Is Population Growth Bad for the Environment?

Liu Xiangbo, Levy Ting (), Chi-Chur Chao and Zhang Mengbo
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Liu Xiangbo: School of Labor and Human Resources, IMI, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
Levy Ting: Department of Economics, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Zhang Mengbo: Department of Economics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2017, vol. 17, issue 3, 14

Abstract: The relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation has been central to the debate over sustainable growth. This paper uses utility growth as an index of sustainable growth, which is positively related to economic growth and negatively related to environmental degradation. Skilled and unskilled labor are used in this economy and the population is growing over time generating growth without scale effects. The pollution growth rate is higher in a decentralized economy, whereas the sustainable growth rate is higher in an economy with a social planner. An increased rate of population growth is associated with a higher sustainable growth rate in both economies. A higher share of skilled labor is associated with a higher sustainable growth rate in a decentralized economy, while the effect of a higher share of skilled labor is ambiguous in an economy with a social planner.

Keywords: endogenous growth; sustainable growth; environmental degradation; pollution abatement; scale effect; technology innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q32 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2016-0210

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