The effects of environmental pollution on human development in selected developing countries

One of the integral parts of sustainable development is maintaining environmental standards, and air pollution constitutes one of the aspects of environmental pollution. A healthy environment is so important that achieving human development is totally impossible without it. As air pollution affects the process of development of countries in different ways, the impact of air pollution on human development is also an important matter. This study examines the effects of air pollution on human development in selected developing countries us ing panel data methods during 2000 to 2011. For this purpose, the panel data model is used, and the software Eviews8 is used to estimate it. The results of model estimation using the fixed-effects method suggest that air pollution has a significant and negative impact on index of human development in these countries. The other variables in the model show that population growth, labour, trade openness and government size have a positive and significant effect, and inflation has a negative and significant effect on human development.