Abstract

OLIVARES MENDOZA, José Antonio  and  HERNANDEZ RODRIGUEZ, Clemente. Is the environmental Kuznets curve still valid to explain environmental degradation? A theoretical review. Revista de coyuntura y perspectiva [online]. 2021, vol.6, n.3, pp.3-52. ISSN 2415-0622.

Abstract The Environmental Kuznets Curve (CAK) is one of the most controversial hypotheses in environmental economics, due to the implications for public policy understood as "grow first, clean up later." Much of the academic production on this curve pretend to demonstrate its empirical validity, but not in documenting its theoretical evolution and the validity of its assumptions. This article examines, through a systematic review of the literature, whether the theoretical support of the CAK is sufficient to address the relationship between economic growth and environment. Also, criticisms made of the model are examined as well. The analysis reveals that despite the well-founded criticisms of the CAK, they are not enough to declare it invalid. A CAK is a partial image of a wide, complex pollution path, where the assimilation and regeneration times of nature are different to those of market times.

Keywords : Environmental Kuznets curve; Literature review; Pollution; Economic growth.

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