Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve Describe How Individual Countries Behave?

Robert Deacon and Catherine Norman

University of California at Santa Barbara, Economics Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, UC Santa Barbara

Abstract: The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), an inverted-U relationship between pollution and income, is an influential generalization about the way environmental quality changes as a country makes the transition from poverty to relative affluence. The EKC predicts that pollution will first increase, but subsequently decline if income growth proceeds far enough. We examine within-country time series data on air pollution and income for a sample of individual countries to see if this generalized prediction is commonly borne out. The empirical approach employs robust, nonparametric methods and a recently available data set on SO2, smoke, and particulate air pollution. In most cases examined, the within-country income-pollution patterns we observe do not differ significantly from what would be expected to occur by chance. Where income-pollution relationships are consistent with EKC predictions, the patterns involved are also consistent with a much simpler hypothesis.

Keywords: environmental Kuznets curve; environment and development; air pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-04-05
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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