MODELLING ECOLOGICAL DEGRADATION-URBANISATION NEXUS IN GHANA

The current study modelled urbanisation-ecological degradation nexus for Ghana with control variables such as ruralisation, income, the openness of trade, and the consumption of energy from 1971 to 2014, using yearly data obtained from World Development Indicator in a time series modelling. The estimation method is based on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) and the Granger causality test. The research findings revealed significant cointegration association in the model estimated as well as a stable long period and short period association among the dependent and the independent variables. The granger predictability test results for the causality direction support the feedback preposition. Since the conservation hypothesis is not supported, urbanisation, ruralisation, income, trade openness, and energy consumption are not policy tools in dealing with ecological degradation for the study period.