Beyond the EKC: Economic development and environmental degradation in the US

IF 6.6 2区经济学 Q1 ECOLOGY

Ecological Economics Pub Date : 2025-03-06 DOI:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108567

Mihai Mutascu

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The paper explores the impact of economic development on environmental degradation in the United States of America (US) using a Wavelet Quantile Correlation (WQC) methodology proposed by Kumar and Padakandla (2022). The span covers the period 1992M1-2022M12.

The analysis does not confirm the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in the US, offering short-term and long-term perspectives of the ‘economic development - environmental degradation’ nexus as a novelty.

The core findings show a strong link between economic development and environmental degradation in the US, with short-term patterns exhibiting a negative sign in inverted-S and S shapes. Long-term patterns, however, display a positive sign in S and inverted-S shapes.

These results remain robust across different gas types but with a time-delay effects due to molecular differences and their respective impacts on climate and environmental health.

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来源期刊

Ecological Economics 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

12.00

自引率

5.70%

发文量

313

审稿时长

6 months

期刊介绍： Ecological Economics is concerned with extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between "nature''s household" (ecosystems) and "humanity''s household" (the economy). Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary field defined by a set of concrete problems or challenges related to governing economic activity in a way that promotes human well-being, sustainability, and justice. The journal thus emphasizes critical work that draws on and integrates elements of ecological science, economics, and the analysis of values, behaviors, cultural practices, institutional structures, and societal dynamics. The journal is transdisciplinary in spirit and methodologically open, drawing on the insights offered by a variety of intellectual traditions, and appealing to a diverse readership. Specific research areas covered include: valuation of natural resources, sustainable agriculture and development, ecologically integrated technology, integrated ecologic-economic modelling at scales from local to regional to global, implications of thermodynamics for economics and ecology, renewable resource management and conservation, critical assessments of the basic assumptions underlying current economic and ecological paradigms and the implications of alternative assumptions, economic and ecological consequences of genetically engineered organisms, and gene pool inventory and management, alternative principles for valuing natural wealth, integrating natural resources and environmental services into national income and wealth accounts, methods of implementing efficient environmental policies, case studies of economic-ecologic conflict or harmony, etc. New issues in this area are rapidly emerging and will find a ready forum in Ecological Economics.