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Is Environmental Kuznets Curve Still Relevant?

Author

Listed:
  • Abid Rashid Gill

    (Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia)

  • Kuperan K. Viswanathan

    (Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia)

  • Sallahuddin Hassan

    (School of Economic, Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia)

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the relevancy of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis to the environment problem of today world. According to EKC hypothesis, continuous economic growth eventually reverses the environmental degradation created at the early stage of economic development. This hypothesis emerged in the 1990s and led many serious commentators of economic development to assume that developing countries should focus on economic growth and any environmental problem would be automatically solved by the process of economic growth. The necessary message of EKC was grow now clean later. The empirical studies on EKC lead to the conclusion that EKC transition exists only for local pollutants. We found that EKC empirical literature is not econometrically sound and the relationship of many types of pollutants with income has not been tested yet due to the non-availability of data. We also conclude that EKC transition is not Pareto efficient and EKC growth strategy is resource intensive and has huge environmental cost that this planet may not be able to absorb in future. The key recommendations of the study are that developing world should follow different growth path than that of EKC. They should choose a growth path that is not detrimental to the environment so that stock of pollution created by advanced countries can be contained and advanced countries should make green technologies affordable to developing countries

Suggested Citation

  • Abid Rashid Gill & Kuperan K. Viswanathan & Sallahuddin Hassan, 2017. "Is Environmental Kuznets Curve Still Relevant?," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 7(1), pages 156-165.
    • Handle: RePEc:eco:journ2:2017-01-17
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ratneswary Rasiah & Vinitha Guptan & Muzafar Shah Habibullah, 2018. "Evaluating the Impact of Financial and Economic Factors on Environmental Degradation: A Panel Estimation Study of Selected Asean Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 8(6), pages 209-216.
    3. Eko Mahar Diputra & Jungho Baek, 2018. "Is Growth Good or Bad For the Environment in Indonesia?," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 8(1), pages 1-4.
    4. Zoubida Mahcane & Mayou Abdellah & Mohamed Zergoune & Miloud Lacheheb, 2019. "Land Degradation and Economic Development in Algeria," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(1), pages 137-142.
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    7. Kurniawan, Robi & Managi, Shunsuke, 2018. "Coal consumption, urbanization, and trade openness linkage in Indonesia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 576-583.
    8. Shuangxing Liu & Bo Peng & Qi Liu & Chao Fan, 2019. "Economic‐related CO2 emissions analysis of Ordos Basin based on a refined STIRPAT model," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 9(5), pages 1064-1080, October.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environment Degradation; Sustainable Development; Local and Global Pollutants; Green Technologies; Pareto Efficient;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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