IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/resene/v41y2015icp91-102.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond additive preferences: Economic behavior and the income pollution path

Author

Listed:
  • Figueroa, Eugenio
  • Pastén, Roberto

Abstract

Theoretical models of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) almost universally assume additive preferences; we demonstrate that under non-additive preferences the sufficient condition to sign the economy's income-pollution path depends on the elasticity of substitution between consumption and environment (and not on the elasticity of marginal utility of consumption). The proposed model provides behavioral content that has been missed in the existing literature. In the model, and also departing from the previous literature, preferences change and evolve (through a variable elasticity of substitution) according to the relative scarcity of the environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Figueroa, Eugenio & Pastén, Roberto, 2015. "Beyond additive preferences: Economic behavior and the income pollution path," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 91-102.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:41:y:2015:i:c:p:91-102
    DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2015.04.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928765515000305
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pasten, Roberto & Figueroa B., Eugenio, 2012. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Survey of the Theoretical Literature," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 6(3), pages 195-224, December.
    2. Andreoni, James & Levinson, Arik, 2001. "The simple analytics of the environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 269-286, May.
    3. Gollier, Christian, 2010. "Ecological discounting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 812-829, March.
    4. Louis Eeckhoudt & Harris Schlesinger, 2006. "Putting Risk in Its Proper Place," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 280-289, March.
    5. Lieb, Christoph M., 2002. "The environmental Kuznets curve and satiation: a simple static model," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(3), pages 429-448, July.
    6. Chimeli, Ariaster B. & Braden, John B., 2005. "Total factor productivity and the environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 366-380, March.
    7. Figueroa B., Eugenio & Pasten, Roberto, 2013. "A tale of two elasticities: A general theoretical framework for the environmental Kuznets curve analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(1), pages 85-88.
    8. Louis Eeckhoudt & Béatrice Rey & Harris Schlesinger, 2007. "A Good Sign for Multivariate Risk Taking," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 117-124, January.
    9. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    10. Jones, L.E., 1995. "A Positive Model of Growth and Pollution Controls," Working papers 9513, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
    11. Stokey, Nancy L, 1998. "Are There Limits to Growth?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(1), pages 1-31, February.
    12. Jean-Paul Chavas, 2004. "On Impatience, Economic Growth and the Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Dynamic Analysis of Resource Management," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 28(2), pages 123-152, June.
    13. Yandle, B. & Bhattarai, M. & Vijayaraghavan, M., 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curves: a review of findings, methods, and policy implications. PERC Research study 02-1 update," IWMI Research Reports H044740, International Water Management Institute.
    14. Kelly, David L., 2003. "On environmental Kuznets curves arising from stock externalities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 1367-1390, June.
    15. López, Ramón E. & Yoon, Sang W., 2014. "Pollution–income dynamics," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 504-507.
    16. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 431-455, August.
    17. V. Kerry Smith, 2012. "Reflections--In Search of Crosswalks between Macroeconomics and Environmental Economics," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 6(2), pages 298-317, July.
    18. Hartman, Richard & Kwon, O-Sung, 2005. "Sustainable growth and the environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(10), pages 1701-1736, October.
    19. Tahvonen Olli & Kuuluvainen Jari, 1993. "Economic Growth, Pollution, and Renewable Resources," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 101-118, March.
    20. Lopez, Ramon & Mitra, Siddhartha, 2000. "Corruption, Pollution, and the Kuznets Environment Curve," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 137-150, September.
    21. Barzel, Yoram & McDonald, Richard J, 1973. "Assets, Subsistence, and The Supply Curve of Labor," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(4), pages 621-633, September.
    22. Chung-cheng Lin, 2003. "A backward-bending labor supply curve without an income effect," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 55(2), pages 336-343, April.
    23. Per-Olov Johansson & Bengt Kriström, 2007. "On a clear day you might see an environmental Kuznets curve," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 37(1), pages 77-90, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David I. Stern, 2017. "The environmental Kuznets curve after 25 years," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 7-28, April.
    2. Zhang, Wenwen & Chiu, Yi-Bin, 2020. "Do country risks influence carbon dioxide emissions? A non-linear perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    3. Chiu, Yi-Bin, 2017. "Carbon dioxide, income and energy: Evidence from a non-linear model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 279-288.
    4. Hart, Rob, 2020. "Growth, pollution, policy!," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Non-additive preferences; Relative scarcity of the environment; Relative correlation aversion; Environment Kuznets curve;

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:41:y:2015:i:c:p:91-102. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Haili He). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505569 .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.