Economic Structure, Development Policy and Environmental Quality : An Empirical Analysis of Environmental Kuznets Curves with Chinese Municipal Data
In many cases, the relationship between environmental pollution and economic development can be generally depicted by an inverted U-shaped curve, or an environmental Kuznets curve, where pollution increases with income at the beginning and decrease...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110815092825 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3517 |
| Summary: | In many cases, the relationship between
environmental pollution and economic development can be
generally depicted by an inverted U-shaped curve, or an
environmental Kuznets curve, where pollution increases with
income at the beginning and decreases after a certain level
of income. However, what determine the shape of an
enviornmental Kuznets curve, such as the height and the
turning point of the curve, have not been thoroughly
studied. A good understanding of the determinants is vitally
important to the development community, especially for the
developing world, where income growth is a high priority and
yet environmental pollution also needs to be carefully
controlled. This study analyzes the impacts of economic
structure, development strategy and environmental regulation
on the shape of the environmental Kuznets curve with a
city-level panel dataset obtained from China. The results
show that economic structure, development strategy and
environmental regulation can all have important implications
on the relationship between environmental environmental
quality and economic development but the impacts can be
different at different development stages. |
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