Population growth and the environmental Kuznets curve

Abstract

This paper provides a specific application of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in order to explain the effect of population growth on the environment. The main purpose is contributing to enhance the connection between theoretical and empirical analysis. We develop an overlapping generations (OLG) model that featured with an inverted U-shaped relationship between pollution emission and income and we examine the effect of population growth on this relationship. Simulations illustrate the model's predictions that positive population growth makes the EKC steeper and have higher peak, but it does not fundamentally change the pollution-income relationship. The econometric analysis finds evidence supporting our model's predictions using Chinese data at the province level.

Investigating the Presence of Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in India and China: An Autoregressive Distributive Lag Approach

“…The results of the short-run model also support the EKC hypothesis and validate the presence of inverse U-shaped association between CO 2 emission and growth. The results are supported by Ahmed and Long (2012), Congregado et al (2016), and Wang et al (2015).…”

“…The EKC hypothesis is becoming an important issue among researchers and policymakers who examine policies on environment. Therefore, many studies were carried out to investigate the EKC hypothesis (Ahmed & Long, 2012; Aslanidis & Iranzo, 2009; Aylor, 1995; Barua & Hubacek, 2009; Congregado, Feria-Gallardo, Golpe, & Iglesias, 2016; Dinda, 2004; Galeotti, Lanza, & Pauli, 2006; Harbaugh, Levinson, & Wilson, 2016; Hung & Shaw, 2006; Jalil & Mahmud, 2009; Managi & Jena, 2008; Mukherjee & Kathuria, 2006; Narayan & Narayan, 2010; Ozturk & Al-Mulali, 2015; Saboori, Sulaiman, & Mohd, 2012; Selden & Song, 1994; Shahbaz, Lean, & Shabbir, 2012; Song, Zheng, & Tong, 2008; Stern & Common, 2001; Stern, Common, & Barbier, 1996; Wang, Fu, & Zhang, 2015; Wolde-Rufael, 2005). Most of these studies used CO 2 emissions as an indicator of pollution.…”

Tracing Air Pollutant Emissions in China: Structural Decomposition and GVC Accounting

“…Some scholars proposed the hypothesis that economic growth and environmental pollution have a relationship that is an "inverted u-shaped" curve [2,22]. Other scholars later called this curve relationship the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and verified it by theory or practice [23,24]. The core idea of "EKC hypothesis" is that economic growth will lead to pollution, but this causal relationship will turn at a certain stage, that is, when the economy grows to a certain extent, economic growth will lead to improvements in environmental pollution.…”

Impact of FDI on Environmental Quality of China

“…EKC suggests a hypothesized relationship between environmental indicators and income indicators, which can be useful in measuring the variation in environmental quality due to FDI inflows (Stern, 2004). The literature suggest the usefulness of EKC theory by deriving the inverted U shaped of EKC between growth rates and environmental quality considering FDI to be the prime factor (Wang et al, 2015). Moreover, Jinjin and Qing (2003) suggest the measurement of FDI effects on environment can be disintegrated in terms of scale effect, structure effects and technical effects.…”