بررسی تطبیقی عملکرد حکومت‌های توسعه‌یافته و در حال ‌توسعه بر کیفیت محیط زیست

Introduction
The environment is one of the most important issues in today's world. Two of the main factors of environmental challenges and issues are: Environmental destruction due to depletion and destruction of nature and air pollution caused by the emission of toxic gases. Considering , the main factors effective in investigating the reduction or increase in environmental pollution are Determining and identifying factors affecting the environment.
One of the indicators that affects the improvement of environmental quality is the role of governments, which play a decisive role by enacting appropriate laws and regulations in the form of protecting the public good of the environment.
This mechanism has reduced the social costs of production and consumption to zero through resource assessment and the use of legal and regulatory mechanisms and by internalizing environmental costs and it has reduced pollution and damage to resources, and has led to economic sustainability. According to most studies, better environmental performance is the result of good governance, which raises public awareness and action by members of society to prevent environmental degradation. These studies also state that the reduction in the effectiveness of environmental regulations and policies, leads to corruption through reduced in environmental quality and an increase in pollution due to corruption, can have a negative impact on environmental sustainability. However, Other studies have raised uncertainty about how governments affect the environment.
Therefore, there is no definitive idea regarding the manner and type of impact of governments in different countries on environmental performance, which has been done in the present study with a comparative approach between two groups of developing and developed countries.
Methods and Material
The present research is a descriptive-analytical study. The sample studied in this research is 13 selected developed and 13 selected developing countries. The countries are as follows: Switzerland, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, the United States, Norway, France, Japan, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Ireland; and the 13 selected developing countries included the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, Qatar,


 
Brazil, China, Bulgaria, Argentina, Russia, Oman, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
The data was extracted from the World Bank website for the period 2000-2022. And the panel data method and Eviews 13 software were used. the model introduced by Hewang and Ho (2017) was used in the form of panel data to analytically examine the impact of good governance indicators on environmental quality among selected developed and developing countries. in the economic literature, studies have been conducted on the factors affecting environmental pollution. Following the economic literature, in this study, the environmental quality function can be written as follows:

 
Y: dependent variable (environmental quality).
X: the set of explanatory variables.
Therefore, the following model is proposed:

CO2_i,jt: Air pollution emissions in developed countries (i) and developing countries (j);
FDI_i,j,t: Foreign direct investment in developed countries (i) and developing countries (j);
CCR_i,j,t: Control of administrative corruption in developed countries (i) and in the developing countries (j);
GER_i,j,t: Government effectiveness in developed countries (i) and in the developing countries (j);
PSR_i,j,t: Political stability in developed countries (i) and in developing countries (j);
RQR_i,j,t: The quality of laws and regulations in developed countries (i) and in developing countries (j);
RLR_i,j,t: The right to express opinions and provide feedback in developed countries (i) and in developing countries (j);
POP_i,j,t: Urbanization rate in developed countries (i) and in developing countries (j);
FF_i,j,t: Fossil fuel consumption in developed countries (i) and in developing countries (j);
GDP_i,j,t: GDP per capita as a measure for economic growth in developed countries (i) and in developing countries (j);
GDP ²_i,j,t: The square of GDP per capita serves as a measure for economic growth in developed countries (i) and in developing countries (j);
Findings
The results indicate that all variables align significantly with the theoretical foundations.
The good governance coefficients exhibit the expected negative signs that shows an inverse relationship of these variables with CO2 emissions
So that in developed countries, with a one percent increase in the variables of corruption control, quality of law and regulation, rule of law, and efficiency and effectiveness of the government, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted decreases by 0.3 , 3 6, and 7 percent, and in developing countries, a one percent increase in the variables of corruption control, quality of law and regulation, rule of law, and government efficiency and effectiveness reduces CO2 emissions by 0.9, 0.8, 1, and 2 percent, respectively.
The results indicate that there is a strong relationship between the performance of the legal system on the one hand and the reduction of environmental pollution on the other. Therefore, improving and applying good governance indicators can reduce environmental pollution and play a significant role in improving environmental quality. Another variable examined in this study is foreign investment, which significantly influences the reduction of environmental pollution. In developed countries, a one percent increase in foreign investment leads to a 0.02 percent decrease in CO2 emissions; whereas, in developing countries, the reduction is 0.04 percent. This negative relationship can be attributed to rapid economic growth, heightened demand for a better environment, and the implementation of stricter environmental regulations. These findings are consistent with the research conducted by Eliaspour et al. (2022).
GDP as a proxy for per capita income and an indicator of economic growth is another variable examined in this study. According to the results of Table (4), a one percent increase in per capita income in developed countries increases CO2 emissions by 5 percent, and a one percent increase in squared per capita income in these countries significantly reduces CO2 emissions.
also, this variable (per capita income) increases CO2 gas by 2% in developing countries and the square of per capita income reduces carbon dioxide gas emissions to a high extent. This means confirming the Kuznets hypothesis, which shows that initially, due to an increase in per capita income, the level of pollution increases, but after reaching a threshold level of per capita income, air pollution and CO2 gas emissions decrease.
Finally, the variables of urbanization rate and fossil fuel consumption have a positive effect on the level of air pollution, which is an indicator of environmental quality. In this way, a one percent increase in urbanization rate in developed and developing countries increases air pollution by 1.9 and 2.8 percent.
It is also stated regarding the variable relationship between fossil fuel consumption and air pollution that developed and developing countries, with a one percent increase in fossil fuel consumption, air pollution increases by 0.2 percent in developed countries and by 0.3 percent in developing countries.
Conclusion
The results of the study regarding developed and developing countries can be summarized as follows:
All independent variables used in the study, except for the political stability and right to express opinion and accountability variables, are statistically significant, and the signs of the estimated coefficients are also consistent with economic theories.
The quality of regulation can affect environmental outcomes. Countries with clear licensing and tax policies manage their production within the framework of defined laws and regulations, and thus cause less damage to the environment.