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The Environmental Kuznets Curve: Examining the relationship between income and technology-adjusted consumption-based CO2 emissions

van Beek, Marieke LU (2019) EKHS42 20191
Department of Economic History
Abstract
This study aims to investigate whether countries succeed to reduce their contribution to global emissions when countries reach higher levels of income. As a result of rapid changes in international trade, a country’s emission responsibility goes beyond national borders, which should be adequately captured in their carbon footprint. This study discusses that the two conventional accounting measures (production-based and consumption-based emissions) do not adequately reflect how countries contribute to global emissions. Therefore, to examine a country’s global environmental impact, technology-adjusted consumption-based CO2 emissions are considered for the first time to estimate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) relationship. In addition,... (More)
This study aims to investigate whether countries succeed to reduce their contribution to global emissions when countries reach higher levels of income. As a result of rapid changes in international trade, a country’s emission responsibility goes beyond national borders, which should be adequately captured in their carbon footprint. This study discusses that the two conventional accounting measures (production-based and consumption-based emissions) do not adequately reflect how countries contribute to global emissions. Therefore, to examine a country’s global environmental impact, technology-adjusted consumption-based CO2 emissions are considered for the first time to estimate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) relationship. In addition, this study tests the robustness of the previous found relations based on production and consumption-based emissions. In total, this study considers a sample of 38 countries for the time period of 1995-2009. The results for production-based emissions indicate support for the EKC, while there is a monotonically increasing relationship between income and consumption-based emissions. The main finding of this thesis is an increasing relationship between income and technology-adjusted consumption-based emissions with a turning point of $72767.5, which falls beyond the maximum level of income in the sample. This is worrisome for lowering global emissions in the upcoming decades, which is necessary to achieve sustainable development. (Less)
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author
van Beek, Marieke LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHS42 20191
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Environmental Kuznets Curve, CO2 emissions, Technology-adjustment
language
English
id
8984944
date added to LUP
2019-08-22 08:24:19
date last changed
2019-08-22 08:24:19
@misc{8984944,
  abstract     = {{This study aims to investigate whether countries succeed to reduce their contribution to global emissions when countries reach higher levels of income. As a result of rapid changes in international trade, a country’s emission responsibility goes beyond national borders, which should be adequately captured in their carbon footprint. This study discusses that the two conventional accounting measures (production-based and consumption-based emissions) do not adequately reflect how countries contribute to global emissions. Therefore, to examine a country’s global environmental impact, technology-adjusted consumption-based CO2 emissions are considered for the first time to estimate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) relationship. In addition, this study tests the robustness of the previous found relations based on production and consumption-based emissions. In total, this study considers a sample of 38 countries for the time period of 1995-2009. The results for production-based emissions indicate support for the EKC, while there is a monotonically increasing relationship between income and consumption-based emissions. The main finding of this thesis is an increasing relationship between income and technology-adjusted consumption-based emissions with a turning point of $72767.5, which falls beyond the maximum level of income in the sample. This is worrisome for lowering global emissions in the upcoming decades, which is necessary to achieve sustainable development.}},
  author       = {{van Beek, Marieke}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Environmental Kuznets Curve: Examining the relationship between income and technology-adjusted consumption-based CO2 emissions}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}