scholarly journals Long- and Short-Run Forest Dynamics: An Empirical Assessment of Forest Transition, Environmental Kuznets Curve and Ecologically Unequal Exchange Theories

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 431
Author(s):  
Virginia Rodríguez García ◽  
Nicola Caravaggio ◽  
Frédéric Gaspart ◽  
Patrick Meyfroidt

Forest dynamics are changing at a local and global level, with multiple social and environmental implications. The current literature points to different theories and hypotheses to explain these forest dynamics. In this paper, we formalized some of those theories, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), the forest transition and the ecologically unequal exchange, into hypotheses tested with a panel dataset covering 111 countries during the period the period 1992–2015. Considering the nature of our data, we relied on cointegration techniques to assess both long- and short-run dynamics in forest change, avoiding possible spurious results. Moreover, we attempted to disentangle direct and indirect effects of our independent variables to uncover the mechanisms that underly forest change dynamics. The results show that there is a long-run dynamic equilibrium relationship between forest cover area, economic development, agricultural area and rural population density. Furthermore, our results confirmed an EKC for high-income countries and post-forest transition countries, while low- and middle-income economies are experiencing different paths. We showed the importance of government quality as a positive feedback mechanism for previous periods of deforestation when tested for all countries together as well as for pre-transition and middle-income economies. Moreover, in low-income economies, economic development affects forest mainly indirectly through the agricultural area.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongbo Liu ◽  
Hanho Kim ◽  
Shuanglu Liang ◽  
Oh-Sang Kwon

This study examines the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis by adopting a country’s ecological footprint as an indicator of environmental degradation in three East Asian countries: Japan, Korea, and China. During the development process, countries intend to balance between stabilizing export demand and maintaining sustainable economic improvement in the context of deteriorating global warming and climate change. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (henceforth, EKC) was originally developed to estimate the correlation between environment condition and economic development. In this paper, we started from the EKC model and adopted an Error Correction Methodology (henceforth, ECM) to estimate the EKC relationships in Japan, Korea (two developed countries), and China (a developing country) over the period of 1990 to 2013. Besides this, instead of only using Gross Domestic Product (henceforth, GDP), two subdivisions of trade diversification—export product diversification and export market diversification—are introduced as proxy variables for economic development in rectification of the EKC. The results demonstrate that both Korea and Japan satisfy the EKC theory by demonstrating an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development and ecological footprint, while analysis based on data from China does not display the same tendency. For both export product diversification and market diversification, the more diversified the country’s export is, the bigger its ecological footprint. The policy implications of this econometric outcome are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Junran Ma

With the development of economy, environmental problems gradually outstanding in China. This article adopts the method of empirical study, have collected the data of China's industrial added value, per capita GDP and emissions of the three major pollutants from 2004 to 2015. The VAR model was established on the basis of the logarithm values of the three factors mentioned above, so as to conduct impulse- response analysis to discuss the relationship between industrialization level, economic development and environmental pollution. The conclusion is as follows: (1) At present, the increase of China's industrial added value can promote the decline of China's environmental pollution emissions to a certain extent; (2) China is now at the left of the turning point of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, and the increase of per capita GDP will aggravate environmental pollution.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caner Demir ◽  
Raif Cergibozan ◽  
Adem Gök

The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of income inequality on environmental quality in Turkey within the Environmental Kuznets Curve framework. In order to observe the short-run and long-run effects of income inequality on environmental quality, an autoregressive distributed lag bounds test on CO2 emission has been employed for the period 1963–2011 of Turkey. The results of the analysis reveal that there is a negative association between CO2 emission level and income inequality, which implies that increasing income inequality reduces environmental degradation in Turkey. Hence, a greater inequality in the society leads to less aggregate consumption in the economy due to lower propensity to emit in the richer households resulting in better environmental quality. The findings confirm an argument in the existing literature, which suggests that for developing countries, until a certain level of development, environmental degradation increases as income inequality in the society decreases. The results also confirm the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Hao ◽  
Zirui Huang ◽  
Haitao Wu

Global warming has emerged as a serious threat to humans and sustainable development. China is under increasing pressure to curb its carbon emissions as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide. By combining the Tapio decoupling model and the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework, this paper explores the relationship between China’s carbon emissions and economic growth. Based on panel data of 29 provinces from 2007 to 2016, this paper quantitatively estimates the nexus of carbon emissions and economic development for the whole nation and the decoupling status of individual provinces. There is empirical evidence for the conventional EKC hypothesis, showing that the relationship between carbon emissions and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is an inverted U shape and that the inflection point will not be attained soon. Moreover, following the estimation results of the Tapio decoupling model, there were significant differences between individual provinces in decoupling status. As a result, differentiated and targeted environmental regulations and policies regarding energy consumption and carbon emissions should be reasonably formulated for different provinces and regions based on the corresponding level of economic development and decoupling status.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3302
Author(s):  
Mihaela Simionescu ◽  
Adam Wojciechowski ◽  
Arkadiusz Tomczyk ◽  
Marcin Rabe

Sustainable development can be achieved when economic development does not produce environmental deterioration. In this context, the aim of the paper is to evaluate the effects of economic development on GHG emissions in the Baltic States (Latvia, Letonia, and Lithuania), and in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland (the Visegrád Group or V4 countries) in the period of 1996–2019. The study introduces dynamic ARDL panels in the context of the traditional environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and renewable Kuznets curve (RKC). The results indicated an inverse-N-shaped and a U-shaped pattern. Energy consumption and labour productivity enhanced pollution, while domestic credit to the private sector, as a share of GDP, and renewable energy consumption supported environmental protection. The implications of these results might help these countries to achieve the targets of the European Green Deal related to the reduction of pollution and the attainment of net zero emissions by 2050. However, national regulations should further promote the use of renewable energy sources.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Ming Wen ◽  
Mingxing Li ◽  
Naila Erum ◽  
Abid Hussain ◽  
Haoyang Xie ◽  
...  

This study empirically examines the effect of economic development on carbon emissions and revisits the environmental Kuznets curve in Suzhou, China. The study made use of the Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (GDPPC) of Suzhou, China as an indicator of economic development as it depicts the entire developmental ecosystem that indicates the level of production activities and total energy consumption. Bearing this in mind, the authors postulate that economic development directly increases carbon emissions through industrial and domestic consumptions. For this purpose, linear and non-linear approaches to cointegration are applied. The study finds the existence of an inverted U-shape relationship between economic development and carbon emission in the long run. Trade openness and industrial share are positively contributing to increasing carbon emissions. Energy use shows a positive sign but an insignificant association with carbon emissions. The study concludes that carbon emissions in Suzhou should be further decreased followed by policy recommendations.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document