IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/abn/wpaper/auwp2024-08.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Environmental Kuznets Curve in Rich and Poor Countries: Insights from NASA-MODIS GPP Data

Author

Listed:
  • Liping Gao
  • Hyeongwoo Kim
  • Jiquan Chen

Abstract

This study proposes an alternative approach to examining the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Instead of using conventional pollution indicators, we employ gross primary production (GPP) data from the NASA-MODIS dataset as a proxy for environmental quality across 131 countries. By estimating the nonlinear relationship between environmental protection and economic development, we confirm the conventional EKC pattern only in wealthy nations, where environmental quality improves as economies achieve higher levels of prosperity. In less developed countries, however, environmental quality tends to deteriorate further as economic growth accelerates. These results suggest that the EKC may be a localized phenomenon, raising concerns about policy suggestions that prioritize economic growth over environmental protection in less developed regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Liping Gao & Hyeongwoo Kim & Jiquan Chen, 2024. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve in Rich and Poor Countries: Insights from NASA-MODIS GPP Data," Auburn Economics Working Paper Series auwp2024-08, Department of Economics, Auburn University.
    • Handle: RePEc:abn:wpaper:auwp2024-08
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cla.auburn.edu/econwp/Archives/2024/2024-08.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gross Primary Production; NASA-MODIS; Environmental Kuznets Curve; Nonlinearity; Income Groups;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q0 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • O0 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:abn:wpaper:auwp2024-08. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Hyeongwoo Kim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deaubus.html .

    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.