Neoclassical Growth, Environment and Technological Change: The Environmental Kuznets Curve

Santiago Rubio, Jose Garcia and J.L. Hueso
Additional contact information
J.L. Hueso: University of Valencia

No 2009.125, Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Abstract: The paper investigates socially optimal patterns of economic growth and environmental quality in a neoclassical growth model with endogenous technological progress. In the model, the environmental quality affects positively not only to utility but also to production. However, cleaner technologies can be used in the economy whether a part of the output is used in environmentally oriented R&D. In this framework, if the initial level of capital is low then the shadow price of a cleaner technology is low relative to the cost of developing it given by the marginal utility of consumption and it is not worth investing in R&D. Thus, there will be a first stage of growth based only on the accumulation of capital with a decreasing environmental quality until the moment that pollution is great enough to make profitable the investment in R&D. After this turning point, if the new technologies are efficient enough, the economy can evolve along a balanced growth path with an increasing environmental quality. The result is that the optimal investment pattern supports an environmental Kuznets curve.

Keywords: Neoclassical Growth Model; Endogenous Technological Progress; External Effects; Environmental Kuznets Curve (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 O41 Q55 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dge, nep-ene, nep-env and nep-fdg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://feem-media.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/w ... oads/ndl2009-125.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Neoclassical Growth, Environment and Technological Change: The Environmental Kuznets Curve (2009)
Journal Article: Neoclassical Growth, Environment and Technological Change: the Environmental Kuznets Curve (2009)
Working Paper: Neoclassical Growth, Environment and Technological Change: The Environmental Kuznets Curve (2009)
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fem:femwpa:2009.125

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alberto Prina Cerai (alberto.prinacerai@feem.it this e-mail address is bad, please contact repec@repec.org).