Economic Growth and the Environment in High-Performing East Asian Countries: Lessons from South Korea

Ravi Ratnayake and Kim Woo-Young

No 159, Working Papers from Department of Economics, The University of Auckland

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between economic growth and environmental conditions in high performing Asian economies in the light of the South Korea's experience. We used Generalized Least Squares to regress thirteen indicators of environmental quality covering air pollution, water pollution, and industrial waste on GDP per capita and other explanatory variables. The results show that five out of the thirteen environmental quality indicators improve when per capita income increases while eight indicators show either a U-shape relationship or deterioration in environmental conditions with economic growth. Overall, the results support the claim that Korea's growth has been achieved at the cost of a reduction in some measures of environmental quality, perhaps due to delayed recognition of environmental problems associated with increased economic activities.

Keywords: Economic growth; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:auc:wpaper:159

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