Economic and Environmental Performance of Post-Communist Transition Economies

This paper presents the results of the empirical study for determining the factors affecting the environmental and economic per capita performance of national economies in the case of 15 post-Soviet republics over the period 1995–2013. The study shows that the growth of GDP per capita stimulates CO₂ efficiency of all countries. Other significant factors of CO₂ efficiency are energy efficiency, the increase of oil prices, the gross fixed capital formation and processes of small and large privatization. However, a multi-directional effect of some individual factors is established. Energy efficiency improvements are related to the growth of CO₂ efficiency. Oil prices and small-scale privatization also positively affect CO₂ efficiency, while large-scale privatization and the increase of gross fixed capital reduce the carbon efficiency. It was found that the growth of oil prices positively affects GDP per capita as well as carbon efficiency, while large-scale privatization has a negative impact on both indicators. The increase of gross fixed capital has a multi-directional influence on environmental and economic performance leading to per capita GDP growth and reduction of CO₂ efficiency.