The purpose of this paper is to investigate the correlation between income inequality and economic growth in a cross-section of 90 countries from 2002 to 2006. The controversial Kuznets Hypothesis, the economic model that hypothesizes the relationship between inequality and per capita income is an inverted U-shaped curve, is scrutinized and investigated to consider its viability and accuracy. A multiple linear regression model is estimated and the viability of the regression model is supported by several statistical tests. Based on the estimated model, a negative correlation between growth and inequality has been found.

O objetivo desta dissertação foi estudar os determinantes do desflorestamento e verificar empiricamente se a Expansão da Fronteira Agrícola no estado de Mato Grosso segue uma trajetória ao encontro da Curva Ambiental de Kuznets. O método utilizado para testar essa hipótese foi o de dados em painel econométrico. Este estudo se justifica devido à temática ambiental e ao caráter multidimensional do tema, como o abordado pelas ciências sociais. Os principais resultados apontam que inicialmente o uso e a ocupação da área causam desflorestamento, mas sem que ocorra crescimento do PIB per capita, em um segundo estágio, caracterizado pela instalação de atividades econômicas rentáveis, crescem tanto o desflorestamento como o PIB per capita e somente em um terceiro momento a degradação ambiental diminuirá. Esta última fase, quando verificada apenas pelo resultado econométrico induziria a um erro de interpretação, desfeito pela complementação da espacialização do processo da Expansão da Fronteira Agrícola. / The aim of this thesis was tostudy the determinants of deforestation and verify empirically if the expansion of the agricultural boundary in the State of Mato Grosso follows a trajectory to meet the environmental Kuznets Curve. The method used to test this hypothesis was the econometric panel data. This study is justified due to the environmental subject and the multidimensional character of the theme, as discussed by social sciences. The main results show that using and as well performing occupation of the area cause deforestation, nevertheless without per capita GDP increasing, in a second stage, characterized by the installation of profitable economic activities, increasing both the deforestation as the GDP per capita and only in a third environmental degradation will decrease. This last phase, when checked only by the econometric results, leads to an wrong interpretation, undone by complementing the definition of the agricultural boundary process expansion.

O objetivo desta dissertação foi estudar os determinantes do desflorestamento e verificar empiricamente se a Expansão da Fronteira Agrícola no estado de Mato Grosso segue uma trajetória ao encontro da Curva Ambiental de Kuznets. O método utilizado para testar essa hipótese foi o de dados em painel econométrico. Este estudo se justifica devido à temática ambiental e ao caráter multidimensional do tema, como o abordado pelas ciências sociais. Os principais resultados apontam que inicialmente o uso e a ocupação da área causam desflorestamento, mas sem que ocorra crescimento do PIB per capita, em um segundo estágio, caracterizado pela instalação de atividades econômicas rentáveis, crescem tanto o desflorestamento como o PIB per capita e somente em um terceiro momento a degradação ambiental diminuirá. Esta última fase, quando verificada apenas pelo resultado econométrico induziria a um erro de interpretação, desfeito pela complementação da espacialização do processo da Expansão da Fronteira Agrícola. / The aim of this thesis was tostudy the determinants of deforestation and verify empirically if the expansion of the agricultural boundary in the State of Mato Grosso follows a trajectory to meet the environmental Kuznets Curve. The method used to test this hypothesis was the econometric panel data. This study is justified due to the environmental subject and the multidimensional character of the theme, as discussed by social sciences. The main results show that using and as well performing occupation of the area cause deforestation, nevertheless without per capita GDP increasing, in a second stage, characterized by the installation of profitable economic activities, increasing both the deforestation as the GDP per capita and only in a third environmental degradation will decrease. This last phase, when checked only by the econometric results, leads to an wrong interpretation, undone by complementing the definition of the agricultural boundary process expansion.

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.

The environmental protection is often in conflict with catching up the highest economic level of the country. In some developed countries the higher economic level means also the higher pollution of the environment. Indeed, this is applied only till one point -- the turning point -- from which the trend is applied vice-versa, the higher the economic prosperity of the country, the lower the pollution of the environment. This phenomenon is in environmental economics called the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Diploma thesis focuses on the analysis of the EKC, from detailed description of the theoretic and econometric framework, factors influencing the EKC, to crucial studies which were published in this area of economics. In connection with the factors influencing EKC the thesis underline the important role of the environmental regulation and state or international ecologic policy, which the work is dealing in initiate part with. The aim of the work is to analyze if the EKC hypothesis is valid in reality or not. Furthermore the diploma thesis targets also the situation of the developing countries -- if they have to go through the same path as nowadays developed countries or if they on the contrary use their experiences.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to investigate the relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions per capita in Sweden in the period of 1970-2018. As indicators, the economic indicator will be represented by the per capita gross domestic product, GDP, as the environmental indicator this study will use carbon dioxide emissions per capita, CO2, and the energy use per capita will represent the energy consumption variable.  The research hypothesis is based on the idea of the classical EKC, the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Multivariate Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) approach which makes possible to evaluate non-stationary and cointegrating variables, while overcoming the omitted variable bias was used for the methodology part. Econometrics tests such as Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test and Johansen co-integration test are included, and the Granger causality test will provide four hypothesizes for the potential causalities between the included variable in this study.

Ongoing deforestation is an urgent, global issue with both direct and indirect impacts on a nation’s future development. This as change in forest cover and economic development provides an intuitive link between each other. Deforestation is driven by the expectations of economic return through exploitation of natural resources in search for economic development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between change in forest cover and economic development in South America between 1991 and 2019. Even if deforestation is considered widely studied, it remains an empirical question how it relates to economic development. This study uses the framework of Environmental Kuznets Curve for Deforestation (EKCD), an economic theory which suggest that economic development has an inverted U-shaped relationship with deforestation. By using a fixed effect model, we find evidence of a U-shaped relationship between forest cover and income (GDP per capita). Our results indicate that a country’s forest cover decline as income raises until a turning point is reached, after which forest cover increases together with advancing economic development. Hence, provide empirical evidence of the existence of a U-shaped EKCD in South America. Furthermore, the study is conducted using average data and the turning point therefore is also an average for the continent

This thesis examines the impact of entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation on the Environmental Kuznets Curve, using data from 2006-2016. Most studies either focus on the relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions or the relationship between business activities and economic growth. We aim to expand research by connecting the two streams and proposing a way to make economic activities more sustainable. By applying quantile regression to our panel data and grouping countries in peer groups, we can see how the impact of the independent variables vary across the CO2 emissions distribution. We found evidence for an N-shaped EKC relationship in developed countries, whilst an inverted N-shape in developing countries. Our results confirmed that renewable energy consumption has a negative effect on environmental degradation. We also found evidence that entrepreneurship increases CO2 emissions in developed countries, suggesting that policies should incentivise a greener business model. On the contrary, we found that innovation increases emissions in developing countries and decreases emissions in developed countries.Keywords Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis, Renewable energy, Technology,Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable development

Denna studie har syftat till att undersöka om ekonomisk tillväxt kan sägas leda till minskade koldioxidutsläpp och därmed vara en lösning på miljöproblematiken. Genom att jämföra produktionsbaserade och konsumtionsbaserade koldioxidutsläpp ger studien en uppfattning om ekonomisk tillväxt leder till minskade utsläpp eller endast en omställning i ekonomin. Studiens resultat har estimerats med en fixed effects-modell och baserats på utsläpps-och inkomstdata för 105 länder under åren 1990 till 2016. Undersökningen har visat att ekonomisk tillväxt kan leda till minskade produktionsbaserade koldioxidutsläpp men att ett liknande samband för konsumtionsbaserade utsläpp inte kan konstateras. Resultaten implicerar att minskade produktionsbaserade utsläpp reflekterar en omställning i ekonomin, snarare än minskade totala utsläpp. Utifrån resultaten dras slutsatsen att ekonomisk tillväxt inte kan sägas leda till minskade totala koldioxidutsläpp.

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis describes the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation through an inverted U-shape where environmental degradation first increases with economic growth, to later stagnate and decline as economic growth reaches specific threshold limits. The aim of this study is to investigate the EKC hypothesis when environmental degradation is measured through a country’s renewable energy implementation. This is achieved through multiple scatterplots and a Granger causality test, and the key finding are (1) that a consensus regarding the relationship between economic growth and energy consumption is missing, (2) that countries seems to significantly increase their consumption of renewable energy between US$ 30 000 - 50 000 when measured in real GDP per capita, (3) that the theoretical shape of the EKC holds for most countries, (4) a unidirectional causality running from economic growth to fossil fuel consumption for a panel of developing countries, and (5) a unidirectional causality running from economic growth to both fossil fuel and renewable energy consumption as well as a unidirectional causality running from renewable energy consumption to fossil fuel consumption for a panel of developed countries. When the EKC is measured though a country’s renewable energy implementation the hypothesis seems to hold for most countries. However, the decrease in environmental degradation is so far limited to developed countries with smaller economies and populations. These countries also need to ensure that decreases in environmental degradation is a result of underlying mechanisms like energy efficiency improvements and not other more counterproductive behaviors like outsourcing and deindustrialization.