RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve Describe How Individual Countries Behave?
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 291
OP 315
DO 10.3368/le.82.2.291
VO 82
IS 2
A1 Deacon, Robert T.
A1 Norman, Catherine S.
YR 2006
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/82/2/291.abstract
AB We examine within-country time series data on income and concentrations of SO2 smoke, and particulates to see if the shapes of pollution-income relationships in individual countries agree qualitatively with predictions of the environmental Kuznets curve. The shapes of these relationships are determined non-parametrically for individual countries using recently available data on air pollution concentrations. For smoke and particulates, the shapes of within-country, pollution-income patterns do not agree with the EKC hypothesis more often than chance would dictate. For SO2 which generally exhibits EKC- consistent pollution-income relationships among wealthier countries, the observed patterns are also consistent with a simpler hypothesis. (JEL Q20, O13)