Global Warming and Economic Growth : Theory and Empirical Research on Multinational Panel Data

Global temperature has gradually been warming, which has had different impacts on economic activities in various countries. How to mitigate the negative impact of global climate change on economic development has become an important issue of concern for both governments and academia. In this context, this study introduces physiological assumptions into a labor economics model and analyzes the inverted U-shaped effects of temperature on a country's economic development based on the relationship between temperature and individual labor efficiency. We also use worldwide data from 1960 to 2010 to empirically assess the association between temperature and economic development, the results of which show that a rise in temperature can suppress economic activity in those countries with high temperatures and promote economic activity to a certain extent for those few countries with low temperatures; that is, the temperature influence on a country's economy exhibits an inflection point. The average temperature of most countries is higher than the inflection point of the inverted U-shaped curve, so an increase in temperature limits economic development to a certain extent. Technological progress and environmental investment are introduced in the expansion analysis, the results of which show that the inflection point of the inverted U-shaped curve of the impact of global warming on economic growth continues to move to the right; that is, technological progress and environmental investment can slow the inhibition effect of global warming on the economies of all countries. This study provides new research ideas for analyzing the relationship between global warming and economic growth and provides a scientific basis and empirical evidence through which to dynamically regulate global warming and economic growth from the perspective of technological progress and environmental investment