Environmental Kuznets Curve: An Envelope of Technological Progress

Dinda, Soumyananda (2004): Environmental Kuznets Curve: An Envelope of Technological Progress.

Abstract

This paper develops a growth model to provide a theoretical explanation of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). Paper explains how EKC is shaped with economic development for a given technology. The EKC result arises in two ways – it can be observed from a single technology that matures and it can be observed as an economy develops new technologies. This second effect is represented as an envelope of Kuznets curves for technologies. This paper provides an interesting application of growth theory and of the envelope theorem. In economic development process, technology first diffuses, then become regulated and finally is phased out by another new technology. Thus, each technology may produce one EKC corresponding to a definite externality. Theoretically, a series of EKCs may exist and an envelope of them is observed in reality.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Technological development, Innovation, Diffusion, Pollution sensitivity, regulation, EKC, social institution
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D62 - Externalities; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E22 - Investment ; Capital ; Intangible Capital ; Capacity; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q55 - Technological Innovation; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J24 - Human Capital ; Skills ; Occupational Choice ; Labor Productivity; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences ; Diffusion Processes; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D83 - Search ; Learning ; Information and Knowledge ; Communication ; Belief ; Unawareness; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I0 - General > I00 - General

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