A Dual Assessment of the Environmental Kuznets Curve: The Case of Sweden

Abstract

In this paper, we calculate time series of shadow prices for Swedish emissions of CO2, SO2, and VOC for the period 1918 - 1994. Newly constructed historical emission time series enable studying a single country’s emission paths through increasing levels of economic activity. The shadow prices are, in the next step, related to income to explain the environmental Kuznets curves (EKC) previously found in Swedish data for these three emissions. A directional distance function approach is used to estimate the production process for Swedish industry thus enabling the opportunity costs of a reduction in these emissions to be calculated. We attribute the annual changes in the shadow prices to the main causal factors by decomposing them into a technological effect and a substitution effect. We conclude that the time series of the shadow prices show support for EKCs for Swedish industryEmissions; Historical time series; Decomposition; Directional distance function