The environmental Kuznets curve and CO2 emissions in the USA : Is the relationship between GDP and CO2 emissions time varying? Evidence across economic sectors

Emilio Congregado; Julia Feria-Gallardo; Antonio A Golpe; Jesús Iglesias

doi:10.1007/s11356-016-6982-9

The environmental Kuznets curve and CO2 emissions in the USA : Is the relationship between GDP and CO2 emissions time varying? Evidence across economic sectors

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2016 Sep;23(18):18407-20. doi: 10.1007/s11356-016-6982-9. Epub 2016 Jun 10.

Authors

Emilio Congregado¹, Julia Feria-Gallardo¹, Antonio A Golpe², Jesús Iglesias¹

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Economía, Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, Spain.
² Departamento de Economía, Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, Spain. antonio.golpe@dehie.uhu.es.

PMID: 27282372
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-016-6982-9

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve as reported by Kuznets (Am Econ Rev 5:1-28, 1955) by using the methodology proposed by Kejriwal and Perron (J Econ 146:59-73, 2008, J Bus Econ Stat 28:503-522, 2010) and applying Jaunky's (Energy Policy 39(3):1228-1240, 2011) specification using quarterly data from 1973:1 to 2015:2. We also allow different behaviors across time and identify it by economic sectors. Our results show the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the USA only when we allow for structural breaks. Interestingly, the industrial sector shows a different pattern than do other economic sectors; with the beginning of the economic crisis, it appears to have abandoned the objective of the environmental stabilization found until then.

Keywords: CO2 emissions; Cointegration; Growth; Structural breaks; Time varying; USA.

MeSH terms

Carbon Dioxide / analysis*
Environment
Industry
United States

Substances

Carbon Dioxide