Evaluation of ecological security for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-5 countries: new evidence from the RALS unit root test

Abstract

The present study seeks to determine the convergence of the ecological footprint pressure index for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-5) countries over the period of 1961–2017. For this purpose, traditional unit root tests in conjunction with residual augmented least squares (RALS) type unit root tests have been applied to examine the convergence of all countries under investigation. RALS type tests were chosen due to showing a significantly improved power over conventional tests that do not use information on non-normal errors. The traditional unit root results do not show support for the ecological footprint pressure index convergence of the highlighted ASEAN-5 blocs. However, the RALS type and nonlinear unit root tests results reveal that the ecological footprint pressure index became convergent. Thus, governments and policymakers need to adopt stricter policies to protect the environment. These results have a more far-reaching effect on energy and environmental security for the study region.