EKC and the income elasticity hypothesis Land for housing or land for future?

This paper investigates the relationships between land consumption and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) for a panel of 20 Italian regions over the period 1980–2010. As proxy of land consumption, it uses the supply of new housing, being residential construction the main cause of soil sealing. To test this hypothesis it runs a panel data regression model. In the considered period, results show the existence of an inverted EKC whereas, on a longer period, a N-shaped curve may be inferred. Contrary to the EKC hypothesis, both fixed effect and random effect model estimates show that higher income does not induce greater environmental awareness or, in different words, that the income elasticity hypothesis holds for housing demand rather (or more) than for environment. According to these results, considering the specificity of the resource under consideration, the paper claims for a shift from market to public policy. A tighter urban planning and a higher “environmental” property taxation could be efficient strategies to combat land consumption.     

Does income growth relocate ecological footprint?

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether countries tend to relocate their ecological footprint as they grow richer. The analysis is carried out for a panel of 116 countries by employing the production and import components of the ecological footprint data of the Global Footprint Network for the period 2004–2008. With few exceptions, the existing Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) literature concentrates only on the income-environmental degradation nexus in the home country and neglects the negative consequences of home consumption spilled out. Controlling for the effects of openness to trade, biological capacity, population density, industry share and energy per capita as well as stringency of environmental regulation and environmental regulation enforcement, we detect an EKC-type relationship only between per capita income and footprint of domestic production. Within the income range, import footprint is found to be monotonically increasing with income. Moreover, we find that domestic environmental regulations do not influence country decisions to import environmentally harmful products from abroad; but they do affect domestic production characteristics. Hence, our findings indicate the importance of environmental regulations and provide support for the “Pollution Haven” and “Race-to-the-Bottom” hypotheses.     

Testing Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis in Asian countries

The aim of this study is to test the Environmental Kuznet Curve (EKC) hypothesis for 14 Asian countries spanning the period 1990–2011. We focused on how both income and policies in these countries affect the income–emissions (environment) relationship. The GMM methodology using panel data is employed in a multivariate framework to test the EKC hypothesis. The multivariate framework includes: CO₂ emissions, GDP per capita, population density, land, industry shares in GDP, and four indicators that measure the quality of institutions. In terms of the presence of an inverted U-shape association between emissions and income per capita, the estimates have the expected signs and are statistically significant, yielding empirical support to the presence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis.     

基于环境库兹涅茨曲线的我国大气污染防治重点区域环境空气质量与经济增长关系研究

改革开放以来,中国经济迅猛发展,但大气污染等环境问题日益突出。进入21世纪,我国通过颁布实施多项大气污染防治政策,将京津冀及周边地区、长三角地区、珠三角地区等大气污染较严重的区域划定为重点区域,针对性制定治污措施和实施减排工程,努力推动区域环境空气质量改善。基于2000-2019年我国31个省（自治区、直辖市）（以下简称31个省份）GDP,以及SO₂、PM₁₀、NO₂三项大气污染物浓度数据,利用环境库兹涅茨曲线（EKC,Environmental Kuznets Curve）模型,对31个省份和京津冀及周边地区、长三角地区、珠三角地区的经济增长情况、大气污染物浓度演变以及二者之间的关系进行了系统全面的分析评估。研究结果显示：（1）近年来实施的各项大气污染防治政策,特别是2013年以来颁布实施的《大气污染防治行动计划》《打赢蓝天保卫战三年行动计划》,推动环境空气质量改善的同时,促进了经济发展与环境保护长期关系协调性逐步增强,除NO₂浓度呈U型外,31个省份SO₂浓度、PM₁₀浓度与人均GDP的EKC曲线呈倒U型和倒N型,并处于快速下降阶段。（2）京津冀及周边地区SO₂浓度与人均GDP呈倒U型,且处于快速下降阶段;PM₁₀和NO₂浓度均呈现U型关系,且均处于上升期。（3）长三角地区SO₂、PM₁₀浓度与人均GDP呈现倒U型和U型,但均处于下降阶段;NO₂浓度与人均GDP无相关关系。（4）珠三角地区SO₂、PM₁₀和NO₂浓度与人均GDP均呈现倒U型关系,且均处于下降阶段。为此,建议\"十四五\"期间我国政府要继续实施新一轮的大气污染防治行动计划,聚焦机动车NO_x污染管控,大力推动NO₂浓度稳步下降,以实现我国环境空气质量持续改善,为统筹经济高质量发展和生态环境高水平保护奠定坚实基础。     

Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: The role of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and trade in OECD countries

This paper investigates the causal relationships between per capita CO₂ emissions, gross domestic product (GDP), renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, and international trade for a panel of 25 OECD countries over the period 1980–2010. Short-run Granger causality tests show the existence of bidirectional causality between: renewable energy consumption and imports, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy and trade (exports or imports); and unidirectional causality running from: exports to renewable energy, trade to CO₂ emissions, output to renewable energy. There are also long-run bidirectional causalities between all our considered variables. Our long-run fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) estimates show that the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is verified for this sample of OECD countries. They also show that increasing non-renewable energy increases CO₂ emissions. Interestingly, increasing trade or renewable energy reduces CO₂ emissions. According to these results, more trade and more use of renewable energy are efficient strategies to combat global warming in these countries.     

黄河流域生态保护和高质量发展的EKC检验

黄河流域生态保护和高质量发展是国家重大发展战略。运用黄河流域29个市2007-2017年的面板数据,对黄河流域生态保护和高质量发展的关系进行了EKC检验。结果显示,流域内污水处理厂集中处理率和生活垃圾无害化处理率的EKC曲线呈\"N\"型,一般工业固体废物综合利用率的EKC曲线呈\"倒U\"型,工业废水排放量和工业SO₂排放量的EKC曲线呈\"倒N\"型。黄河流域生态保护的人均GDP拐点出现在11.8-14.4万元/人,截止到2017年,各市均未跨过第一拐点,由此可见,该区域生态保护力度及经济高质量发展水平均有待提升。政府部门应继续加大生态保护力度,防止出现污染排放与经济共同增长的现象;同时,应促进人口集聚和发展服务业以抑制生态污染排放并提高污染处理率。     

经济发展对环境质量的影响——环境库兹涅茨曲线国内外研究进展

“环境库兹涅茨曲线 (Environm ental Kuznets Curve)”是指环境破坏与收入水平之间成倒 U形曲线关系 ,即随着经济发展和收入水平的提高 ,环境质量先破坏后好转。 2 0世纪 90年代初 ,揭开了 EKC研究的序幕 ;之后涌现大量实证研究和理论解释模型的探索 ;近年来的研究在前人的基础上视野更加宽阔 ,更注重理论模型的完善。从实证研究、计量模型和解释理论等 3条线索回顾了近年来国内外的主要研究进展 ,认为现有研究在计量模型、数据处理、指标选取等方面虽然取得了巨大进展 ,但仍存在许多不足 ;EKC研究要得到更进一步发展必须突破这些局限     

Can positive income anticipations reverse the mental health impacts of negative income anxieties?

Prospect theory suggests losses are more influential than equivalent sized gains in individual level decision-making. Extending this literature, we use longitudinal National Population Health Survey data (2000–01 to 2010–11) to investigate whether experienced psychological distress impacts of greater economic insecurity for working age Canadians can be fully reversed by equal sized increases in security. Economic insecurity (security) is defined as the probability of an annual income decrease (increase) of 25 percent or more. Our identification strategy employs fixed effects estimation and a set of instruments to control for unobserved heterogeneity and reverse causality. Results suggest that an initial one standard deviation increase in economic insecurity predicts a rise in psychological distress of about 0.57 standard deviations for males and 0.54 standard deviations for females. Good economic news of a similar magnitude has considerably less impact, reducing psychological distress by 0.16 and 0.35 standard deviations for males and females respectively.     

Investigating the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by utilizing the ecological footprint as an indicator of environmental degradation

This study investigates the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis using a country’s ecological footprint as an indicator of environmental degradation. Ninety-three countries were examined, categorized by income. The fixed effects and the generalized method of moments results clearly showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between the ecological footprint and GDP growth, which represents the EKC hypothesis in upper middle- and high-income countries but not in low- and lower middle-income countries. This relationship only occurs in a stage of economic development in which technologies are available that improve energy efficiency, energy saving and renewable energy, which are not accessible for countries with low income due to their high cost. Moreover, energy consumption, urbanization, and trade openness increase environmental damage through their positive effect on the ecological footprint of most countries across all income groups. However, financial development reduces environmental degradation in lower middle-, upper middle- and high-income countries. This relationship confirms that loans from banks are primarily given to firms that establish investments in projects that are mostly environmentally friendly. From the results of this study, a number of recommendations can be provided for the investigated countries.     

Intercountry inequality on greenhouse gas emissions and world levels: An integrated analysis through general distributive sustainability indexes

Up until now, analyses of the inter-country distribution of pollutant emissions have not paid sufficient attention to the implications that, in terms of global sustainability, the combined evolution of the global world average entails. In this context, this paper proposes the use of general distributive sustainability indexes in order to make a comprehensive examination of the international equity factor and also the mean (world) factor in this field. The proposed methodology, which is adapted from the welfare and inequality economics literature, is implemented empirically in order to explore the evolution of the greenhouse gases and its main components: CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O during the period 1990–2012. The main results found are as follows: firstly, typically, the general distributive sustainability associated with the overall greenhouse gases in per capita terms increased over the global period but, contrarily, it seems to decrease since 2000; secondly, typically this last reduction is basically explained by the increase in world mean average, given the clear reduction on cross-country inequalities; thirdly, the analysis of different gases also points out some differences in temporal variations and depending on the index used. These results would seem to be relevant in policy and academic terms.