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How does carbon dioxide emission change with the economic development? Statistical experiences from 132 countries

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  • Hua Liao
  • Huaishu Cao

Abstract

Issues concerning what measures should be adopted to achieve a sustainable world with less carbon dioxide emission and in what magnitude should we reduce our emission have been on agenda in both international negotiations and countries¡¯ policy making aimed at coping with potential global climate change. These issues cannot be easily addressed unless comprehensive understanding about the countries' status quo as well as historical relationship between economic development and carbon dioxide emission are gained. In this paper, we examine the historical relationship between economic development and carbon dioxide emission; the ex-ante restrictions on function forms and the poorly handled robustness issues rife in economics literature are synthetically addressed. Evidence from recent four decades indicates that per capita carbon dioxide emission first significantly and monotonously increase at low income level and flattens after per capita income reaches at about 22,000$ (2005 constant price). We perform various robustness checks by employing different data sources, different model specifications and different econometric estimates. The captured development-emission relationship is robust. Our empirical results indicate factors such as urbanization, population density, trade, energy mix and economic environment etc. impact the absolute level of carbon dioxide emission not the overall income elasticity structure of carbon dioxide emission.

Suggested Citation

  • Hua Liao & Huaishu Cao, 2012. "How does carbon dioxide emission change with the economic development? Statistical experiences from 132 countries," CEEP-BIT Working Papers 54, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology.
    • Handle: RePEc:biw:wpaper:54
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    File URL: http://ceep.bit.edu.cn/docs/2018-10/20181011140508459060.pdf
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    Cited by:

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    2. Giedrė Lapinskienė & Kęstutis Peleckis & Neringa Slavinskaitė, 2017. "Energy consumption, economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union countries," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 1082-1097, November.
    3. Sugiawan, Yogi & Islam, Moinul & Managi, Shunsuke, 2017. "Global marine fisheries with economic growth," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 158-168.
    4. Jiansheng Qu & Tek Maraseni & Lina Liu & Zhiqiang Zhang & Talal Yusaf, 2015. "A Comparison of Household Carbon Emission Patterns of Urban and Rural China over the 17 Year Period (1995–2011)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-21, September.
    5. Giedrė Lapinskienė & Kęstutis Peleckis & Marijus Radavičius, 2015. "Economic development and greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union countries," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(6), pages 1109-1123, December.
    6. Fei Wang & Changjian Wang & Jing Chen & Zeng Li & Ling Li, 2020. "Examining the determinants of energy-related carbon emissions in Central Asia: country-level LMDI and EKC analysis during different phases," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(8), pages 7743-7769, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income elasticity; Carbon dioxide emission; Linear spline model; Environmental Kuznets curve;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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