TITLE:
Accounting for Population in an EKC for Water Pollution
AUTHORS:
Alexi Thompson
KEYWORDS:
Environmental Kuznet’s Curve; Population; Pooled Mean Group Estimation
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.4 No.7A,
July
18,
2013
ABSTRACT: This paper explores the role of
population in empirical studies. While panel estimation should control for
differences across countries as more populated countries should pollute more, more
pollution may not lead to more pollution per capita. Two models are estimated
each of which control for population in different ways. One model accounts for
population by expressing BOD in per capita terms and the second model regresses
BOD on population using the residual in the EKC regression. The Akaike
Information Criterion (AIC) reveals the second model is preferred to the first
model. In addition, although both models reveal an EKC, the turning points are
vastly different. Future EKC studies can benefit by testing EKC models that
control for population in different ways.