Tertiarization and the environment: does this relationship depend on the type of tertiarization?

This article explores the relationship between tertiarization and the environment by asking whether this relationship varies according to the type of tertiarization. First, the analysis of types of tertiarization allows us to distinguish between absolute tertiarization and relative tertiarization. According to our data on 126 countries over the period 1992–2014, absolute tertiarization is the most widespread among these two types of tertiarization. Then, using a mathematical model, the analysis indicates that absolute tertiarization is harmful to the environment while relative tertiarization is not always harmful to the environment. Lastly, we employ heterogeneous panel regression techniques to examine the impacts of the two types of tertiarization on CO2 emissions separately. The estimation results tend to show that absolute tertiarization leads to a more than proportional increase in CO2 emissions, while relative tertiarization leads to a less than proportional increase in CO2 emissions. Overall, our results suggest that the type of tertiarization has some influence on the relationship between tertiarization and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]