Preferences, Technology, and the Environment: Understanding the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis

We derive a simple expression for the income-pollution path using the standard static model of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). This expression makes it straightforward to identify the general characteristics of utility and pollution functions that lead to such a curve. We show that suitable preferences can always lead to an EKC while there is no technology that yields an EKC for all types of preferences, and we derive a sufficient condition for technology that leads to an EKC for almost all types of preferences. Our results hold for a model with multiple goods with different pollution intensities and for a production economy with nonconstant relative price of consumption and environmental effort. We derive our results without assuming specific functional forms and we encompass several other models as special cases.     

Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis on land use: The case of Romania

The aim of the present study is to test empirically the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for 42 Romanian counties over the 2000-2014 period. Specifically, we investigate the existence of an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between residential built-up land and economic development in a low-income EU country undergoing rapid and profound transition. We do so by making innovative use of spatial panel econometric techniques. Contrary to our expectations, the results indicate an inverted EKC, implying that higher levels of residential built-up area occur for higher levels of wealth. Moreover, we find that the built-up land in Romania mainly reflects processes of urban expansion, such as sprawl or suburbanization, that may have harmful environmental and social consequences. Spatial spill-overs in terms of built-up land arise and spread, albeit to a limited extent, to neighbouring locations. These findings are of potential significance for policy makers, because they highlight the need for coordination among neighbours. Furthermore, strengthening the institutional framework and local tax management, and planning urban regeneration better could curb and even reverse the extensive built-up land expansion and real estate speculation.     

Deforestation and the Environmental Kuznets Curve in Developing Countries: A Panel Smooth Transition Regression Approach

Deforestation is a serious environmental problem in many developing countries. This study re‐examines whether the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) relationship between deforestation and real income exists for 52 developing countries during the 1972–2003 period by applying the recently developed panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model. This paper also considers the potential endogeneity biases and other explanatory variables as a robustness check of the EKC hypothesis. The empirical results indicate the existence of a strong threshold effect between deforestation and real income, and that evidence of the EKC hypothesis for deforestation is apparent. Along with an increase in real income, deforestation increases initially, and after reaching certain income levels, deforestation drops. The turning points are US$3,021 and US$3,103, which the PSTR model endogenously determines. La déforestation constitue un problème environnemental préoccupant dans de nombreux pays en développement. Dans le présent article, nous avons tenté d’établir s’il existe ou non une relation en U inversé (courbe de Kuznets) entre la déforestation et le revenu réel, en appliquant la nouvelle méthode d’estimation d’effets de seuil avec transition lisse en panel (PSTR) à un échantillon de 52 pays en développement au cours de la période de 1972 à 2003. Nous avons également examiné les biais endogènes possibles et d’autres variables explicatives pour vérifier la robustesse de l’hypothèse de Kuznets. Les résultats empiriques montrent qu’il existe un effet de seuil robuste entre la déforestation et le revenu réel, et que l’évidence de l’hypothèse de Kuznets dans le cas de la déforestation est apparente. Lorsque le revenu réel augmente, la déforestation augmente aussi, mais lorsque le revenu atteint certains niveaux, la déforestation diminue. Les points de retournement sont de 3 021 $US et de 3 103 $US, ce que la méthode PSTR a déterminé de manière endogène.     

振兴东北老工业基地——环境库兹涅茨曲线引发的思考

阐述了环境库兹涅茨曲线中经济发展与环境恶化水平之间的倒"U"型关系,在分析了东北地区传统发展模式对环境库兹涅茨曲线影响的基础上,提出了振兴东北老工业基地的具体对策建议。     

中国土地财政与经济增长的关系研究--土地财政库兹涅兹曲线假说的提出与面板数据检验

研究目的：分析中国土地财政与经济增长之间的内在关系。研究方法：文献分析法,计量经济分析。研究结果：（1）在全国范围内,现阶段土地财政指标与经济增长之间存在着单调递增的关系,暂时否定了本文所构想的土地财政库兹涅兹曲线假说;（2）在东、中、西部地区,土地财政指标与经济增长之间的关系虽然呈现出不同的曲线形态,但就现阶段而言,三大区域的土地财政指标在经济增长过程中都呈上扬之势;（3）城镇化、工业化在全国及三大区域对土地财政指标发挥着不同程度和不同方向作用的影响。研究结论：要化解土地财政引发的各类矛盾与问题,应该从财税体制、政绩考核体制和土地制度改革的顶层设计入手,充分考虑区域差异,系统构建分类治理土地财政的区域差异化制度体系和管控对策。     

农户人均家庭经营纯收入的库兹涅茨曲线及其形成机理研究

本文通过考察中国1978—2003年的省、市横截面数据,发现经济发展水平与农民人均家庭经营纯收入之间的关系是一个倒U型,并证明了这种现象的真实性。     

中国收入差距与耕地非农化关系的实证研究——基于对耕地库兹涅茨曲线的扩展

研究目的:分析中国收入差距与耕地非农化之间的关系。研究方法:文献分析法,计量经济分析。研究结果:收入差距会影响耕地非农化进程,(1)收入差距扩大会加速耕地非农化,并且收入差距越大,这种影响效果就会越恶劣;(2)收入差距因素还会通过作用经济增长,促使经济发展对耕地非农化需求加强。研究结论:收入差距使耕地库兹涅茨曲线转折阈值提高,且滞后到达。因此,以社会整体福利提高为目的,协调公平和效率的关系,缩小居民收入差距,构建和谐社会,才有利于耕地保护。     

Short- and long-run exchange rate effects on forest product trade: Evidence from panel data

Impacts of exchange rates on international forest products trade are widely debated, but the empirical evidence regarding this issue is still inconclusive. Here, we report findings of the impacts of the exchange rates on the main forest product imports and exports of the US, from January 1989 to November 2004. Export data consisted of monthly series of the main products exported by the US to different countries. For imports we used monthly series of the principal products imported by the US from Canada, the major source of imports. The strongest evidence was obtained by pooling the data across countries and products. In the short run, exports were very elastic with respect to the exchange rate (−2.6), while imports were moderately elastic (1.2). In the long run, the elasticity decreased but remained significant (0.5 for both exports and imports). Appreciation of the US dollar tended to matter more than depreciation, but the hypothesis that the effect of exchange rate was symmetric could not be rejected.     

环境分权对水环境治理效果的影响——财政分权视角下的动态面板检验

选取2002—2015年我国30个省际面板数据,应用系统GMM估计方法,实证检验了环境分权的水环境治理效应。研究结果显示,环境分权与工业废水和生活污水排放、工业废水氨氮排放量及工业废水化学需氧量三类水污染指标呈现显著且稳定的正向关系,这意味着赋予地方政府过高的环境管理自主权将不利于改善水环境治理效果;财政分权对水环境治理效果产生负向效应,随着财政分权程度的提升,环境分权对水环境治理效果的不利影响得以强化。分组检验结果表明,中央政策干预和环境管理体制改革促使财政分权对水环境治理效果的负面作用逐渐趋于不明显,且有效削弱了财政分权对环境分权与水环境治理效果两者关系的调节效应;在东部沿海地区,环境分权可一定程度上降低水污染排放,其治理效应总体上优于中西部内陆地区,而财政分权对水环境治理效果的负向作用及其调节效应在中西部内陆地区更显著。     

中国村庄公共支出与基层选举:基于微观面板数据的经验研究

本文基于来自中国48个农村1987～2000年的微观面板数据集,利用工具变量方法估计村庄选举对村级公共支出和管理效率的影响。经验研究的主要结果包括：选举能够有效地提高村庄公共支出,减少管理费用;在村庄公共支出和管理效率方面存在显著的规模经济;村民代表推举的方式有利于增加公共支出,却造成了管理费用的大幅增加。     

临沂市经济增长与环境污染水平的经济计量模型研究

通过对1986～2004年临沂市环境经济数据的经济计量模型研究,发现该市工业"三废"排放与经济增长之间的拟合曲线并不完全符合典型环境库兹涅茨曲线的特征。经济增长除与工业废水的拟合曲线属于典型倒"U"型状右侧部分外,与工业废气排放量和工业固体废弃物产生量的拟合曲线分别呈现出倒"U"型曲线左侧部分的特征,而且3条曲线整个过程并未出现转折点。主要原因是与临沂市工业发展仍处于初、中级阶段相吻合的,除工业废水污染得到较好的治理外,工业废气和工业固体废弃物污染水平仍然呈不断加重的趋势。     

Life cycle models of women's body mass index and probability of being obese: Evidence from panel data

The objective of this paper is to develop a multiperiod, finite‐life, life cycle models of household decisions on food, leisure, and health (body mass index [BMI] or being obese) and to estimate econometric versions of these models treating SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) participation as endogenous. A key insight from the economic models is that households allocate their wealth over the multiperiod life cycle to equalize the marginal utility of wealth in each period. The observations for this study are a balanced panel of over 1,600 women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 Cohort (NLSY79). We focus on the 20‐year period starting in 1986, when SNAP data first became available. Women of all ages are included in the study because at the beginning of adulthood women cannot accurately predict over their life cycle labor and marriage market and health shocks that can thrust them into an economic position where they would qualify for SNAP. New findings include that a woman's household SNAP participation with or without updating for last periods health status and higher local dairy product prices reduce significantly her BMI and probability of being obese.     

耕地非农化与中国经济增长质量的库兹涅茨曲线假说及验证——基于空间计量经济模型的实证分析

研究目的：分析中国耕地非农化与经济增长质量之间是否存在库兹涅茨曲线并进行验证。研究方法：空间计量经济模型。研究结果：常规面板模型和空间面板模型的结果均显示,中国耕地非农化与经济增长质量之间存在明显的倒“U”型关系,验证了“耕地库兹涅茨曲线”假说,且当经济增长质量（全要素生产率指数)达到1.4087时,耕地非农化与经济增长之间的矛盾将逐渐减小;区域间的耕地非农化确实具有较强的正向空间相关关系,即相邻地区耕地非农化数量变动1%,会导致本地区耕地非农化数量平均变动0.1627%。研究结论：系统地识别、评估区域间耕地非农化与经济增长质量的空间联动性,对于促进区域间耕地总量动态平衡具有十分重要的理论和现实意义。     

Gender and the dynamics of technology adoption: Empirical evidence from a household-level panel data

Very few empirical studies account for the dynamic nature of the agricultural technology adoption decision and none of these explores if this dynamic nature depends on the gender of the decision maker. Using four waves of a household-level Ugandan panel data, this is the first empirical analysis to account for self-learning (one's own adoption experience) in explaining current adoption decision in a developing country context, and the first to study the interaction between self-learning and gender. Technology adoption is defined as adoption of hybrid seed, inorganic fertilizer, or pesticides. Our results indicate that the dynamic panel data Probit model is superior to its static counterpart in the sense that self-learning, captured by lagged technology adoption indicators, is by far the most important determinant of technology adoption. We also find a weaker impact of self-learning for female-headed households than male-headed households. Female-headed households face fewer learning opportunities, which produce a lower self-learning impact in later periods, further exacerbating the gap in technology adoption among male- and female-headed households.     

经济增长、碳交易与环境污染:基于省级空间面板数据的证据

基于2003—2014年中国31个省级行政区域的面板数据,运用空间杜宾模型(SDM)和空间自回归模型(SAR),实证分析了碳排放权交易、经济增长与环境污染的关系。研究结果发现:各地区的环境污染存在显著的空间相关性;经济增长对环境污染的影响为"N"型效应,预示着经济增长并不能解决环境问题,还需要从其他方面加以应对。碳排放交易市场的建立有利于环境保护,降低环境污染;此外,因单纯为了引资,对环保要求的门槛过低,外商直接投资加重了环境污染;资本密集程度越高,环境污染越低;相对于第三产业,第二产业规模越大,环境污染越低。     

私权与公众利益如何和谐统一--美国俄勒冈州土地规划的启示

俄勒冈州位于美国西北部,面积251419平方公里,在全美50个州中排名第10位,人口320万。土地规划在俄勒冈州是使用土地的指南,是调整各方利益的依据,是可持续发展的基础,是以人为本的充分体现,更是人权、民主和自由的象征。俄勒冈州土地规划的主要特点美国作为一个联邦制国家,每一个州自行制定自己的土地规划目标。俄勒冈州的土地规划在美国一直处于领先地位,其特点表现在以下几个方面:(一)土地规划涉及的内容十分丰富。俄勒冈州的土地规划是整体的规划,从土地的利用规划到城市建设用地的规划,从环境保护的规划到专项建设的规划,从资源保护的规…     

Tourist land use patterns and water demand: Evidence from the Western Mediterranean

Tourism represents a fundamental economic strategy for many cities, regions and countries around the world. Yet, it is also one of the main drivers of global environmental change and may have deleterious effects on a number of critical environmental vectors such as water. The development of tourism in Mediterranean region raises special concerns regarding water because of summer droughts and large concentrations of seasonal tourists. Nevertheless, tourist destinations are far from being homogeneous in their consumption of water and other resources. In this paper we argue that dense, high rise tourist centers tend to use comparatively less water than disperse, low density residential resorts, taking the case of Benidorm and the Alicante coast (Mediterranean Spain) as examples. Thus we seek to illustrate how water consumption may differ substantially depending on the predominant tourist land use patterns and their associated different densities (i.e., campsites, hotels, holiday resorts, apartments, residential homes, etc.). The observed different water consumption patterns reaffirm the heterogeneous nature and impacts of tourist activities and corroborate that density is a crucial variable for understanding the economic, social, and environmental effects of tourism.     

Trade Elasticity,Gravity and Trade Liberalisation: Evidence from the Food Industry

We present an econometric investigation of the trade effect produced by the elimination of tariffs in 18 food sectors for a large sample of developing and developed countries. The standard CES monopolistic competition trade model and the gravity equation were used to estimate trade substitution elasticities, exploring their sensitivity to different estimation methods. Using these elasticities, we simulate the trade effect of the elimination of tariffs, dealing with the problem of uncertainty in the estimated values. Results point to a significant variation in the elasticities estimated by different econometric methods, suggesting that the Poisson pseudo‐maximum‐likelihood estimator significantly inflates their magnitude. Simulation results indicate that trade liberalisation will strongly increase food exports especially from high income and emerging countries, leading to a general loss of market share by developing countries. The simulated trade flows obtained from the econometric approach are quite close to current evidence based on computable general equilibrium models.     

Oligopsony Power, Asset Specificity, and Hold-Up: Evidence from the Broiler Industry

In this article we look for empirical evidence of hold-up in broiler industry production contracts by using the cross-sectional national survey of broiler growers. First, we focus on the problem of under-investment and hypothesize that the degree of agent's (grower's) under-investment systematically depends on the principal's (integrator's) market power and the level of asset specificity. Second, we provide an indirect test of hold-up by looking at the grower contract payoffs as a function of the frequency of the housing facilities upgrade requests and the principal's market power. The results show moderate empirical support for the presence of hold-up.