The instability of the adjusted and unadjusted environmental Kuznets curves

Abstract

We test the stability of the unadjusted and adjusted environmental Kuznets curves (EKCs). Our results provide evidence in favour of a theoretically funded "adjusted EKC hypothesis" in which the impact of per capita GDP on CO2 emissions is evaluated conditionally to the effects of the industry mix and of the energy-supply infrastructure. In this specification, the shape of the GDP-CO2 relationship appears quite sensitive to changes in the estimation period. In the final part of the paper, signs and dynamics of fixed effects of individual countries in different specifications are interpreted as measures of virtuous or vicious of environmental behaviour. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.