IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joecas/v28y2023ics1703494923000373.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nuclear Energy, Economic Growth, and the Environment: Optimal policies in a model with endogenous technical change and environmental constraints

Author

Listed:
  • Fatouros, Nikos
  • Stengos, Thanasis

Abstract

We use a model of endogenous growth with vertical innovations, in order to derive optimal energy policy under uncertainty. Innovation can be directed to dirty, green, or nuclear technologies, which in turn can be used to produce different types of energy. We show that, nuclear energy usage, is not only a necessary welfare maximizing condition, but also a crucial determinant of economic growth in the long run. Lastly, we find no evidence supporting the traditional Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis under optimal policy implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Fatouros, Nikos & Stengos, Thanasis, 2023. "Nuclear Energy, Economic Growth, and the Environment: Optimal policies in a model with endogenous technical change and environmental constraints," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joecas:v:28:y:2023:i:c:s1703494923000373
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeca.2023.e00325
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1703494923000373
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeca.2023.e00325?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Leonardo Bursztyn & David Hemous, 2012. "The Environment and Directed Technical Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 131-166, February.
    2. Reenu, 2008. "Role of Economic Reform in the Growth of Indian Economy," Journal of Commerce and Trade, Society for Advanced Management Studies, vol. 3(1), pages 19-22, April.
    3. Aude Pommeret & Katheline Schubert, 2019. "Energy Transition with Variable and Intermittent Renewable Electricity Generation," CESifo Working Paper Series 7442, CESifo.
    4. Gary S. Becker & Casey B. Mulligan, 1997. "The Endogenous Determination of Time Preference," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 729-758.
    5. 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.
    6. Daron Acemoglu & Ufuk Akcigit & Douglas Hanley & William Kerr, 2016. "Transition to Clean Technology," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(1), pages 52-104.
    7. 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.
    8. Aghion, Philippe & Howitt, Peter, 1992. "A Model of Growth through Creative Destruction," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 323-351, March.
    9. Chen, Chaoyi & Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis, 2020. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth nexus: Evidence from a threshold model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    10. Robert Barro & Tao Jin, 2021. "Rare Events and Long-Run Risks," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 39, pages 1-25, January.
    11. He, Jie & Richard, Patrick, 2010. "Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 in Canada," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1083-1093, March.
    12. Wolde-Rufael, Yemane & Menyah, Kojo, 2010. "Nuclear energy consumption and economic growth in nine developed countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 550-556, May.
    13. 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.
    14. Moxnes, Erling, 2014. "Discounting, climate and sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 158-166.
    15. Stern, David I., 2004. "The Rise and Fall of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1419-1439, August.
    16. 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.
    17. Kaufmann, Robert K. & Davidsdottir, Brynhildur & Garnham, Sophie & Pauly, Peter, 1998. "The determinants of atmospheric SO2 concentrations: reconsidering the environmental Kuznets curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 209-220, May.
    18. Empora, Neophyta & Mamuneas, Theofanis P. & Stengos, Thanasis, 2020. "Output and pollution abatement in a U.S. state emission function," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(1), pages 44-65, February.
    19. Bucci, Alberto, 2008. "Population growth in a model of economic growth with human capital accumulation and horizontal R&D," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 1124-1147, September.
    20. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E. & Menyah, Kojo & Wolde-Rufael, Yemane, 2010. "On the causal dynamics between emissions, nuclear energy, renewable energy, and economic growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 2255-2260, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hui Zhang & Haiqian Ke, 2022. "Spatial Spillover Effects of Directed Technical Change on Urban Carbon Intensity, Based on 283 Cities in China from 2008 to 2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-19, February.

    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. 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.
    2. Misbah Sadiq & Desti Kannaiah & Ghulam Yahya Khan & Malik Shahzad Shabbir & Kanwal Bilal & Aysha Zamir, 2023. "Does sustainable environmental agenda matter? The role of globalization toward energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions in South Asian countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 76-95, January.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Mutascu, Mihai & Azim, Parvez, 2013. "Environmental Kuznets curve in Romania and the role of energy consumption," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 165-173.
    6. Muhammad Bilal Khan & Hummera Saleem & Malik Shahzad Shabbir & Xie Huobao, 2022. "The effects of globalization, energy consumption and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in South Asian countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(1), pages 107-134, February.
    7. 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.
    8. He, Jie & Wang, Hua, 2012. "Economic structure, development policy and environmental quality: An empirical analysis of environmental Kuznets curves with Chinese municipal data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 49-59.
    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. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Roubaud, David & Farhani, Sahbi, 2018. "How economic growth, renewable electricity and natural resources contribute to CO2 emissions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 356-367.
    14. Devleena Chakravarty & Sabuj Kumar Mandal, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets curve for local and global pollutants: application of GMM and random coefficient panel data models," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 21(2), pages 212-233, December.
    15. Sapkota, Pratikshya & Bastola, Umesh, 2017. "Foreign direct investment, income, and environmental pollution in developing countries: Panel data analysis of Latin America," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 206-212.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. Sugiawan, Yogi & Managi, Shunsuke, 2016. "The environmental Kuznets curve in Indonesia: Exploring the potential of renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 187-198.
    20. Wang, Kuan-Min, 2012. "Modelling the nonlinear relationship between CO2 emissions from oil and economic growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1537-1547.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Renewable energy; Growth; Nuclear energy; Innovation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O44 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Environment and Growth
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation

    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:eee:joecas:v:28:y:2023:i:c:s1703494923000373. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-economic-asymmetries/ .

    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.