Income-Environment Relationship: How different is Asia?
Islam, Nazrul | June 1997
Abstract
This paper shows that there is no rule that the environment has to first deteriorate with economic growth and improve only later. There is no absolute, invariant income-environment relationship (IER) to imply such a rule. This is shown by estimating IER for Asia and comparing it with the same for other regions of the world. It is found that IERs differ widely across regions and across pollutants, and do not usually conform to the shape implied by the Environmental Kuznets’s Curve hypothesis. This indicates that the role of income in explaining pollution dynamics is limited. With appropriate policies, pollution level can be kept low even during the initial stage of economic growth. In particular, policy measures are urgently needed in Asian countries to reduce solid particulate matter in air, and nitrate and arsenic in water.
Citation
Islam, Nazrul. 1997. Income-Environment Relationship: How different is Asia?. © Asian Development Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/5375.Keywords
Environmental Resources
Policy Environment
Regulatory Environments
Sustainable Development
Environmentally Sustainable Development
Ecodevelopment
Development Challenges
Natural resources policy
Development policy
Resources development
Forest site mapping
Environmental Management
Nature Protection
Environmental Conservation
Landscape Protection
Environmental impact statements
Agricultural landscape management
Sustainable forestry
Sustainable horticulture
Environmental indexes
Protection of environment
Environmental geotechnology
Natural areas
Natural beauty conservation
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