The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis implies that a bell shaped relationship between income and pollution would induce policy makers to pursue economic growth in order to improve environment. Empirical evidence does not support the EKC hypothesis for CO2 emissions. The reason would lie in the global nature of such pollutant so that countries have no sufficient incentive to regulate emissions. Past literature paid little attention to the EKC investigation by integrated assessment models. In this paper we will use the popular climate change model DICE in order to consider a more generalised version of the social planner utility function and we will investigate the relationship between income and pollution for different values of the elasticity of the marginal utility of consumption (α). Results do not provide evidence in favour of the Environmental Kuznets Curve existence for CO2 emissions in the optimal path. However the EKC decomposition factors explaining the relationship between income and pollution over time (scale and technological effect in DICE) are affected by variations of the α parameter.

Cantore N. (2010). Social preferences and Environmental Kuznets Curve in climate change integrated assessment modelling. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, 10(1/2), 123-142 [10.1504/IJGENVI.2010.030570].

Social preferences and Environmental Kuznets Curve in climate change integrated assessment modelling

CANTORE, NICOLA
2010

Abstract

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis implies that a bell shaped relationship between income and pollution would induce policy makers to pursue economic growth in order to improve environment. Empirical evidence does not support the EKC hypothesis for CO2 emissions. The reason would lie in the global nature of such pollutant so that countries have no sufficient incentive to regulate emissions. Past literature paid little attention to the EKC investigation by integrated assessment models. In this paper we will use the popular climate change model DICE in order to consider a more generalised version of the social planner utility function and we will investigate the relationship between income and pollution for different values of the elasticity of the marginal utility of consumption (α). Results do not provide evidence in favour of the Environmental Kuznets Curve existence for CO2 emissions in the optimal path. However the EKC decomposition factors explaining the relationship between income and pollution over time (scale and technological effect in DICE) are affected by variations of the α parameter.
2010
Cantore N. (2010). Social preferences and Environmental Kuznets Curve in climate change integrated assessment modelling. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, 10(1/2), 123-142 [10.1504/IJGENVI.2010.030570].
Cantore N.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/48825
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