Economic development and Environmental quality: The environmental Kuznets curve for water pollution

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to analyze evidence of an environmental Kuznets curve for water pollution  in the developing and developed countries. The study was conducted based on a panel data set of 54  countries – that were categorized into six groups of “developed countries”, “developing countries”,   “developed countries with low income”, “developed countries with high income” and “coastal countries”- between the years 1995 to 2006. The results do not  confirm the inverted U-shape of EKC curve for the developed countries with low income. Based on the estimated turning points and the average GDP per capita, the study revealed at which point of the EKC the countries are. Furthermore, impacts of capital-and-labor ratio as well as trade openness are drawn by  estimating different models for the EKC. The magnitude role of each explanatory variable on BOD was calculated by estimating the associated elasticity. ©JASEM

Keywords: Economic Growth; Environmental Kuznets Curve; Developed countries; Developing countries; water pollution