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Economic Growth and the Diffusion of Clean Technologies: Explaining Environmental Kuznets Curves

Smulders, Sjak ; Bretschger, Lucas ; Egli, Hannes

In: Environmental and Resource Economics, 2011, vol. 49, no. 1, p. 79-99

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    Title
    • Economic Growth and the Diffusion of Clean Technologies: Explaining Environmental Kuznets Curves
    Author
    • Smulders, Sjak. Departement of Economics, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands
    • Bretschger, Lucas. CER-ETH-Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
    • Egli, Hannes. Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, 6002, Luzern, Switzerland
    Document Type
    • Postprint
    Language
    • English
    Published in
    • Environmental and Resource Economics, 2011, vol. 49, no. 1, p. 79-99. Springer Netherlands
    Other Version
    OAI-PMH Identifier
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:311498
    Summary
    The paper provides a theoretical explanation for the inverted U-shaped relation between pollution and income often found in empirical research (Environmental Kuznets Curve). We model the transition in the pollution pattern as a change in general purpose technologies and investigate how it interferes with economic growth driven by quality improvements. We provide an analytical foundation for the claim that the rise and decline of pollution can be explained by endogenous innovations, policy-induced technology shifts, and intrasectoral changes. Once environmental degradation becomes too severe, regulation is introduced by which society forces the economy to make a transition to cleaner production