Environmental Quality in Indonesia: Disruption by Economic Agents

Purpose: This study aims to determine the effect of economic agents, such as the amount of government expenditure on the environment, households, manufacturing industry, and shipping activities; on environmental degradation in Indonesia. Research design, data, and methodology: This study is conducted with 264 observations from panel data of 33 provinces during 2010-2017. Environmental degradation is measured by using the environmental quality index collected from Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics. Three testing models are used to test the panel data, namely Common Effect Model (CEM), Fixed Effect Model (FEM), and Random Effect Model (REM). Results: The research findings show that the amount of government expenditure on the environment, households, and shipping activities have a negative and significant effects on environmental degradation, while the number of manufacturing industry has positive and significant effect on environmental degradation. Unlike the previous studies, the result also shows that government expenditure on environmental has a positive and significant effect on environmental quality index. Conclusion: It can be concluded that even though Indonesian government spent a low budget on environment, their environmental regulation has succeeded both in reducing environmental degradation and increasing the environmental quality as indicated by Indonesian environmental quality index.