The Carbon Kuznets Curve. A Cloudy Picture Emitted by Bad Econometrics?

Martin Wagner

No 197, Economics Series from Institute for Advanced Studies

Abstract: In recent years many empirical studies of environmental Kuznets curves employing unit root and cointegration techniques have been conducted for both time series and panel data. When using such methods several issues arise: the effects of a short time dimension, in a panel context the effects of cross-sectional dependence, and the presence of nonlinear transformations of integrated variables. We discuss and illustrate how ignoring these problems and applying standard methods leads to questionable results. Using an estimation approach that addresses the second and third problem we find no evidence for an inverse U-shaped relationship between GDP and CO2 emissions.

Keywords: Carbon Kuznets Curve; Panel data; Unit roots; Cointegration; Cross-sectional dependence; Nonlinear transformations of regressors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C12 C13 Q20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ecm, nep-ene, nep-env and nep-res
Date: 2006-11
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http://www.ihs.ac.at/publications/eco/es-197.pdf First version, 2006 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Carbon Kuznets Curve: A Cloudy Picture Emitted by Bad Econometrics? (2004)
Journal Article: The carbon Kuznets curve: A cloudy picture emitted by bad econometrics? (2008)
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