Environmental Kuznets curve revisited with special reference to Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Abstract

This study revisits the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in order to find the inverted-U relationship between CO<inf>2</inf> emissions and economic growth. It uses a comprehensive cross-national panel dataset containing 90 middle-income countries between 1981 and 2010. This study confirms that a quadratic relationship indeed exists. The turning points are determined at approximately US$8,300 and 9,100, which are consistent in all six models. Additionally, by classifying countries into different income levels or regional groups, this study attempts to find any group-wise discrepancies. Finally, individual countries are examined in order to find the gap between the actual data and their fitted values, which indicates that special attention is required in Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries in order to reduce CO<inf>2</inf> emission problems. © The Author(s) 2014.