IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/v14y2014i4p42n3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technological Progress and the Environmental Kuznets Curve in the Twenty Regions of Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Baiardi Donatella

    (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Business Strategies, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, Building U6, Room 3055, I20126 Milano, Italy)

Abstract

The paper explores the relationship between per capita income and three air pollutants, CO, NMVOCs, and SOx, using a novel dataset based on the 20 regions of Italy. Given the central role of technological progress in long-term environmental problems, we empirically investigate the influence of innovation on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). The estimation results validate the existence of an EKC for the three air pollutants considered. Furthermore, the influence of innovation on the inverse-U-shaped curve identified by the theoretical literature is in general empirically confirmed. Finally, the same conclusions also hold when using another dataset related to the aggregate national economy rather than separate regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Baiardi Donatella, 2014. "Technological Progress and the Environmental Kuznets Curve in the Twenty Regions of Italy," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 14(4), pages 1501-1542, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:14:y:2014:i:4:p:42:n:3
    DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2013-0120
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2013-0120
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/bejeap-2013-0120?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roca, Jordi & Padilla, Emilio & Farre, Mariona & Galletto, Vittorio, 2001. "Economic growth and atmospheric pollution in Spain: discussing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 85-99, October.
    2. Khanna, Neha, 2002. "The income elasticity of non-point source air pollutants: revisiting the environmental Kuznets curve," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 387-392, November.
    3. Daniel L. Millimet & John A. List & Thanasis Stengos, 2003. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: Real Progress or Misspecified Models?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 1038-1047, November.
    4. Sjak Smulders & Lucas Bretschger & Hannes Egli, 2011. "Economic Growth and the Diffusion of Clean Technologies: Explaining Environmental Kuznets Curves," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(1), pages 79-99, May.
    5. Suri, Vivek & Chapman, Duane, 1998. "Economic growth, trade and energy: implications for the environmental Kuznets curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 195-208, May.
    6. List, John A. & Gallet, Craig A., 1999. "The environmental Kuznets curve: does one size fit all?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 409-423, December.
    7. Fodha, Mouez & Zaghdoud, Oussama, 2010. "Economic growth and pollutant emissions in Tunisia: An empirical analysis of the environmental Kuznets curve," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 1150-1156, February.
    8. Stern , David I., 1998. "Progress on the environmental Kuznets curve?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 173-196, May.
    9. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    10. He, Jie & Richard, Patrick, 2010. "Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 in Canada," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1083-1093, March.
    11. Iwata, Hiroki & Okada, Keisuke & Samreth, Sovannroeun, 2010. "Empirical study on the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 in France: The role of nuclear energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4057-4063, August.
    12. Gangadharan, Lata & Valenzuela, Ma. Rebecca, 2001. "Interrelationships between income, health and the environment: extending the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 513-531, March.
    13. Selden Thomas M. & Song Daqing, 1994. "Environmental Quality and Development: Is There a Kuznets Curve for Air Pollution Emissions?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 147-162, September.
    14. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413, January.
    15. Orubu, Christopher O. & Omotor, Douglason G., 2011. "Environmental quality and economic growth: Searching for environmental Kuznets curves for air and water pollutants in Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 4178-4188, July.
    16. Nasir, Muhammad & Ur Rehman, Faiz, 2011. "Environmental Kuznets Curve for carbon emissions in Pakistan: An empirical investigation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1857-1864, March.
    17. Caselli, Francesco & Esquivel, Gerardo & Lefort, Fernando, 1996. "Reopening the Convergence Debate: A New Look at Cross-Country Growth Empirics," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 363-389, September.
    18. Panayotou, Theodore, 1997. "Demystifying the environmental Kuznets curve: turning a black box into a policy tool," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 465-484, November.
    19. Komen, Marinus H.C. & Gerking, Shelby & Folmer, Henk, 1997. "Income and environmental R&D: empirical evidence from OECD countries," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 505-515, November.
    20. Chimeli, Ariaster B., 2007. "Growth and the environment: Are we looking at the right data?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 89-96, July.
    21. Leone Leonida & Carmelo Petraglia & Luis Murillo-Zamorano, 2004. "Total factor productivity and the convergence hypothesis in the Italian regions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(19), pages 2187-2193.
    22. Jalil, Abdul & Mahmud, Syed F., 2009. "Environment Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions: A cointegration analysis for China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5167-5172, December.
    23. repec:hal:wpaper:hal-00860045 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. CARSON, RICHARd T. & JEON, YONGIL & McCUBBIN, DONALD R., 1997. "The relationship between air pollution emissions and income: US Data," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 433-450, November.
    25. Shafik, Nemat & Bandyopadhyay, Sushenjit, 1992. "Economic growth and environmental quality : time series and cross-country evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 904, The World Bank.
    26. AkbostancI, Elif & Türüt-AsIk, Serap & Tunç, G. Ipek, 2009. "The relationship between income and environment in Turkey: Is there an environmental Kuznets curve?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 861-867, March.
    27. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Anna Montini & Roberto Zoboli, 2008. "Environmental Kuznets Curves for Air Pollutant Emissions in Italy: Evidence from Environmental Accounts (NAMEA) Panel Data," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 277-301.
    28. Saboori, Behnaz & Sulaiman, Jamalludin & Mohd, Saidatulakmal, 2012. "Economic growth and CO2 emissions in Malaysia: A cointegration analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 184-191.
    29. Carluccio Bianchi & Mario Menegatti, 2008. "Neoclassical versus Technological Convergence: Some Evidence from the Recent Experience of the Italian Regions," Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, Vita e Pensiero, Pubblicazioni dell'Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, vol. 116(3), pages 271-287.
    30. Joseph Lekakis, 2000. "Environment and Development in a Southern European Country: Which Environmental Kuznets Curves?," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 139-153.
    31. Claudia Ghisetti & Francesco Quatraro, 2013. "Beyond inducement in climate change: Does environmental performance spur environmental technologies?," Post-Print hal-00860045, HAL.
    32. Fosten, Jack & Morley, Bruce & Taylor, Tim, 2012. "Dynamic misspecification in the environmental Kuznets curve: Evidence from CO2 and SO2 emissions in the United Kingdom," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 25-33.
    33. Ghisetti, Claudia & Quatraro, Francesco, 2013. "Beyond inducement in climate change: Does environmental performance spur environmental technologies? A regional analysis of cross-sectoral differences," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 99-113.
    34. Park, Soonae & Lee, Youngmi, 2011. "Regional model of EKC for air pollution: Evidence from the Republic of Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 5840-5849, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Donatella Baiardi, 2012. "Innovation and the environmental Kuznets curve: the case of CO, NMVOCs and SOx in the Italian regions," Quaderni di Dipartimento 156, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods.
    2. Bilgili, Faik & Koçak, Emrah & Bulut, Ümit, 2016. "The dynamic impact of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions: A revisited Environmental Kuznets Curve approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 838-845.
    3. Tiba, Sofien & Omri, Anis, 2017. "Literature survey on the relationships between energy, environment and economic growth," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1129-1146.
    4. Muhammad Shahbaz & Avik Sinha, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2emissions: a literature survey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(1), pages 106-168, January.
    5. Saboori, Behnaz & Sulaiman, Jamalludin & Mohd, Saidatulakmal, 2012. "Economic growth and CO2 emissions in Malaysia: A cointegration analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 184-191.
    6. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets Curve for CO2 emission: A survey of empirical literature," MPRA Paper 100257, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2019.
    7. Sabuj Kumar Mandal & Devleena Chakravarty, 2017. "Role of energy in estimating turning point of Environmental Kuznets Curve: an econometric analysis of the existing studies," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 19(2), pages 387-401, October.
    8. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Haouas, Ilham & Hoang, Thi Hong Van, 2019. "Economic growth and environmental degradation in Vietnam: Is the environmental Kuznets curve a complete picture?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 197-218.
    9. Onafowora, Olugbenga A. & Owoye, Oluwole, 2014. "Bounds testing approach to analysis of the environment Kuznets curve hypothesis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 47-62.
    10. Pei-Zhi Liu & Seema Narayan & Yi-Shuai Ren & Yong Jiang & Konstantinos Baltas & Basil Sharp, 2022. "Re-Examining the Income–CO 2 Emissions Nexus Using the New Kink Regression Model: Does the Kuznets Curve Exist in G7 Countries?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-18, March.
    11. Priscilla Massa-Sánchez & Luis Quintana-Romero & Ronny Correa-Quezada & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama, 2020. "Empirical Evidence in Ecuador between Economic Growth and Environmental Deterioration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-20, January.
    12. Sofien, Tiba & Omri, Anis, 2016. "Literature survey on the relationships between energy variables, environment and economic growth," MPRA Paper 82555, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Sep 2016.
    13. Jiang, Lei & Folmer, Henk & Ji, Minhe, 2014. "The drivers of energy intensity in China: A spatial panel data approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 351-360.
    14. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 431-455, August.
    15. Halkos, George, 2011. "Environment and economic development: determinants of an EKC hypothesis," MPRA Paper 33262, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Jie He, 2007. "Is the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis valid for developing countries? A survey," Cahiers de recherche 07-03, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    17. Sofien Tiba & Mohamed Frikha, 2020. "EKC and Macroeconomics Aspects of Well-being: a Critical Vision for a Sustainable Future," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(3), pages 1171-1197, September.
    18. Matias Piaggio & Emilio Padilla & Carolina Roman, 2015. "The long-run relationshiop between C02 emissions and economic activity in a small open economy: Uruguay 1882-2010," Working Papers wpdea1506, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    19. Aslan, Alper & Destek, Mehmet Akif & Okumus, İlyas, 2017. "Sectoral carbon emissions and economic growth in the US: Further evidence from rolling window estimation method," MPRA Paper 106961, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Atwi, Majed & Barberán, Ramón & Mur, Jesús & Angulo, Ana, 2018. "CO2 Kuznets Curve Revisited: From Cross-Sections to Panel Data Models," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 40, pages 169-196.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    air pollutants; environmental Kuznets curve; Italian regions; technological progress;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:14:y:2014:i:4:p:42:n:3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.