Environmental Kuznets Curve: An Envelope of Technological Progress

This paper develops a growth model to provide a theoretical explanation of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). Paper explains how EKC is shaped with economic development for a given technology. The EKC result arises in two ways – it can be observed from a single technology that matures and it can be observed as an economy develops new technologies. This second effect is represented as an envelope of Kuznets curves for technologies. This paper provides an interesting application of growth theory and of the envelope theorem. In economic development process, technology first diffuses, then become regulated and finally is phased out by another new technology. Thus, each technology may produce one EKC corresponding to a definite externality. Theoretically, a series of EKCs may exist and an envelope of them is observed in reality.Technological development, Innovation, Diffusion, Pollution sensitivity, regulation, EKC, social institution

A Bayesian Approach to the Estimation of Environmental Kuznets Curves for CO2 Emissions

This paper investigates the EKC curves for CO2 emissions in a panel of 109 countries during the period 1959-2001. The length of the series makes the application of a heterogeneous estimator suitable from an econometric point of view. The results, based on the hierarchical Bayes estimator, show that different EKC dynamics are associated with the different sub samples of countries considered. On average, more industrialized countries show an EKC evidence in quadratic specifications, which are nevertheless probably evolving into an N shape, emerging from cubic specifications. Less developed countries consistently show that CO2 emissions still rise positively with income, though some signals of an EKC path arise.Environmental Kuznets Curve, CO2 Emissions, Bayesian Approach, Heterogeneous Panels

Economic Development And Transfrontier Shipments Of Waste In Poland – Spatio-Temporal Analysis

The aim of the paper is to apply the spatio-temporal Environmental Kuznets Curve (SpEKC) to test the relationship between economic growth and the amount of collected mixed municipal waste. The analysis was conducted at the level of sixty-six Polish sub-regions. The study contained selected environmental indicators. The dependent variable - the amount of municipal waste generated in kilograms per capita characterized the state of the environment. The GDP per capita in constant prices (as an explanatory variable) presented the level of economic development of the sub-regions. In the empirical part of the research there were used spatial panel data models based on EKCs. It determined the levels of economic development, at which the amount of produced wastes has fallen or increased, depending on the wealth of the region. The application of different types of spatial weight matrices was an important element of this modelling. Data obtained the years 2005-2012. Models were estimated in the RCran package

The dynamics of delinking in industrial emissions: The role of productivity, trade and R&D

This paper provides new empirical evidence on delinking / Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) for greenhouse gases and other air pollutant emissions in Italy. We analysed a panel dataset based on the Italian NAMEA for 1990-2005 with a specific focus on industry. We integrated the emission-income NAMEA with data on trade openness and R&D expenditures. The highly disaggregated dataset provides a large heterogeneity and can help to overcome the shortcomings of the usual approach to EKC based on cross-country data. We use in this paper CO2, SOx, NOx and PM10 as objects of investigation. We use as empirical models of reference both a standard EKC model and a STIRPAT/IPAT model. Our results show that looking at sector evidence, both decupling and then eventually re-coupling trends could emerge along the path of economic development. The analysis of how stagnation periods affect environmental performances is also of interest.NAMEA, trade openness, labour productivity, EKC, STIRPAT

Driving Factors of Carbon Dioxide Emissions and the Impact from Kyoto Protocol

In the last two decades increasing attention has been paid to the relationship between environmental degradation and economic development. According to the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis this relationship may be described by an inverted-U curve. However, recent evidence rejects the EKC hypothesis for GHG emissions in a broad sense. In this paper we aim to investigate whether the EKC behavior for CO2 emissions could be proved on the behalf of institutional regulations. We analyze the driving factors of CO2 for developed and developing countries to test the theory of the EKC in the context of environmental regulations using a static and dynamic panel data model. We consider the Kyoto Protocol and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The results from this study indicate that the Kyoto obligations have a reducing effect on CO2 emissions in developed and developing countries.environmental Kuznets Curve, Kyoto Protocol, CDM

The relationships between total, electricity and biofuels residential energy consumption and income in Latin America and the Caribbean Countries

Controlling residential energy consumption in Latino America and the Caribbean countries is crucial to reduce CO2 emissions, as it has an important energy-saving potential, and its environmental controls are difficult to displace offshore. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between residential energy consumption and income for 22 Latin America and the Caribbean countries in the period 1990-2013. For this purpose, residential energy environmental Kuznets curves (EKC) are estimated by taking into account the heterogeneity among the countries by including two control variables: one representing the possible effect of urbanization on residential energy use and the second representing the possible effect of petrol production. The EKC are estimated for total residential energy consumption, for residential electricity consumption and for biofuels and waste energy consumption. The elasticities of total, electricity and biofuels residential energy consumption with respect to income are calculated for each year and country, analyzing the different behavior between countries. Obtained results show that the EKC hypothesis is confirmed for the residential sector when the biofuels energy consumption is considered. Moreover, the results also show that the turning point has been reached in some countries. Nevertheless, the EKC is not confirmed when electricity or total residential energy consumption is considered. Thus, for total residential energy consumption, the elasticity is always positive, growing also as the income does. For electricity energy consumption, the elasticity is also always positive, since although the elasticity decreases until a threshold, from an per capita income value it begins to grow

Rule of law and the Environmental Kuznets Curve: evidence for carbon emissions

In response to recently growing literature investigating the relationship between environment and institutions, this study investigates how rule of law influences the level of income at the turning point of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Using an alternative specification of EKC that avoids nonlinear transformation of potentially nonstationary regressors, investigated by Bradford et al. (2005) and Leitao (2010), we find the evidence for the EKC in European countries for carbon emissions. Our results find a negative relationship between pollution and rule of law, demonstrating that when rule of law is strong, the turning point of the EKC occurs at a lower level of income per capita, thus, decreasing emissions. In terms of policy implication, our study suggests that institutional reinforcement should deserve close attention in designing and enforcing policies that limit environmental degradation.Environmental Kuznets Curve, Rule of law, Panel data, Turning point

Environmental Kuznets Curve on Country Level: Evidence from China

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis proposes that there is an inverse-U-shape relationship between environmental degradation and per capita income. This evidence has been manifested to be existed in most air pollutants and several water pollutants by estimating on cross-country data. Different from most earlier empirical studies, this paper uses the cross-province panel data of seven pollutants from China to investigate whether the EKC hypothesis may even exist on a country level. The estimated results find out that the EKC hypothesis exists in five of these pollutants, while the other two show a N-shape relationship between pollutant emission and per capita income. Moreover, this paper suggests some problems of this regression as being remained for future study.Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), pollution emission, economic growth, GDP per capita

Driving Factors of Carbon Dioxide Emissions and the Impact from Kyoto Protocol

In the last two decades increasing attention has been paid to the relationship between environmental quality and economic development. According to the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis this relationship may be described by an inverted-U curve. However, recent evidence rejects the EKC hypothesis for GHG emissions in a broad sense. In this paper we aim to investigate whether the EKC behavior for CO2 emissions could be proved on the behalf of institutional regulations. We analyze the driving factors of Carbon Dioxide Emissions (CO2) for developed and developing countries to test the theory of the EKC in the context of environmental regulations using a static and dynamic panel data model. We consider the Kyoto Protocol and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The results from this study indicate that the Kyoto obligations have a reducing effect on CO2 emissions in developed and developing countries and highlight the differences behind the driving forces of CO2 emissions for those two groups of countries. Finally, it is still too early to predict accurately the expected effects of CDM projects on emissions.Environmental Kuznets Curve, Kyoto Protocol, CDM