scholarly journals Environmental Kuznets Curve: An Empirical Analysis in the Indian Context

Author(s):  
Sakshi Gambhir

The relationship between economic growth and environmental quality has been much under dispute. According to the EKC (Environmental Kuznets Curve) hypothesis, environmental damage increases in the early stages of economic growth, but diminishes once nations reach higher levels of income. While the notion EKC is well established, there is controversy about its shape, incidence and determinants. In this paper, we model EKC with the variables of GDP and CO2 emissions (aggregate and per capita) using alternative model specifications to bridge the gap between conventional and modern EKC literature. We also place the theoretical construct of EKC into a policy-oriented framework by incorporating the impact of four global policy periods namely, liberalisation, globalisation, world recovery and global financial crisis. We substantiate a cubic form of EKC in the Indian context for the time period 1991 to 2014. With aggregate CO2 emissions as the dependent variable, the linear, quadratic and cubic terms are all significant with the expected signs, which confirm an N-shaped EKC for India. Even with per capita emissions as the dependent variable, existence of an N-shaped EKC is established. In this case however, evidence on the cubic term is rather weak which points towards the difference in socio-psychological factors that influence the revival of upturn in the case of India. The policy period analysis does not show any distinct results, which could be due to contradictory effects on different variables and volatility in these variables.

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Muhammad Fajri Setia Trianto ◽  
Evi Yulia Purwanti

The economy that continues to grow has the impact of environmental damage. This study aims to prove empirically the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis by analyzing the relationship of economic growth with environmental damage as measured by GDP per capita, and CO2 emissions. The data used are secondary data in the form of data on GDP per capita, CO2 emissions, population growth, inflation, and control of corruption in 10 countries in the ASEAN region in 2002-2016. Data analysis using the Fixed Effect model. The results show that there is a relationship between economic growth and environmental damage that forms an inverted U curve. Economic growth will initially have a positive effect on environmental damage so that at a point of economic growth negatively affects environmental damage. By adding control variables: population growth, inflation and corruption, inflation and corruption positively impact environmental damage, while population negatively affect environmental damage.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nutnaree Maneejuk ◽  
Sutthipat Ratchakom ◽  
Paravee Maneejuk ◽  
Woraphon Yamaka

This study aims to examine the relationship between economic development and environmental degradation based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The level of CO2 emissions is used as the indicator of environmental damage to determine whether or not greater economic growth can lower environmental degradation under the EKC hypothesis. The investigation was performed on eight major international economic communities covering 44 countries across the world. The relationship between economic growth and environmental condition was estimated using the kink regression model, which identifies the turning point of the change in the relationship. The findings indicate that the EKC hypothesis is valid in only three out of the eight international economic communities, namely the European Union (EU), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Group of Seven (G7). In addition, interesting results were obtained from the inclusion of four other control variables into the estimation model for groups of countries to explain the impact on environmental quality. Financial development (FIN), the industrial sector (IND), and urbanization (URB) were found to lead to increasing CO2 emissions, while renewable energies (RNE) appeared to reduce the environmental degradation. In addition, when we further investigated the existence of the EKC hypothesis in an individual country, the results showed that the EKC hypothesis is valid in only 9 out of the 44 individual countries.


Author(s):  
David I. Stern

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is a hypothesized relationship between environmental degradation and GDP per capita. In the early stages of economic growth, pollution emissions and other human impacts on the environment increase, but beyond some level of GDP per capita (which varies for different indicators), the trend reverses, so that at high income levels, economic growth leads to environmental improvement. This implies that environmental impacts or emissions per capita are an inverted U-shaped function of GDP per capita. The EKC has been the dominant approach among economists to modeling ambient pollution concentrations and aggregate emissions since Grossman and Krueger introduced it in 1991 and is even found in introductory economics textbooks. Despite this, the EKC was criticized almost from the start on statistical and policy grounds, and debate continues. While concentrations and also emissions of some local pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, have clearly declined in developed countries in recent decades, evidence for other pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, is much weaker. Initially, many understood the EKC to imply that environmental problems might be due to a lack of sufficient economic development, rather than the reverse, as was conventionally thought. This alarmed others because a simplistic policy prescription based on this idea, while perhaps addressing some issues like deforestation or local air pollution, could exacerbate environmental problems like climate change. Additionally, many of the econometric studies that supported the EKC were found to be statistically fragile. Some more recent research integrates the EKC with alternative approaches and finds that the relation between environmental impacts and development is subtler than the simple picture painted by the EKC. This research shows that usually, growth in the scale of the economy increases environmental impacts, all else held constant. However, the impact of growth might decline as countries get richer, and richer countries are likely to make more rapid progress in reducing environmental impacts. Finally, there is often convergence among countries, so that countries that have relatively high levels of impacts reduce them more quickly or increase them more slowly, all else held constant.


Equilibrium ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-551
Author(s):  
Natalia Davidson ◽  
Oleg Mariev ◽  
Sophia Turkanova

Research background: Intensive economic growth in Russian regions during recent decades has been associated with numerous environmental issues, particularly increasing CO2 emissions, as well as income inequality. To achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to resolve these issues. Purpose of the article: To shed light on the impact of income inequality on CO2 emissions based on Russian regional data covering the years 2004?2018. Methods: Gini index and decile dispersion ratio are used to measure income inequality. To study the impact of income inequality on CO2 emissions in the Russian regions, we estimate econometric models with fixed and random effects and apply GMM method. We test the hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve to determine the impact of economic growth on CO2 emissions. Findings & value added: The results show that CO2 emissions increase in tandem with growth in income inequality between 10% of people with the lowest income and 10% of people with the highest income. Simultaneously, CO2 emissions decrease with growth of Gini coefficient. The hypothesis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve was confirmed based on GMM method. Our findings underscore that the activities of the extraction and manufacturing sectors, as well as energy consumption, increase CO2 emissions. The chief significance of this paper is the finding that large income gap between extremely rich and extremely poor population cohorts increases CO2 emissions. This implies that economic policy aimed at reducing income inequality in Russian regions will also reduce CO2 emissions, especially if accompanied by increased use of environmentally friendly technologies. From the international perspective, our research can be extended to study other countries and regions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Mazur ◽  
Zaur Phutkaradze ◽  
Jaba Phutkaradze

Abstract This research empirically explores the relation between carbon dioxide emission and economic growth during the period 1992-2010, using panel data on the European Union countries. Both fixed and random effect models are employed to test the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) relationship between CO2 emissions and GDP per capita. While no U-shaped EKC was confirmed empirically for all 28 current EU member states, the graphical analysis demonstrates a justified turning point for CO2 emissions as GDP per capita reaches the level of 23,000 USD. Furthermore, there is a firm empirical ground for the EKC hypothesis based on data from 16 older, relatively high-income EU states. Thus, though not empirically confirmed, there is ample data verifying the existence of the EKC in EU economies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (68) ◽  
pp. 42-58
Author(s):  
Essa Alhannom ◽  
Ghaleb Mushabab

Abstract This study investigates the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis in Yemen and the causal relationships between Carbon dioxide emissions, per capita income, energy consumption, trade openness, and industrial share to GDP. ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration, Error Correction Model, and Toda-Yamamoto procedure to Granger causality techniques were employed on annual data covering the period from 1990 to 2010. long run relationship between CO2 emissions and its determinants with significant effects for per capita GDP and trade openness, whereas, energy consumption and trade openness appear to be important determinants of CO2 emissions in the short run. Besides, based on Narayan and Narayan (2010) approach, it is found that the EKC hypothesis does not hold in Yemen and therefore the effect of per capita income on CO2 emissions is monotonically increasing. Toda-Yamamoto causality test proved the existence of bidirectional causal relationships between economic growth and CO2 emissions, between energy consumption and economic growth, and between trade openness and energy consumption


2014 ◽  
Vol 623 ◽  
pp. 310-316
Author(s):  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Chang Wang

This article simply reviewed the carbon emission situation in Hebei province from 1996 to 2011, and tried to use environmental Kuznets curve to analysis the impact of the economic growth of CO2 emissions on the energy consumption. The regression results show that CO2 emissions and economic growth in line with the environmental Kuznets curve inverted U-shaped, but it is in the left hemisphere of the curve, namely, as the growth of the economy, the CO2 emissions will continue to increase, so the carbon emission reduction work in Hebei province is still very heavy, we should change the energy consumption situation actively in the environment, adjust the industrial structure, develop new technology vigorously, and promote the innovation of emission reduction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (33) ◽  
pp. 42092-42103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slamet Eko Prastiyo ◽  
Irham ◽  
Suhatmini Hardyastuti ◽  
Jamhari

Abstract The agriculture and manufacturing sectors are the backbones of the Indonesian economy; for this reason, research on the effects of these sectors on carbon emissions is an important subject. This work adds urbanization to enrich research on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in Indonesia. The results of this study indicate that the EKC hypothesis was confirmed in Indonesia with a turning point of 2057.89 USD/capita. The research results show that all variables affect the escalation of greenhouse gas emissions in Indonesia. Furthermore, there is a bidirectional causality relationship between emissions with economic growth, emissions with agricultural sector, emissions with manufacturing sector, economic growth with agricultural sector, and economic growth with manufacturing. The unidirectional causality is found in emissions by urbanization and economic growth by urbanization. To reduce the impact of environmental damage caused by the activities of agriculture, manufacturing, and urbanization sectors, it is recommended that the government conduct water-efficient rice cultivation and increase the use of renewable energy.


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