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 study compares FIT (Feed-in tariff) and RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) as the two most commonly used support schemes for renewable energy sources (RES) in the EU. It examines a relationship of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and by a practical experiment for public lighting in Prague the study proposes an ecological functioning of electricity grids in the EU with CO2 emissions reduction effect. The main contribution lies in the recency and originality of the econometric analysis and practical experiment. FIT and RPS analysis demonstrates that both schemes affect demand for electricity and increase its price. The econometric model was tested for 28 EU countries for 1990-2013. The results say that the EU is currently located on the downslope of the inverted U-shaped EKC with a turning point, after which the dependence begins to grow. Nevertheless, for the most of observations the turning point is too far to be a source of concern. Practical experiment has shown that installation of energy saving devices for electricity grids in the EU can bring satisfactory results in reducing CO2 emissions independently of state aid. More efficient use of existing energy sources, however, should rather serve as a complement to conventional support, phasing out with the development of RES technologies....

The aim of the master thesis is to characterize development trends of Chinese urbanization since the establishment of People´s Republic of China until today, approaches to these trends and evaluate their sustainability. Thesis includes four main parts. The first part introduces main urbanization theories: Stages of Urban Development, Differential Urbanization, and Environmental Kuznets Curve. The second part characterizes the development of Chinese urbanization, defines two main determinants of the future development and tries to cover different potential future scenarios. The third part deals with Chinese urban policies, such as five-year-plans, Urbanization plan and reforms. After that, the sustainability issue is evaluated. Last part of the thesis deals with urbanization trends and policies in Chongqing municipality.

In the present study, the long-run evolution of income inequality in several European countries and the US has been presented and the Kuznets' hypothesis empirically assessed. According to Kuznets (1955), the evolution of income inequality along the development process can be pictured as an inverted U-shaped curve. In other words, inequality firstly increases and subsequently decreases as the economy develops. What follows the empirical part is a brief summary of explanations for the reversal observed since the 1970s and 1980s, which have been presented in the literature. In addition, several European socio-economic models are described to demonstrate that there is no simple trade-off between inequality and unemployment as hypothesized by Krugman (1995).