Nos últimos anos, os impactos da poluição no meio ambiente se tornou um tema de grande relevância, uma vez que níveis desmedidos de emissões têm sido responsáveis por alterações ambientais. Muitos autores se dedicaram a estudar a relação existente entre o crescimento econômico e a poluição. Destes estudos, surgiram duas abordagens distintas: Curva Ambiental de Kuznets e convergência das emissões. A Curva Ambiental de Kuznets postula a existência de uma relação no formato U invertido entre emissões e renda. Desta forma, à medida que renda alcança um certo nível, a taxa de crescimento das emissões se reduz. Já a convergência das emissões implica em uma taxa de crescimento equilibrado no longo prazo, o que leva ao estado estacionário das emissões. Neste contexto, Brock e Taylor (2010) desenvolveram um modelo alternativo que liga estas duas metodologias. O modelo presume que, quando as emissões convergem ao estado estacionário, implicitamente ocorre o movimento descrito pela Curva Ambiental de Kuznets. O objetivo deste trabalho é estimar os dois modelos separadamente com o intuito de verificar se os resultados apontam para uma mesma direção. As estimações da CAK foram sensíveis ao modelo escolhido. Quando se utiliza a renda e a renda ao quadrado como explicativas, os coeficientes estimados apontam para uma curva no formato U invertido, com ponto de inflexão de US$ 792.805,60. Já a estimação do modelo com as variáveis renda, renda ao quadrado e renda ao cubo apresentou uma curva no formato N, e o ponto de inflexão obtido foi de US$ 6.168,88. A estimação do modelo convergência proposto por Brock e Taylor (2010) apontou evidências que ocorre convergência condicional das emissões per capita, para a maioria das estimações realizadas. / Recently the impacts of pollution on environment became a relevant topic, as great levels of emissions are responsible for environmental change. Many researchers started to study the relationship between economic growth and pollution. Two distinct approaches followed from these studies: the Environmental Kuznets Curve and the convergence of emissions. The Environmental Kuznets Curve assumes the existence of an inverted U relationship between emissions and income. As the income grows and reaches a threshold level, the growth rate of emissions goes down. The convergence of emissions implies a steady state of emissions in the long run. In this context, Brock and Taylor (2010) built an alternative model that makes a bridge between both methodologies. The model assumes that as there is convergence of emissions towards steady state, there is as a result a path similar to an Environmental Kuznets Curve. The purpose of this research is to estimate both models separately in order to verify if the results point to the same conclusions. The estimates of the Environmental Kuznets Curve were sensitive to the model chosen. As we use income and income squared as independent variables, the estimated coefficients point to an inverted U curve with a turning point at US$ 792,805.60. The estimates of the model with the variables income, income squared and income cubic reveals a N curve with a turning point at US$ 6,168.88. The estimates of the convergence model proposed by Brock and Taylor (2010) pointed to conditional convergence of emissions per capita for most of the cases.

L’objectif de la thèse est de montrer non seulement que le changement technologique est un déterminant de la croissance économique, mais aussi d'analyser la relation qu'il entretient avec les inégalités.Cette piste, qui est la ligne directrice de ce travail, est exploitée à partir de modèles théoriques de croissance et d'applications empiriques suivant nombreux champs d'investigation. L'intérêt est double : étudier l'impact des inégalités des revenus sur les changements technologiques ; vérifier l'hypothèse des changements technologiques biaisés en faveur des compétences et étudier l'impact des changements technologiques sur l'inégalité d'accès à l'emploi.Dans cette optique, le premier chapitre s'intéresse à la relation entre capital humain, recherche et développement, technologie et croissance. Ce changement technologique stimulant la croissance économique entraîne des inégalités de salaires.Le deuxième chapitre analyse l'impact des inégalités sur la croissance passant par les changements technologiques. Un premier courant de pensée suggère une relation positive entre l'inégalité et la croissance, un deuxième courant suggère une relation négative. La validation empirique consiste à évaluer le rôle des inégalités de revenus pour la croissance économique et par suite pour les changements technologiques. La technique utilisée est celle du Panel statique et dynamique pour un échantillon de pays en développement. Le troisième chapitre étudie l'impact du progrès technique sur les inégalités. Il s'intéresse à la notion de biais technologique et au rôle des inégalités entre travailleurs qualifiés et non qualifiés. La validation empirique se base aussi sur l'économétrie des données de panel. Le premier modèle teste l'impact du changement technologique et du capital sur l'inégalité d'accès à l'emploi. Dans un second modèle, la validité de l'hypothèse de Kuznets relative au changement technologique est testée / The aim of the thesis is to show not only that the technological change is a determinant of economic growth, but also to analyze its relationship with inequality. This track, which is the director online of this work, is operated from theoretical models and empirical applications following many fields of investigation. The interest is twofold : study the impact of income inequality on technological changes, test the hypothesis of skills biased technological change and study the impact of technological change on inequality of access to employment.In this context, the first chapter focuses on the relationship between human capital, research and development, technology and growth. This technological change stimulating economic growth results wage inequality.The second chapter analyzes the impact of inequality on growth through technological changes. The first school of thought suggests a positive relationship between inequality and growth, a second stream suggests a negative relationship. Empirical validation is to assess the role of income inequality on economic growth and consequently to technological changes. The technique used is that of the static and dynamic Panel for a sample of developing countries.The third chapter exammines the impact of technical progress on inequality. He is interested in the concept of technological bias and in the role of inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. Empirical validation is also based on the econometrics of panel data. The first model tests the impact of technological change and capital on inequality of access to employmen. In a second model, the validity of the Kuznets hypothesis on technological change is tested

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between economic development and pollution in the middle- and high-income countries for the period between 1960 and 2014. The study is conducted by first testing the environmental Kuznets curve, an economic theory that income has an inverted U-shape relationship with environmental degradation. Later, the Revised environmental Kuznets curve is tested, an economic theory that countries undergoing economic development at a later period will have a lower peak of environmental degradation compared to countries undergoing economic development at an earlier period. Empirical tests of carbon dioxide (CO2) per capita and income (GDP per capita) were conducted in two different panel tests containing middle-income countries in one and high-income countries in the other. The observed relationship shows that a country's early economic development degrades the environment until what is called the turning point is reached, after which the environment improves with further economic development. Thus, the expected inverted U-shape is observed for both MIE and HIE. Furthermore, the tests tell us that the turning point for MIE is significantly lower than for HIE, which is the expected result.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

We use satellite data on forest cover along national borders in order to study the determinants of deforestation differences across countries. We combine the forest cover information with data on homogeneous response units, which allow us to control for cross-country geoclimatic differences when assessing the drivers of deforestation. Income per capita appears to be the most robust determinant of differences in cross-border forest cover and our results present evidence of the existence of decreasing effects of income on forest cover as economic development progresses.(authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The theory of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) proposes to answer important questions regarding the connections between economic growth (development) and the environment. The theory postulates the environment need not always suffer as the economy develops, and it has generated strong support and opposition. Rather than attempting to defend or debunk EKC theory, this research challenges a practice engaged in by proponents and opponents alike. Simplifying assumptions are a necessary part of economic analysis, but this research shows that any assumptions may not be universally applicable. Utilizing, in turn, a simple one good model and then a more complicated two good model, it is discovered that the competing assumptions utilized by proponents and opponents of the EKC theory may both be valid, depending upon the conditions present in the system being analyzed.

In this thesis, we will relax two major assumptions in economic growth theory. First of all, we will study growth models with eterogeneous capital goods, the so called vintage capital models: technological advances are not incorporated in all generations of capital goods and there is an optimal age distribution of the capital stocks. We will devote the three first chapters of this thesis to this class of models. Several lessons on technology diffusion will be extracted, notably in connection with the nowadays hot debate on energy saving, technology progress, growth and environmental policy. Secondly, we will introduce explicitly the geographical dimension to the neoclassical growth models, which allow us to build a new class of models. We call them geographic growth models. In this framework, we will identify the consequences of capital mobility across space. In particular, we will examine the optimal stationary distribution of capital across space. Under this framework, we could (i) study the continuous space structure, and (ii) allow capital accumulation.

The concept of economic development has broadened to include environmental quality and population health. Interactions between income and pollution, income and health, and pollution and health have been studied separately by researchers from various disciplines. This study attempts to unify several different research strands and analyze simultaneous interactions between population health, measured by the infant mortality rate, pollution, and income in one endogenous system. Socioeconomic, racial, and rural urban disparities in infant mortality, pollution, and income are analyzed. The simultaneous equation system, estimated using the two-stage least squares method, tests whether pollution effects on infant mortality are outweighed by income effects. The study finds that income is a stronger determinant of infant mortality than pollution. Evidence for the environmental Kuznets curve is ambiguous. Disparities in infant mortality, pollution, and income are correlated with counties rural-urban status, income inequality, and ethnic diversity. Regional patterns identify wide geographical differences in levels of pollution, income, and infant mortality. The Southeast region stands out as a region with the highest infant mortality rate, relatively high levels of air pollution and chemical releases, and low per capita incomes.

Les tentatives récentes d'explication des liens entre l'économique et l'environnement ont permis de mettre en chantier de nouveaux domaines de recherches à priori, forts intéressants. La question globale qui se pose aux villes de l'Afrique Sub-saharienne est de savoir comment les autorités peuvent gérer de façon durable les déchets ménagers qui ne cessent de croître. Cette thèse aborde cette question au travers deux préoccupations importantes. Bien que la gestion des déchets ménagers ait été confiée à des acteurs privés, l'efficacité attendue n'est pas obtenue. En mobilisant les éléments de la théorie des externalités et de la théorie des contrats, nous avons montré que pour une intervention des acteurs privés dans le secteur des déchets ménagers soit efficace, il faut que les deux acteurs (municipalité et acteurs privés) puissent se mettre en rapport pour surmonter les difficultés relatives à l'asymétrie d'information et au comportement opportuniste qui risquent de faire obstacle à l'échange. La deuxième préoccupation concerne la responsabilisation des ménages quant aux déchets qu'ils produisent. Les études empiriques menées montrent d'une part qu'une tarification incitative dans les quartiers de haut et moyen standing permettra à la fois à la municipalité de mobiliser des ressources financières supplémentaires pour financer le service et d'autre part de réduire le volume des déchets destiné à la décharge finale. D'autre part, la promotion du tri à la source accompagnée de la mise en place d'un marché parfait de récupération de déchets triés incitera les ménages à faible revenu et vivant dans les quartiers de bas standing à participer au tri.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T17:16:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo3408_1.pdf: 1023221 bytes, checksum: 8c9e11b17edfe51d3612d844c46fba9e (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / O Crescimento econômico gera uma série de impactos ao meio ambiente, principalmente, quando intensificado pelos incentivos às exportações. Em particular, quando o padrão de comercio é baseado em commodities primarias e intensivo em recursos naturais. Nesse sentido, as importações podem ser desejáveis, particularmente de bens intensivos em recursos naturais ou que criem grandes volumes de resíduos em sua produção. Inversamente, a exportação de bens cuja produção incorre em altos custos ecológicos tem um efeito adverso no bem-estar. Nessa perspectiva, este estudo busca evidenciar o conteúdo de degradação ambiental do comércio exterior brasileiro no período de 2000 a 2007, fazendo uma reflexão da hipótese postulada na curva CKA, remontando-se, também, ao esquema centro-periferia, com vistas a identificar a evolução do conteúdo da degradação e possíveis mudanças ou intensificação no padrão de comércio no período. O estudo partiu da verificação do volume negociado com os países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento, e posteriormente categorizouse segundo a classificação Standard International Trade Classification, revisão 4, proposta pela UNCTAD e apresentados de acordo com a Nomenclatura Comum do Mercosul - NCM. Os resultados indicam que no período estudado não houve uma mudança no padrão de inserção internacional brasileiro. Conclui-se que existe um padrão de comércio internacional vigente que fora reforçado historicamente por estrutura social heterogênea, na qual uma grande parte da população ficou à margem do processo de desenvolvimento e para que se ocorra o processo proposto pela CKA é necessário que haja mudança nesse padrão internacional