• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.473-496
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• 2014

This paper intends to test the non-linear relationship between $CO_2$ emissions and income by employing cointegration model of the time-varying income elasticity. We select France, UK, Italy, Japan, US, China, India, Mexico and Korea and use non-parametric time series analysis on each country in order to estimate its own effect of income on $CO_2$ emission. The main results indicate that the $CO_2$ emission-income elasticities vary over time and the income elasticities of the Annex I countries tend to be higher in absolute terms than those of developing countries. In addition, we find that emission-income elasticities decrease for Annex I countries over time, whereas those for developing countries increase.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.3-37
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• 2011

This paper investigates the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for carbon dioxide $CO_2$ emissions and its causal relationships with economic growth and openness by using time series data (1971-2006) from China (an emerging market), Korea (a newly industrialized country), and Japan (a developed country). The sample countries span a whole range of development stages from industrialized to newly industrialized and emerging market economies. The environmental consequences according to openness and economic growth do not show uniform results across the countries. Depending on the national characteristics, the estimated EKC show different temporal patterns. China shows an N-shaped curve while Japan has a U-shaped curve. Such dissimilarities are also found in the relationship between $CO_2$ emissions and openness. In the case of Korea, and Japan it represents an inverted U-shaped curve while China shows a U-shaped curve. We also analyze the dynamic relationships between the variables by adopting a vector auto regression or vector error correction model. These models through the impulse response functions allow for analysis of the causal variable's influence on the dynamic response of emission variables, and it adopts a variance decomposition to explain the magnitude of the forecast error variance determined by the shocks to each of the causal variables over time. Results show evidence of large heterogeneity among the countries and variables impacts.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.405-423
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• 2006

This paper develops theoretical model between economic growth and pollution as follows: First, emissions are generated from final good production process and technology accumulation. Second, pollution is directly connected with increase in final good production or in consumption, Third, no pollution abatement activity would be undertaken. Fourth, reproducible factors associated with labor and capital input are used in production function. We also test the existence of nonlinear Dynamics between economic growth and pollution using an exponential smooth transition autoregressive model(ESTAR). We find the presence of nonlinear dynamics between economic growth and pollution with a time series data for Seoul. This result shows indirectly that an inverted U relationship between air pollution and economic growth exists.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.51-67
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• 2017

This study analyzes the relationship between globalization and income inequality. The empirical model is developed based on Kuznets' hypothesis of the inverse U curve. The effects of factor abundancy and globalization which is characterized by trade and FDI on income inequality are analyzed. 127 member countries of WTO are classified into 4 groups according to GNI. The period of analysis is 21 years from 1995 to 2015. Results show that 3 groups of countries excluding one group that is high income countries supports Kuznets' hypothesis which is the inverse U curve. Secondly, expansion of trade decreases income inequality of middle income countries but increases high and low income countries. Thirdly, FDI increases income inequality of middle and low income countries. Finally, the increase in capital abundancy lowers income inequality because the capital accumulation increases the productivity of labor.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.515-529
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• 2003

This theoretical model makes three contributions to the study on economic growth and environment. First, emissions are generated during final goods production and technology accumulation. Second, this paper assumes that pollution is directly increasing with increase in final goods output or in consumption. Third, we use reproducible factors associated with labor and capital input in production function and assume constant return to scale in reproducible factors. From growth rate condition we derived, increases in reproducible factors, increases in productivity of either the abatment or technology sector, and decrease in social discount rate would increase the sustainable growth rate. In empirical test, the environmental degradation did not effect the economic growth rate though other factors satisfied the growth rate condition equation. However, through the reinterpretation of this result, we found indirectly the fact of that an inverted U relationship between air pollution and economic growth rate would exist in 20 OECD countries using a panel data for the period of 1986~1995.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.271-299
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• 2012

The relationship between environment and economic growth has been controversial for a long time. The cores of controversy are endogeneity problem and omitted variable bias. This paper tests EKC (Environmental Kuznets Curves) hypothesis by considering econometric issues and estimates the effects of energy mix on $CO_2$ emissions empirically and tests with time series during 1981~2008. By the results of this analysis, we convince EKC Hypothesis which the relationship between $CO_2$ emissions and economic growth is the inverted U-shaped and the national energy mix contributes significantly to GHG mitigation. We also find that the nuclear energy has the greatest contribution for $CO_2$ mitigation and the renewable energy does not seem to contribute little to the $CO_2$ mitigation because the proportion of renewable energy in Korea is negligible. In terms of final energy consumption, $CO_2$ increases and transportation sector is statistically and significantly associated.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.667-688
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• 2014

This research tested the EKC (Environment Kuznets Curve) Hypothesis using the $CO_2$ Emissions by region and GRDP. We built the panel data set on the 15 local government region from 1990 to 2010 for this analysis. GRDP, population and total factor productivity was considered as the factors influencing on the regional $CO_2$ Emissions. Analysis method in this research is panel GLS model as Lantz and Feng (2006). The results show that the EKC hypothesis did not hold in Korea but there is inverted U relationship between the $CO_2$ Emissions and total factor productivity. As the total factor productivity grows, the $CO_2$ increased but decreased after a certain level.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.583-615
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• 2019

This paper investigates the level of decoupling between greenhouse gas emissions and economic growth in Korea. Despite previous studies mainly stressed the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, the lack of investigations in the level of decoupling constraints further policy suggestions. This study analyzes the level of decoupling in the short- and long-term, focusing on short-term volatility of GHG emissions income elasticity. In the long run, there is no decoupling in Korea because a robust causal relationship exists between GHGs, GDP, and fossil fuels. However, the short-term volatility is clearly identified under the long-term equilibrium(coupling), indicating there is the relative decoupling in the short run. The results show that fossil fuel dependence is a significant factor that increases short-term volatility(decoupling) and breaks the causal link(coupling) between GHGs and GDP.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.13-26
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• 2020

This study analyzed whether the diffusion of new and renewable energy contributed to mitigating emissions of various air pollutants, including particulate matter, using panel econometric models. The theoretical foundation of such econometric models is based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, which assumes an inverted U-shaped relation between national income and environmental pollution, as originally proposed by Grossman and Krueger. We examined whether there are inverted U-, U-shaped, or N-shaped relations between national income and air pollution. We demonstrate that increases in new and renewable energy significantly mitigated emissions of CO, NO_X, and PM2.5. Additionally, we included NO_X, SO_X, PM10, and VOCs as secondary emission sources of PM2.5 and found that emission of PM10 resulted in the highest PM2.5 emissions, followed by NO_X and SO_X emissions. The impact of new and renewable energy on air pollution varied across regions. Increase of new and renewable energy in the Honam region significantly mitigated CO, NO_X, and TSP emissions, while that in the Youngnam and metropolitan areas did not significantly mitigate air pollution overall. There was a U-shaped relationship between air pollution and national income for CO, NO_X, PM2.5, and SO_X, while an inverted N-shape was observed for PM10.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.209-223
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• 2021

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Korea agricultural productions and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions based on Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Design/methodology/approach - This study utilized time series data of economic growth, greenhouse gas, agricultural productions, trade dependency, and energy usages. In order to econometric procedure of EKC hypothesis, this study utilized unit root test and cointegration test to check staionarity of each variable and also adopted Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) to analyze the short and long run relationships. Findings - In the short run, greenhouse gas emissions resulting from economic growth show an inverse U-shape relationship, and an increase in agricultural production and energy consumption led to increase in greenhouse gas emission. In the long run, total GHG emissions and CO2 emissions show an N-shaped relationship with economic growth, and an increase in agricultural production has resulted in a decrease in total GHG and CO2 emissions. However, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions showed an inverse U-shape relationship with economic growth, which indicated the environment and production process of agricultural production. Research implications or Originality - Korea agricultural production has different effects on the GHG emission sources, and in particular, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions show to increase as the agricultural production expansions, so policy or technological development in related sector is required. Especially, in the context of the 2030 GHG reduction road-map, if GHG-related reduction technologies or policies are spread, national GHG emission reduction targets can be achieved and this is possible to predict the decline in production in the sector and damage to the related industries.