Die Discussion Papers dienen einer möglichst schnellen Verbreitung von neueren Forschungsarbeiten des ZEW. Die Beiträge liegen in alleiniger Verantwortung der Autoren und stellen nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des ZEW dar.Discussion Papers are intended to make results of ZEW research promptly available to other economists in order to encourage discussion and suggestions for revisions. The authors are solely responsible for the contents which do not necessarily represent the opinion of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp0556.pdf Non technical summaryThe relationship between economic development and environmental quality has been extensively explored in recent years. The shape of this relationship has implications for the definition of an appropriate joint economic and environmental policy. In the literature, this animated debate revolves around the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve, which implies that, starting from low levels of income per capita, environmental degradation increases, but after a certain level of income (turning point) it diminishes.This study investigates the question of the existence of an EKC using a nonparametric approach. In this framework, no a priori parametric functional form is assumed for modelling the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and GDP per capita. The main reason for studying CO 2 emissions is that they play a focal role in the current debate on environmental protection and sustainable development. CO 2 has been recognized by most scientists as a major source of global warming through its greenhouse effects. Another reason is that CO 2 emissions are directly related to the use of energy, which is an essential factor in the world economy, both for production and consumption. Therefore, the relationship between CO 2 emissions and economic growth has important implications for environmental and economic policies.To estimate this relationship, we use information drawn from several data sets. CO 2 emissions measured in metric tons are obtained from the data base of the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Real GDP per capita series, measured in thousand constant dollars at 1985 prices, are drawn from the Penn World Table 5.6. The resulting data set, a balanced panel of 100 countries, covers the period 1960-1996.We first consider the issue of structural stability of the relationship between CO 2 emissions and GDP per capita, and we find evidence of structural stability of the relationship over the period . Based on this result, the panel nature of the data allows us to specify a nonparametric model that accounts for heterogeneity across countries. We find that the relationship between CO 2 emissions and GDP per capita is upward sloping, and that the usually adopted polynomial functional form which leads to the environmental Kuznets curve in several studies is rejected against our nonparametric model. Moreover, by comparing different estimation methods ...

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This paper uses nonparametric methods to examine the convergence in CO 2 emissions per capita on a sample of 100 countries for the period 1966-1996. Industrial countries show a convergence pattern. However, there is little evidence of convergence for the whole sample.

Die Discussion Papers dienen einer möglichst schnellen Verbreitung von neueren Forschungsarbeiten des ZEW. Die Beiträge liegen in alleiniger Verantwortung der Autoren und stellen nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des ZEW dar.Discussion Papers are intended to make results of ZEW research promptly available to other economists in order to encourage discussion and suggestions for revisions. The authors are solely responsible for the contents which do not necessarily represent the opinion of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp0556.pdf Non technical summaryThe relationship between economic development and environmental quality has been extensively explored in recent years. The shape of this relationship has implications for the definition of an appropriate joint economic and environmental policy. In the literature, this animated debate revolves around the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve, which implies that, starting from low levels of income per capita, environmental degradation increases, but after a certain level of income (turning point) it diminishes.This study investigates the question of the existence of an EKC using a nonparametric approach. In this framework, no a priori parametric functional form is assumed for modelling the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and GDP per capita. The main reason for studying CO 2 emissions is that they play a focal role in the current debate on environmental protection and sustainable development. CO 2 has been recognized by most scientists as a major source of global warming through its greenhouse effects. Another reason is that CO 2 emissions are directly related to the use of energy, which is an essential factor in the world economy, both for production and consumption. Therefore, the relationship between CO 2 emissions and economic growth has important implications for environmental and economic policies.To estimate this relationship, we use information drawn from several data sets. CO 2 emissions measured in metric tons are obtained from the data base of the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Real GDP per capita series, measured in thousand constant dollars at 1985 prices, are drawn from the Penn World Table 5.6. The resulting data set, a balanced panel of 100 countries, covers the period 1960-1996.We first consider the issue of structural stability of the relationship between CO 2 emissions and GDP per capita, and we find evidence of structural stability of the relationship over the period . Based on this result, the panel nature of the data allows us to specify a nonparametric model that accounts for heterogeneity across countries. We find that the relationship between CO 2 emissions and GDP per capita is upward sloping, and that the usually adopted polynomial functional form which leads to the environmental Kuznets curve in several studies is rejected against our nonparametric model. Moreover, by comparing different estimation methods ...

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This paper proposes a semiparametric analysis for the study of the relationship between energy consumption per capita and income per capita for an international panel dataset. It shows little evidence for the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve for energy consumption. Energy consumption increases with income for a majority of countries and then stabilizes for very high income countries. Neither changes in energy structure nor macroeconomic cycle/technological change have significant effect on energy consumption.

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