Income and environmental R D: empirical evidence from OECD countries

Marinus H.C. Komen, Shelby Gerking and Henk Folmer

Environment and Development Economics, 1997, vol. 2, issue 04, pages 505-515

Abstract: This paper extends previous empirical studies of the environmental Kuznets curve by examining the role of rising incomes in promoting development of new technologies directed toward environmental improvements. The main result, based on an analysis of data from 19 OECD countries for the period 1980 94, shows that the income elasticity of public research and development funding for environmental protection is positive, and may be close to unity. This finding suggests that emissions of at least some pollutants may decline with income after a threshold level of income is reached. However, this should be interpreted cautiously in light of: (1) the small size of public research and development funding relative to overall spending on environmental protection, (2) the ability of a country to substitute between public and private research and development expenditures, as well as among alternative policy instruments, and (3) the possibility that public research and development funding may be a form of industrial subsidy in some countries.

Date: 1997
View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1355770X97000272 link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:endeec:v:2:y:1997:i:04:p:505-515_00

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Development Economics from Cambridge University Press
Address: The Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU UK
Series data maintained by Mike Eden ().