence is greater than or less than 50 per cent. The second group is formed based on the income level of the countries and is classified into four subgroups, specifically, low-income economies, lower-middle-income economies, upper-middle-income economies and high-income economies. Findings: The findings obtained for both panel data and for each country indicate that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between energy consumption and economic growth over the long term such that energy consumption contributes more to economic growth as the import dependence of the country decreases. Moreover, the effect of energy consumption on economic growth decreases as the income level of the country increases. This indicates that the efficient use of energy is as important as energy consumption, which is regarded as an important indicator of economic development. Originality/value: The authors expect that these findings will make a valuable contribution to the results of future studies, as they analyze the relationships among the variables by including the energy intensities of the countries.

This study investigates the influence of inflation on economic growth for five Turkish Republics (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan) that are in the transition period through dynamic panel data analysis based on threshold. Study results indicate that there is a nonlinear relationship between inflation and growth rate; the threshold for the influence of inflation on economic growth is 7.97%, and an inflation rate above this threshold has a negative influence on economic growth while an inflation rate below this threshold has a positive influence on economic growth. These results show that a high inflation rate will have a considerable influence on economic growth. In this regard, it is important to achieve sustainable growth which plays a crucial role in increasing the efficiency of implemented monetary policies and assuring stability. Therefore, political and economic decision-makers in transition economies do not ignore the concept of threshold within the scope of monetary policy while determining the target inflation rate in their efforts to deal with inflation