IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/apjors/v8y2024i1d10.1007_s41685-023-00326-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lights and the Invisibles: towards a regional/sector-wise policy approach exploring India’s economy–environment trade-offs

Author

Listed:
  • Monica Jaison

    (National Institute of Technology Calicut)

  • Althaf Shajahan

    (National Institute of Technology Calicut)

Abstract

Air pollution mitigation strategies are either global or national. In this study, we highlight the need for regional/sector-wise mitigation strategies. We first explored the relationship between economic activity (measured using Nighttime Lights) and air quality for India (and Norway as a comparative reference) employing the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Second, we focused on the need to shift from global/national-level air pollution mitigation policies to geoclimatic region-wise policy implementation in developing nations with significant economic and physical geography heterogeneity. We considered regional/sector-wise differences in the economic activity–air quality relationship, thereby aiding future policy action in these regions/sectors. We used a panel econometric research design on geospatial variables extracted from the Google Earth Engine. We investigated causality using an Instrument Variable strategy. Economic activity in Norway led to improved air quality, while India is still far from an inverted U-shaped EKC. An inverted U-shaped EKC existed for BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh) states after accounting for transboundary pollution. Transport and industrial sectors were significant contributors to air pollution in India, with Nitrogen Dioxide concentrations highest in the Central, Western, and Eastern regions. At the same time, West India was no longer a Sulfur Dioxide polluting hub. Export hubs were sources of Nitrogen Dioxide pollution, while the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors were characterized by Carbon Monoxide and Sulfur Dioxide emissions. Given the geographical heterogeneities, global/national intervention policies may not solve the underlying problem anymore. Alternatively, shifting to a decentralized approach involving source-level interventions is the need of the hour.

Suggested Citation

  • Monica Jaison & Althaf Shajahan, 2024. "Lights and the Invisibles: towards a regional/sector-wise policy approach exploring India’s economy–environment trade-offs," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 291-332, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:apjors:v:8:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s41685-023-00326-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s41685-023-00326-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41685-023-00326-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41685-023-00326-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Bluhm, Richard & Krause, Melanie, 2022. "Top lights: Bright cities and their contribution to economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    2. Leal, Patrícia Hipólito & Marques, António Cardoso, 2020. "Rediscovering the EKC hypothesis for the 20 highest CO2 emitters among OECD countries by level of globalization," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 36-47.
    3. Cole, M.A. & Rayner, A.J. & Bates, J.M., 1997. "The environmental Kuznets curve: an empirical analysis," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 401-416, November.
    4. Richard Bluhm & Pascal Polonik & Kyle S. Hemes & Luke C. Sanford & Susanne A. Benz & Morgan C. Levy & Katharine L. Ricke & Jennifer A. Burney, 2022. "Disparate air pollution reductions during California’s COVID-19 economic shutdown," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(6), pages 509-517, June.
    5. Steinkraus, Arne, 2017. "Investigating the effect of carbon leakage on the environmental Kuznets curve using luminosity data," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 747-770, December.
    6. Marbuah, George & Amuakwa-Mensah, Franklin, 2017. "Spatial analysis of emissions in Sweden," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 383-394.
    7. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    8. Liddle, Brantley & Messinis, George, 2015. "Revisiting sulfur Kuznets curves with endogenous breaks modeling: Substantial evidence of inverted-Us/Vs for individual OECD countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 278-285.
    9. Kaufmann, Robert K. & Davidsdottir, Brynhildur & Garnham, Sophie & Pauly, Peter, 1998. "The determinants of atmospheric SO2 concentrations: reconsidering the environmental Kuznets curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 209-220, May.
    10. Sinha, Avik & Bhattacharya, Joysankar, 2017. "Estimation of environmental Kuznets curve for SO2 emission: A case of Indian cities," MPRA Paper 100009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Zutao Ouyang & Pietro Sciusco & Tong Jiao & Sarah Feron & Cheyenne Lei & Fei Li & Ranjeet John & Peilei Fan & Xia Li & Christopher A. Williams & Guangzhao Chen & Chenghao Wang & Jiquan Chen, 2022. "Albedo changes caused by future urbanization contribute to global warming," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    12. He, Jie & Richard, Patrick, 2010. "Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 in Canada," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1083-1093, March.
    13. Frauke Urban & Johan Nordensvärd, 2018. "Low Carbon Energy Transitions in the Nordic Countries: Evidence from the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, August.
    14. Beyer, Robert C.M. & Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian & Galdo, Virgilio, 2021. "Examining the economic impact of COVID-19 in India through daily electricity consumption and nighttime light intensity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    15. Gopal Gopakumar & Ritika Jaiswal & Mayank Parashar, 2022. "Analysis of the Existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve: Evidence from India," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(1), pages 177-187.
    16. Jessica Coria & Gunnar Köhlin & Jintao Xu, 2019. "On the Use of Market-Based Instruments to Reduce Air Pollution in Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-23, September.
    17. Zhu, Huiming & Duan, Lijun & Guo, Yawei & Yu, Keming, 2016. "The effects of FDI, economic growth and energy consumption on carbon emissions in ASEAN-5: Evidence from panel quantile regression," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 237-248.
    18. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2014. "What Do We Learn from the Weather? The New Climate-Economy Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 740-798, September.
    19. John Gibson & Susan Olivia & Geua Boe‐Gibson, 2020. "Night Lights In Economics: Sources And Uses," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5), pages 955-980, December.
    20. Zhang, Yunzhi, 2020. "Free trade and the environment – evidence from Chinese cities," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(6), pages 561-582, December.
    21. Muhammad Shahbaz & Rashid Sbia & Helmi Hamdi & Ilhan Ozturk, 2014. "Economic growth, electricity consumption, urbanization and environmental degradation relationship in United Arab Emirates," Post-Print halshs-01902764, HAL.
    22. Karen Clay & Nicholas Z. Muller & Xiao Wang, 2021. "Recent Increases in Air Pollution: Evidence and Implications for Mortality," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 154-162.
    23. Patrícia Hipólito Leal & António Cardoso Marques, 2020. "Rediscovering the EKC hypothesis for the 20 highest CO2 emitters among OECD countries by level of globalization," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 164, pages 36-47.
    24. Lanzi, Elisa & Dellink, Rob & Chateau, Jean, 2018. "The sectoral and regional economic consequences of outdoor air pollution to 2060," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 89-113.
    25. Maxim Pinkovskiy & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2016. "Lights, Camera … Income! Illuminating the National Accounts-Household Surveys Debate," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(2), pages 579-631.
    26. Ritu Rana & Manoj Sharma, 2019. "Dynamic causality testing for EKC hypothesis, pollution haven hypothesis and international trade in India," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 348-364, April.
    27. Bai, Yu & Arabadzhyan, Anastasia & Li, Yanjun, 2022. "The legacy of the Great Wall," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 120-147.
    28. Daniel D. Bonneau & Joshua C. Hall & Yang Zhou, 2022. "Institutional implant and economic stagnation: a counterfactual study of Somalia," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 190(3), pages 483-503, March.
    29. Kasman, Adnan & Duman, Yavuz Selman, 2015. "CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, trade and urbanization in new EU member and candidate countries: A panel data analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 97-103.
    30. Destek, Mehmet Akif & Ulucak, Recep & Dogan, Eyüp, 2018. "Analyzing the Environmental Kuznets Curve for the EU countries: The role of ecological footprint," MPRA Paper 106882, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    31. Wang, Xiaomin & Tian, Guanghui & Yang, Dongyang & Zhang, Wenxin & Lu, Debin & Liu, Zhongmei, 2018. "Responses of PM2.5 pollution to urbanization in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 602-610.
    32. Dorin JULA & Corina-Ionela DUMITRESCU & Ioana-Ruxandra LIE & Răzvan-Mihai DOBRESCU, 2015. "Environmental Kuznets curve. Evidence from Romania," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(1(602), S), pages 85-96, Spring.
    33. Myo Myo Htike & Anil Shrestha & Makoto Kakinaka, 2022. "Investigating whether the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis holds for sectoral CO2 emissions: evidence from developed and developing countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12712-12739, November.
    34. AkbostancI, Elif & Türüt-AsIk, Serap & Tunç, G. Ipek, 2009. "The relationship between income and environment in Turkey: Is there an environmental Kuznets curve?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 861-867, March.
    35. Yonatan Dinku & Dereje Regasa, 2021. "Ethnic Diversity and Local Economies," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 89(3), pages 348-367, September.
    36. Lee, Lung-fei & Yu, Jihai, 2010. "Some recent developments in spatial panel data models," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 255-271, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Haouas, Ilham & Hoang, Thi Hong Van, 2019. "Economic growth and environmental degradation in Vietnam: Is the environmental Kuznets curve a complete picture?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 197-218.
    2. Muhammad Shahbaz & Avik Sinha, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2emissions: a literature survey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(1), pages 106-168, January.
    3. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets Curve for CO2 emission: A survey of empirical literature," MPRA Paper 100257, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2019.
    4. Atwi, Majed & Barberán, Ramón & Mur, Jesús & Angulo, Ana, 2018. "CO2 Kuznets Curve Revisited: From Cross-Sections to Panel Data Models," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 40, pages 169-196.
    5. Muhammad Bilal Khan & Hummera Saleem & Malik Shahzad Shabbir & Xie Huobao, 2022. "The effects of globalization, energy consumption and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in South Asian countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(1), pages 107-134, February.
    6. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sbia, Rashid & Hamdi, Helmi, 2013. "The Environmental cost of Skiing in the Desert? Evidence from Cointegration with unknown Structural breaks in UAE," MPRA Paper 48007, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 03 Jul 2013.
    7. Mehmet Akif, Destek & Muhammad, Shahbaz & Ilyas, Okumus & Shawkat, Hammoudeh & Avik, Sinha, 2020. "The relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions in G-7 countries: evidence from time-varying parameters with a long history," MPRA Paper 100514, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Apr 2020.
    8. Roxana Pincheira & Felipe Zuniga, 2021. "Environmental Kuznets curve bibliographic map: a systematic literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 1931-1956, April.
    9. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Roubaud, David & Farhani, Sahbi, 2018. "How economic growth, renewable electricity and natural resources contribute to CO2 emissions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 356-367.
    10. Aslan, Alper & Destek, Mehmet Akif & Okumus, İlyas, 2017. "Sectoral carbon emissions and economic growth in the US: Further evidence from rolling window estimation method," MPRA Paper 106961, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Shokoohi, Zeinab & Dehbidi, Navid Kargar & Tarazkar, Mohammad Hassan, 2022. "Energy intensity, economic growth and environmental quality in populous Middle East countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PC).
    12. Seker, Fahri & Ertugrul, Hasan Murat & Cetin, Murat, 2015. "The impact of foreign direct investment on environmental quality: A bounds testing and causality analysis for Turkey," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 347-356.
    13. Tiba, Sofien & Omri, Anis, 2017. "Literature survey on the relationships between energy, environment and economic growth," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1129-1146.
    14. Yu Hao & Shang Gao & Yunxia Guo & Zhiqiang Gai & Haitao Wu, 2021. "Measuring the nexus between economic development and environmental quality based on environmental Kuznets curve: a comparative study between China and Germany for the period of 2000–2017," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(11), pages 16848-16873, November.
    15. Eyup Dogan & Nigar Taspinar & Korhan K Gokmenoglu, 2019. "Determinants of ecological footprint in MINT countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(6), pages 1065-1086, September.
    16. Manga, Muge & Cengiz, Orhan & Destek, Mehmet Akif, 2022. "Is export quality a viable option for sustainable development paths of Asian countries?," MPRA Paper 117552, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Iftikhar Yasin & Nawaz Ahmad & M. Aslam Chaudhary, 2020. "Catechizing the Environmental-Impression of Urbanization, Financial Development, and Political Institutions: A Circumstance of Ecological Footprints in 110 Developed and Less-Developed Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 621-649, January.
    18. De Juan Fernández, Aránzazu & Poncela, Pilar & Rodríguez Caballero, Carlos Vladimir & Ruiz Ortega, Esther, 2022. "Economic activity and climate change," DES - Working Papers. Statistics and Econometrics. WS 35044, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Estadística.
    19. Misbah Sadiq & Desti Kannaiah & Ghulam Yahya Khan & Malik Shahzad Shabbir & Kanwal Bilal & Aysha Zamir, 2023. "Does sustainable environmental agenda matter? The role of globalization toward energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions in South Asian countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 76-95, January.
    20. He, Jie & Wang, Hua, 2012. "Economic structure, development policy and environmental quality: An empirical analysis of environmental Kuznets curves with Chinese municipal data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 49-59.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Air quality; Decentralized policy; Economic activity; Environmental Kuznets curve; Geospatial analysis; Nighttime lights;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • F64 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Environment
    • N50 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - General, International, or Comparative

    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:spr:apjors:v:8:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s41685-023-00326-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 bibliographic 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.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.