Looking backward to look forward: water use and economic growth from a long-term perspective

Recent research has examined the relationship between natural resources and economic growth. Considered vitally important, not only for humanity’s well-being but also for the integrity of the ecosystem, the relationship between water use and economic growth has nevertheless traditionally attracted little attention by analysts. This article studies water use trends from 1900 to 2000 throughout the world and their relationship to the main determinants of economic growth. To do this, we first analyse water use trajectories. Second, to proceed with the determinants of water use, we reformulate the Ehrlich and Holdren’s impact, population, affluence, technology (IPAT) equation (1971), decomposing water use trends into changes in economic demands and in water use intensity on the basis of a decomposition analysis. Finally, a simple scenario analysis is conducted, to project future water use trends under different economic, demographic and technological assumptions.

?The empirical evidence shows that economic and population growth have been crucial in explaining the increase in water use over the past 100 years, with significant regional differences. Nevertheless, the decline in water use intensity has been responsible for a significant reduction in the growth of total water use.     

ICT and income inequality: a cross-national perspective

The importance of information and communications technology (ICT) for economic growth and development is widely researched and seemingly well understood, but the effect of such investments on income inequality is less well documented. On the one hand, improvements in infrastructure are expected to expand economic opportunities for previously underserved populations. On the other hand, ICT growth may exacerbate inequality due to differential access and skill premiums. We use panel data from 109 countries during the period 2001–2014 to examine the empirical connection between ICT and income inequality in a cross-national context. Our results suggest that the effect of ICT on income inequality depends both on the specific type of ICT and on the measure of income inequality. In addition, the magnitude of ICT’s effect on income inequality is comparable to that of more traditional forms of economic infrastructure. Finally, we find that the association between ICT and income inequality is conditional on other economic and political characteristics.     

A Kuznets Curve in Environmental Efficiency: An Application on OECD Countries

The role of the environment is an important issue in policy making andthe accurate assessment of the environmental conditions is vital. Inthis paper, using nonparametric techniques, an environmental efficiencyindex is developed for each of the OECD countries. These indexes allowone both to do cross section comparisons on the state of each country'sproduction process in its treatment of undesirable outputs and also totrace each country's modification of their production processesovertime. Furthermore in this study we investigate the factorsunderlying societies' environmental concerns that eventually lead tochanges in the environmental efficiency. The results provide furtherempirical evidence for the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis.     

A Test for Parameter Homogeneity in CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>Panel EKC Estimations

This paper casts doubt on empirical results based on panel estimations of an “inverted-U” relationship between per capita GDP and pollution. Using a new dataset for OECD countries on carbon dioxide emissions for the period 1960–1997, we find that the crucial assumption of homogeneity across countries is problematic. Decisively rejected are model specifications that feature even weaker homogeneity assumptions than are commonly used. Furthermore, our results challenge the existence of an overall Environmental Kuznets Curve for carbon dioxide emissions.     

Long-run determinants of pollution: A robustness analysis

This paper examines how robust economic, political, and demographic variables are related to water and air pollution. Employing Bayesian Averaging of Classical Estimates (BACE) for a cross section of 47 countries, 34 variables and 3 proxies for air and water pollution over a period from 1980 to 2000 we confirm the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and highlight the relevance of variables that are not directly related to production.     

On Impatience, Economic Growth and the Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Dynamic Analysis of Resource Management

The paper presents a dynamic analysis of natural resource management and investigates some key factors that affect optimal management and resource conservation.Using a recursive specification of time preferences, we show how endogenous discounting and impatience can affect the motivation for both capital investments and environmental preservation. We examine the relationships between economic growth and environmental quality. Endogenous discounting provides new insights in the economic dynamics underlying the environmental Kuznets curve. By treating growth as endogenous, we examine how externalities and economic growth interact with each other. We investigate how economic development can contribute to an increased demand for environmental preservation. As an important new result, we also show how poverty can contribute to environmental degradation.     

中国经济增长与环境污染关系的研究——基于环境库兹涅茨曲线的实证分析

基于环境库兹涅茨曲线理论的面板数据分析模型,并考虑了人口密度、环保政策、贸易开放度、技术进步、产业结构在内的其他因素对SO2排放量的影响,选取全国30个省、自治区、直辖市2004—2011年这8年的面板数据,对我国经济增长与环境污染指标SO2排放量之间的关系进行了实证研究。研究结果表明,与倒U型的环境库兹涅茨曲线不同,我国人均GDP与人均SO2排放量存在倒N型关系。并结合控制变量对环境作用的正负效应提出了有助于降低SO2排放量、改善环境质量的针对性的政策建议。     

基于环境库兹涅茨曲线的北京市碳排放与经济增长相关性研究

利用环境库兹涅茨曲线,对北京市1998--2009年人均碳排放与地区生产总值的相关性进行了研究,发现环境库兹涅茨曲线呈倒“N”型,而不是常规的倒“U”型。北京市碳排放之所以在不同时间段内呈现不同的升降趋势,是因为除经济增长外,其他因素,如产业结构、时代背景、相关政策法规的实施等也对碳排放造成影响。为了完成“十二五”规划任务,实现建设世界城市和宜居城市的目标,北京市应合理控制经济发展速度、努力推动节能减排和积极开发利用新能源。     

北京碳排放与经济增长间关系的实证研究——基于EKC和STIRPAT模型

利用1981—2010年北京经济增长和碳排放的数据,验证了两者间EKC的存在性。运用碳生率和脱钩指数分析了经济增长与碳排放的短期静态关系和长期动态关系,并利用STIRPAT模型分析了北京碳排放的影响因素。结果表明:北京经济增长与碳排放之间存在倒U型关系,拐点为人均GDP为34423元;研究期间北京碳生产率呈不断上升趋势,年均增长率为6.1%;在1981—2010年期间的绝大部分年份,北京处于弱脱钩状态,脱钩指数与其经济发展阶段比较吻合;经济发展水平对北京碳排放的影响最显著,其次是能源利用效率,能源消费结构的影响较小。     

产业集聚与环境影响关系的库兹涅茨曲线检验

环境和经济增长问题一直都是经济学中备受关注的问题。产业集聚是随着经济发展出现的一种经济活动现象。产业的集聚对区域的经济增长起着重要的促进作用,但产业集聚过程引起的环境问题不容忽视。文章通过对中国2012年工业行业产业集聚水平测算,分析了中国产业集聚与环境影响的整体关系,同时利用甘肃省2012年工业企业相关数据,对产业集聚与环境影响的库兹涅茨曲线假说进行检验,并利用计量经济模型分析了产业集聚因素对环境影响的作用。中部、西部地区随着产业集聚水平的提高,引发的环境问题较为突出,大部分省(市、自治区)环境影响有明显的上升趋势,而东部地区大部分省(市)已经步入经济、环境双赢的发展局面;关于环境与经济发展关系的环境库兹涅茨曲线假说在产业集聚过程有着特有特征:轻工业为主的产业在在集聚过程中,环境影响会随着产业集聚水平的提高,环境影响有下降趋势,而以重工业为主的产业在集聚过程中,所引发的环境影响将更加突出。加大产业集聚过程中的固定资产投资的规模与增长速度,将有效地降低产业集聚造成的环境影响。     

经济发展与环境关系的实证研究

运用1995～2008年我国省际面板数据,对我国人均GDP与人类发展指数(HDI)两类经济发展指标与包括废水、废气、废渣的3类污染指标之间的关系进行了检验。实证结果发现,3类污染物指标与2类收入指标均大都呈现倒N型的关系,只有工业废水排放量与HDI呈现倒U型关系。表明我国各类污染物排放量随着经济的发展还是遵循较一致的路径的,这告诫我们,不发达省份应当吸收借鉴发达省份的环境治理经验,发挥后发优势,避免再走先污染后治理的老路。更为重要的是,已经越过倒N型第二个临界值的发达省份应极力避免经济发展与环境污染之间发生不利的重组现象,例如倒N型重组为W型。     

长株潭城市群环境污染与经济增长的关系研究

利用长株潭城市群最近10年的经济与环境数据,建立该区域主要污染物排放与经济增长的计量关系模型。结果表明,长株潭城市群环境污染与经济增长的关系符合环境库兹涅茨曲线,除汞为U形曲线外,二氧化硫、化学需氧量、镉等其他7项指标均呈倒U形,且绝大部分指标已越过环境库兹涅茨曲线的转折点,表明长株潭城市群已进入经济与环境协调发展的有序阶段。环境政策的有力实施是促进长株潭城市群经济与环境协调发展最重要的保障。     

Optimal risk adoption: a real options approach

Summary. This study develops a real options approach for analyzing the optimal risk adoption policy in an environment where the adoption means a switch from one stochastic flow representation into another. We establish that increased volatility does not necessarily decelerate investment, as predicted by the standard literature on real options, once the underlying volatility of the state variable is made endogenous. We prove that for a decision maker with a convex (concave) objective function, increased post-adoption volatility increases (decreases) the expected cumulative present value of the post-adoption profit flow, which consequently decreases (increases) the option value of waiting and, therefore, accelerates (decelerates) current investment.Received: 12 October 2001, Revised: 4 December 2002, JEL Classification Numbers: O32, G30, D92, C61. Correspondence to: Luis H.R. AlvarezConstructive comments from an anonymous referee are acknowledged. The financial support from the Foundation for the Promotion of the Actuarial Profession (Aktuaaritoiminnan Kehittämissäätiö) to Luis H. R. Alvarez is gratefully acknowledged. Both authors are grateful for the financial support from The Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation.     

腐败、经济增长与环境污染的库兹涅茨效应:以二氧化硫排放数据为例

目前,国内文献关于腐败、经济增长与环境污染相互关系的研究还不充分,将三者置于同一整体框架下的研究能为理解和验证腐败与环境之间的关系提供直接的证据。本文在传统的EKC模型中考虑腐败因素,利用1995-2011年的中国省级面板数据研究腐败、经济增长与环境污染三者之间的关系,验证了腐败对经济增长以及腐败和经济增长对环境的影响。结果表明：(1)腐败阻碍了经济增长;(2)经济增长与环境污染之间呈倒“U”型关系,我国仍处于经济增长越快,环境污染越严重阶段;(3) 腐败能够在一定程度上通过弱化经济增长从而对环境污染有负向作用,但这并不意味着腐败是解决环境污染的手段,政府不能通过阻碍经济增长来解决环境污染问题。     

湖州市环境库兹涅茨曲线转折点分析

湖州市位于我国经济发达的太湖流域,近年经济发展迅速,同时又是我国的环保模范城市。分析该地区的经济增长与环境质量之间的关系,对于其他地区具有十分重要的借鉴意义。选择工业化学耗氧排放量、工业SO2排放量以及工业固体废弃物产生量表征环境污染的综合水平,以人均国内生产总值表征经济发展水平,对湖州市的环境库兹涅茨曲线进行分析,从工业污染物排放、三次产业结构变化以及环境保护政策和投资力度等方面分析。结果表明,1998～2008年湖州市环境库兹涅茨曲线大体呈现倒U型的变化特征,环境库兹涅茨曲线在2006年达到转折点,人均国内生产总值为29 088元,工业化学耗氧量、SO2、固体废弃物环境库兹涅茨曲线分别在1999年、2005年、2007年达到转折点,对应的人均国内生产总值分别是12 634.9元、25 030.0元、32 521.4元。     

经济增长与环境的关系——基于对CO2环境库兹涅茨曲线的实证研究

在对"环境库兹涅兹假说"暗含的同质假设前提提出质疑的基础上,对165个国家进行分组检验后发现,"高工业、高收入"国家出现了"环境库兹涅茨曲线"的"倒U"型趋势,"低工业、低收入"国家出现微弱"倒U"型趋势,"低工业、高收入"国家表现出了"~"型趋势,而"高工业、低收入"国家环境污染与收入增长同步。     

Dynamics of environmental quality and economic development: the regional experience from Yangtze River Delta of China

This article investigates the dynamic relationship between economic progress and environmental quality at a regional level. An important economic intuition in this context is that environmental degradation will be limited by human behaviour if costs and benefits of such degradation are local since economic agents will then be incentivized to choose appropriate corrective action. Therefore, we note the likelihood that regional economic development can help regions ‘grow out of’ environmental problems. Using a new data set from Yangtze River Delta of China, we find a strong confirmation of the intuition that human can and will resolve the environmental problem by altering the damaging behaviour of economic agents. A very interesting finding of this study is that the relationship between environmental quality and economic progress measured by per capita income can display a wave-like function in the case of water pollution, as opposed to the much dramatized environmental Kuznets curve, with significant policy implications.     

The heterogeneity of carbon Kuznets curves for advanced countries: comparing homogeneous,heterogeneous and shrinkage/Bayesian estimators

We investigate Carbon Kuznets Curves (CKC) relationships for advanced countries grouped in policy relevant groups – North America and Oceania, South Europe, North Europe – by means of various homogeneous, heterogeneous and shrinkage/Bayesian panel estimators. We try to provide an answer to the question ‘how sensitive are the CKC estimates to changes in the level of parameters' heterogeneity?’. We do find that in coherence with their ‘policy and economic’ commitment to carbon reductions and environmental market-based instruments implementation, bell shapes are present only for northern EU, which leads the group of advanced countries. The other two lag behind. We show for the first time that CKC shapes are present if we net out Europe of the southern and less developed countries. This is coherent with the Kuznets paradigm. The negative side of the tale is that they characterize a bunch of few countries. Other advanced countries lag behind and are far from reaching a CKC dynamics. Heterogeneous and Bayesian estimators clearly show this, with the EU presenting turning points closely around $13?000 per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Heterogeneous panel estimates also show that for lagging countries presumed bell shapes turn into linear relationships. The stability of outcomes across models is stronger when we compare heterogeneous rather than homogeneous models. If it is compared with other studies, our analysis highlights a relative lower variability across specifications.     

Access pricing and investment: a real options approach

This paper examines a three-period model of an investment decision in a network industry characterized by demand uncertainty, economies of scale and sunk costs. In the absence of regulation we identify the market conditions under which a monopolist decides to invest early as well as the overall welfare generated by this decision. In a regulated environment, we consider a vertically integrated network provider that is required to provide access to downstream competitors and compare two distinct access pricing methodologies: the Efficient Component Pricing Rule (ECPR) and the Option to Delay Pricing Rule (ODPR). We identify the welfare-maximizing access prices using the unregulated market output as a benchmark and show that optimal access regulation depends on market conditions (that is, the nature of demand) with two possible outcomes: (i) access prices that provide a positive payoff to the incumbent, that is, provide a positive compensation to account for the option to delay; and (ii) access prices that yield a zero payoff to the incumbent. Moreover, unlike the earlier literature that argues in favor of an ECPR-type methodology to account for the interaction between irreversibility and demand uncertainty, we find that, except under very specific conditions, an access price that accounts for the option to delay value is welfare-superior to the ECPR.