The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesises an inverse U-shaped relationship between a measure of environmental pollution and per capita income levels. In this study, we apply non-parametric estimation of local polynomial regression (local quadratic fitting) to allow more flexibility in...

Theoretically, more openness in trade may affect the environment positively or negatively. This paper empirically tests the hypothesis that trade openness is good for the environment. While the results reject the hypothesis for sulphur dioxide emissions from 1960 to 1999 for all 115 countries,...

China is an economic powerhouse with annual economic growth averaging close to 9% over the last 25 years. However, as a result of this extremely rapid economic growth, the scale and seriousness of its environmental problems are clearly evident. Consequently, a number of environmental problems,...

Theoretical arguments imply that an inverted U-shaped relationship may be quite plausible. It is still not clear from the empirical literature whether the relationship of income and environmental degradation is linear or inverted U-shaped. This paper utilises a more global representative sample,...