The relationships between political stability, arms imports, oil exports, and GHG emissions: a CS-DL approach for eight Gulf countries

We study the relationships between arms imports, political stability, oil exports, gross domestic product, and greenhouse gas emissions by considering a panel of eight oil-exporting countries of the Gulf region and yearly data between 2000 and 2023. Since there is cross-sectional dependence between our considered variables, second-generation panel unit root and cointegration tests are used. In addition, we use the cross-sectional distributed lag (CS-DL) methodology to estimate our long-run coefficients. Several new and interesting results are deduced. Arms imports increase political stability and economic growth. Political stability increases oil exports and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Oil exports reduce arms imports. Oil-exporting Gulf countries are advised to continue importing and plan the production of high-tech weapons to strengthen their political stability. This latter enables them to elaborate and realize energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies, transforming them into producing and exporting renewable energy countries. Jel classification: C33; H56; O53 ; Q37 ; Q54.