Comparison between Romania and Sweden Based on Three Dimensions: Environmental Performance, Green Taxation and Economic Growth

One of the European Union's (EU) objectives regarding climate change is a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, ensuring that member states focus on sustainable development. The aim of this study was the comparison of a three-dimensional relationship between green taxation, environmental performance and economic growth for the time period between 1995 and 2017 in Romania and Sweden. The novelty consists of simultaneously using the double dividend theory and environmental Kuznets curve theory for Romania. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method was used for testing the cointegration relationship. The Granger causality estimation based on the ARDL-error correction model was applied to identify the causality relationship between the variables and the pairwise Granger causality test to detect the direction of causality. The implementation of the tests led to the conclusion that environmental taxes will have a significant influence on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the long run in both Romania and Sweden, while in the short run, no such influence will be noticed. Also, in Romania, in the long term, there was a bidirectional causality relationship between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions, while in Sweden, the causality relationship was from economic growth to greenhouse gas emissions.