• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2020

As people's income rises dramatically, people's happiness seems not as high as expected. In fact, there are two different arguments about the relationship between income level and happiness. The focus of the debate is whether the correlation between income and probability of happiness is positive or negative. Therefore, we hypothesizes that the relationship between income and probability of happiness presents an inverted U-shaped curve. Then, this paper sets China as an example to explore the effect of income on happiness. The data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2015 is employed to conduct empirical analyses under the Probit model and the Zero-Inflation-Passion model. The empirical findings indicate that the effect of income on happiness presents an inverted U-shaped curve and significantly in statistic. Meanwhile, spouse's income, educational level, marriage time and house property have a positive and significant effect on happiness. Conversely, age and local living standards have a negative and significant effect on happiness. Unfortunately, even though registered residence and children have a negative effect on happiness, they do not get through the significant test. In order to ensure the robustness of our empirical results, we test the robustness of the above empirical results by adjusting the sample size. The results of robustness test verify that our empirical results are robust. Moreover, this paper also makes a small contribution to the current literature with a sample from China.

• 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.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2022

Purpose - This paper analyzes the economic and non-economic factors that contribute to environmental sustainability by reducing CO₂ emissions, based on G20 panel data. Design/methodology - We conduct a comparative analysis of advanced and developing economies during 1995-2016. To examine the impact, an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model was employed, incorporating additional explanatory variables such as internet use, renewable energy, and services trade. Findings - The empirical findings show the existence of an inverted U-shaped EKC phenomenon between GDP per capita and CO₂ emissions in G20 economies, with the turning point at a per capita GDP level of US$ 38,340. Moreover, an inverted U-shape relation exists between internet use and CO₂ emissions, with the turning point at a 44% internet use rate. The comparative analysis show that the inverted U-shape curve only exits in advanced economies, with turning points of US$ 42,356 per capita GDP and 27% internet use rate, respectively. Renewable energy and services trade have a greater negative impact on CO₂ emissions in advanced economies than in developing economies. Originality/value - Renewable energy and services trade have a greater negative impact on CO₂ emissions in advanced economies than in developing economies. Overall, the results suggest the role of internet use, renewable energy and services trade in sustainable development in G20 countries.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.295-303
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• 2022

This study investigates the impact of globalization, coal consumption, and economic growth on CO₂ emissions in Malaysia by applying the Kuznets Environmental Curve model. The study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag modeling technique on time series data over the period of 1970-2018 to determine the short and long-run relationship between CO₂ emissions and a number of variables, including globalization, coal consumption, and economic growth. The results show that globalization increase CO₂ emissions in both the short and long run in Malaysia. Furthermore, the results reveal that economic growth and coal consumption degrade the environmental quality by accelerating the CO₂ emissions in the short-run and long run. As a result, the findings validate the Kuznets Environmental Curve hypothesis of an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and CO₂ emissions in the long run for Malaysia. The findings of this study suggest that higher globalization levels and usage of coal consumption degrade the environmental quality in Malaysia. The findings also indicate the effect of economic growth on environmental degradation is positive at the initial stage but improves after the economy achieves a threshold level of income per capita in the economic development process with an inverted U-shaped pattern in the long run.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.629-640
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• 2022

This study analyzed the relationship between local government size and regional economic growth using regional data from 2002 to 2020. By dividing local government expenditure into social development expenditure and economic development expenditure, economic growth and the inverted U-shaped Armey curve were verified, and the optimal size of local government expenditure was examined. In particular, the AMG estimation method considering the cross-sectional dependence and regional heterogeneity existing in the panel data was utilized. As a result of the analysis, it was found that there was an inverted U-shaped relationship between local fiscal expenditure and regional economic growth. When the proportion of total local fiscal expenditure is 7.63% of GRDP and social development expenditure is 3.45%, it is found that the optimal size of expenditure can maximize the regional economic growth rate. Local governments should increase the effectiveness of public expenditure policies by considering these points.

• 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.16 no.3
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• pp.643-651
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• 2007

The Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis postulates an inverted-U shaped relationship between GDP per capita and various pollutants. Pollutants emission increases up to a certain level as income goes up; after that, it decreases. This paper investigates the relationship between industry pollutants taking industrial sulfur dioxide omission as example, and economic growth by using province-panel data set from 1989 to 2004 in 28 provinces of P. R. China. The result shows that the EKC hypothesis may be supported in the case of industrial sulfur dioxide, and the GDP per capital of turning point is about RMB 13,548 (at 1978 price). Except Shanghai, all the provinces GDP per capital in this study are less than RMB 13,548, indicating the amount of industrial sulfur dioxide emission will be increasing in the near future. To realize sustainable development and pollutants abatement, the central and local government should adopt an integrated strategy to protect environment.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2009

The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis assumes an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental damage and income, and such curves have been used to study how economic growth affects the environment. In this study, we analyzed data for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and for sulfur emissions in the industrialized countries of the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Japan, as well as data for the developing country of China, to determine the relationship between emissions and income in these countries. Attempts by these countries' governments to incorporate environmental policy considerations into the income-environment relationship were also examined. The potential role of the environmental Kuznets curve as a policy tool was investigated. We determined that, at least in the case of sulfur emissions, policies and institutions significantly reduced environmental degradation in the industrialized countries studied. Furthermore, the environmental Kuznets curve can reliably predict the future relationship between environmental impact and GDP for developing countries.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.19-37
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• 2019

Over the last few decades, the atmospheric carbon dioxide emission has been amplified to a great extent in Turkey. This amplification may cause global warming, climate change and environmental degradation in Turkey. Consequently, ecological condition and human life may suffer in the near future from these indicated threats. Therefore, an attempt was made to test the relationship among a number of expected factors and carbon dioxide emissions in the case of Turkey. The study covers the time series data over the period of 1970-2017. We employed the modern econometric techniques such as Johansen co-integration, ARDL bound testing approach and the block exogeneity. The results of the Johansen co-integration test show that there is a significant long-run relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and expected factors. The long-run elasticities of the ARDL model show that a 1% increase in the GDP per capita, electric consumption, fiscal development and trade openness will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.14, 0.52, 0.09 and 0.20% respectively. Further, our findings reveal that the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and inverted U-shaped relationship between carbon dioxide emission and economic growth prevails. Therefore, the EKC hypothesis is valid and prevailing in the Turkish economy. The diagnostic test results show that the parameters of the ARDL model are credible, sTable and reliable in the current form. Finally, Block exogeneity analysis displays that all the expected factors are contributing significantly to carbon dioxide emissions in the Turkish economy.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2031-2048
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• 2021

Not only can air pollution reduce the overall competitiveness of tourist destinations, but also changes tourists' travel decisions, thereby affecting the tourism flows. The study presents a machine learning method to analyze how the haze pollution puts spatial effect on tourism flows in China from 2001 to 2018, and reveals the regional differences in heterogeneity among eastern, central, and western China. Our investigation reveals three interesting observations. First, the Environmental Kuznets Curve of the impact of haze pollution on tourism flows is not significant. In the eastern and western regions, the interaction between haze pollution and domestic tourism flows as well as inbound tourism flows shows an inverted U-shaped curve respectively. Second, there is an significantly positive spillover effect of tourism flows in all of the eastern, central, and western regions. As to the intensity of spillover, domestic tourism flows is higher than that of the inbound tourism flows. Both of the above figures are greatest in the eastern. Third, the Chinese haze pollution mainly reduces the inbound tourism flows, and only imposes significantly negative direct effects on the domestic tourism flows in the central region. In the central and eastern regions, significantly negative direct effects and spillover effects are exerted on inbound tourism.