The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) has become an accepted standard for describing the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. However, the available evidence based on the EKC for water is ambiguous and it varies depending on the sets of countries selected for the study. This leaves an open question whether there is an EKC type of relationship for water. This paper contributes to this debate by using per capita income and water quality indicators for 16 states of India along with a variety of relevant explanatory variables. Using a panel data set for 20 years (1981-2001) we apply both the Generalised Least Square (GLS) and Arellano-Bond Generalised Method of Moments (GMM A-B) econometric methods. We did not find evidence in support of the EKC hypothesis. Overall, we found that the decline in pollution during the process of economic growth is only temporary, as it tends to rise with further income growth. Population density, livestock population and literacy are found to have strong effects on the water quality of the rivers of India.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Volume (Year): 9 (2009) Issue (Month): 1 (January) Pages: 50-68 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF