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The existence of the regional Kuznets curve, i.e. an inverted U-shaped relationship between regional disparity and economic development is widely debated and discussed. The bell-shaped curve of the spatial growth process where during the initial phase inequality increases and then reduces is theoretically supported by Myrdal (1957), Hirschman (1958), and Williamson (1965). It becomes important to understand regional Kuznets curve globally. Understanding the relationship between regional disparity and economic development becomes essential for public policy for balanced regional growth.

Regional Kuznets Curve which is an inverted U-shaped relationship between regional disparity and economic development is not a new phenomenon. Theoretical framework by Myrdal (1957), Hirschman (1958), and Williamson (1965) support the an inverted U-shaped relationship. To understand the relationship between regional disparity and economic development, the authors investigate the regional Kuznets curve by using data for 184 countries and 1765 subnational regions. Using parametric, semi-parametric, and non-parametric, it is found that there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between regional disparity and economic development. The presence of the regional Kuznets curve is observed. As the theoretical framework suggests, regional inequality increases with income initially and decreases after attaining a certain level of income. This study identifies two stages of divergence-convergence where in the first stage, divergence across regions in a country happens with increasing income and in the later stage, convergence across regions in a country occurs with increasing income.

Using the parametric approach (panel data analysis), semi-parametric and non-parametric approaches, it is found that there exists a regional Kuznets curve. It is found that there exists an inverted-U relationship between regional inequality and per capita GNI. This suggests that the divergence-convergence passes through two stages. In the first stage, divergence across regions in a country happens with increasing income while in the later stage convergence occurs.

This research work has done three important things which fill the research gap that exists in the literature: (1) constructing the Gini coefficient to measure the regional inequality for 184 countries using 1765 subnational regional data; (2) using a parametric approach (panel data analysis) to understand the regional Kuznets phenomenon and (3) using a semi-parametric approach and non-parametric approach to understand the regional Kuznets phenomenon.

Brazil’s regional inequality is an important topic due to the large and persistent differences in development between states and the high levels of inequality in the country. These variations in development can potentially render survey data inaccurate since the significance of capital income varies across the states. Besides, previous studies incorporating tax and national accounts data globally have mainly focused on measuring the income distribution at the country-level. This approach can limit the understanding of inequality, especially when considering large countries such as Brazil.

The methodology used to construct these estimates follows the guidelines of the Distributional National Accounts, whose core goal is to provide income distribution measures consistent with macroeconomic aggregates and harmonized across countries and time. The procedure has three main steps: first, it corrects the survey’s underrepresentation of top incomes using tax data. Then, it accounts for national income items not included in the survey or tax data, such as imputed rents and undistributed profits. Finally, it ensures that all components match the national income.

Compared to survey-based estimations, the results reveal a new angle on the state-level inequality. This study indicates that Amazonas, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have a more concentrated income distribution. The top 1\% of earners in these states receives around 28\% of total pre-tax income, while the top 10\% receive nearly 60\%. On the other end, Amapá (AP), Acre (AC), Rondônia (RO) and Santa Catarina (SC) are the states where the income distribution is less concentrated. There were no significant changes in the income distribution across the states during the period analyzed.

This study combines survey, tax and national accounts data to construct new estimates of Brazil’s state-level income distribution from 2006 to 2019. Previous results only considered income captured in surveys, which usually misses a significant part of capital incomes. This limitation may bias comparisons as capital income has different importance across the states. The new estimates represent the income of top groups more accurately, account for the entire national income and enable to compare regional inequality levels consistently with other countries.

This study conducts an analysis of the interplay between governance quality, environmental expenditure of the government, and pollution emissions (measured as CO2 emissions) within the BRIC economies.

Utilizing the FMOLS model and marginal effects, we investigate the influence of governance quality and environmental expenditure on environmental quality (CO2 emissions) over the period 1996–2020. We took data for Brazil, Russia, India and China. We excluded South Africa due to its due to its small economic size relative to other BRIC economies, sluggish industrial growth and deteriorating foreign trade which gives contrast outliers to our data.

Results indicate that government investments in environmental protection contribute to a reduction in CO2 emissions. However, the effectiveness of these expenditures is contingent upon the quality of governance. This underscores the significance of robust governance for realizing meaningful reductions in air pollution through environmental spending. Further, increase in GDP per capita and the industrial sector's share of GDP are associated with a significant rise in CO2 emissions across BRIC economies. Conversely, FDI and trade openness exhibit a negative impact on CO2 emissions, with this effect gaining greater resilience when accounting for governance factors.

Like any other studies, the present study also suffers from some limitations. First, besides air quality, environmental quality encompasses multiple dimensions and various characteristics such as water purity, noise pollution, open space access, visual effects of buildings etc. But the present study included only CO2 (air quality) as a proxy of environmental quality due to various problems of data and methods. Second, CO2 (carbon dioxide) emission, which is the dependent variable in our model, is actually influenced by various quantitative and qualitative (both natural and man-made) factors. We included only nine independent variables. However, we could not include many variables due to lack of consistent data. Third, this study included only four countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) and excluded South Africa which is a member of the BRICS block due to its economic size, sluggish industrial growth and deteriorating foreign trade which gives contrast outliers to our data set of the four BRIC countries. Therefore, the future research may be carried out by addressing those issues for better understanding of the environmental problems, governance and policies thereon.

(i) Establish environmental governance committees – The four BRIC countries including South Africa should form a committee comprising government, civil society, and private sector representatives for comprehensive oversight and collaboration in environmental governance. (ii) Invest in capacity building for environmental institutions – Allocate resources to enhance environmental institutions' capacity through training, data improvement, and enforcement strengthening. (iii) Implement green procurement policies – Encourage green procurement in government agencies to drive demand for eco-friendly products and services, promoting sustainable practices. (iv) Incentivize green technology development – Offer tax credits or subsidies to stimulate green technology adoption, including renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. (v) Promote sustainable urban development – Prioritize sustainable urban strategies like public transportation investment and green space promotion to mitigate urbanizations' environmental impacts. (vi) Enhance cross-border cooperation – Foster collaboration on transboundary environmental issues among four BRIC nations including South Africa, including joint research and policy responses. (vii) Promote green finance and investment – Mobilize green finance to support sustainable development projects through instruments like green investment funds and bonds.

This study distinguishes itself by offering a unique analysis of both individual and combined effects of governance and environmental expenditure on environmental quality. Additionally, it encompasses various dimensions of governance, an aspect rarely explored in the BRIC countries.

This study investigates the impact of board funds, banking credit, and economic development on food production in the context of South Asian economies (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal).

This study used data from the World Development Indicators covering the years 1991–2019. To investigate the relationship between the variables of the study, we employed the panel unit root test, panel cointegration test, cross-sectional dependence test, fully modified least squares (FMOLS), and panel dynamic least squares (DOLS) estimators.

The empirical results indicate that board funding significantly increase food production; however, banking credit had a negative impact. Furthermore, the findings indicate that economic development, Arable land, fertilizer consumption, and agricultural employment play a leading role in enhancing food production. The results of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test also show substantiated the significance of the causal relationship among all variables.

South Asian countries should prioritize board funding, bank credit, and economic development in their long-term strategies. Ensuring financial access for farmers through micro-credit and public bank initiatives can spur agricultural productivity and economic growth.

This study is the first to combine board funding, banking credit, and economic development to better comprehend their potential impact on food production. Instead of using traditional approaches, this study focuses on these financial and developmental aspects as critical determinants for increasing food production, using evidence from South Asia.

The purpose of this paper to investigate whether trade liberalization and the financial crisis have contributed to altering the pollution level in selected open economies of South Asia in the long run.

The study has adopted the panel data framework where results are tested using the generalized method of moments (GMM). The data of five South Asian countries from 1980–2015 have been used for computing results.

Owing to the globalization endeavors, the scope of energy consumption and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows has increased significantly. The outcomes of the study reveal that globalization has significantly intensified the level of carbon emissions in the selected countries. However, the impact of financial crisis on carbon emission is found insignificant in the long run. Therefore, the study reveals that the level of environmental pollution in South Asia economies is more sensitive to positive economic variations than negative.

Earlier studies have ignored the parallel effect of globalization and financial meltdown on carbon emissions in a country or region. Stating differently, the present study intends to capture the impact of positive (globalization) and negative (financial crisis) global economic movements on carbon emissions in the five open economies. The majority of studies in the past have focused on the relationship between positive economic endeavors and environmental pollution. Furthermore, the study recommends that while framing a trade policy, its possible impact on environmental pollution also needs to be considered.

Protecting a nation’s heritage is an essential element for sustainable development. Heritage attracts tourism and drives tourist income, as well as bringing wider economic, social and environmental benefits. This study aims to improve understanding of the relationship between heritage protection spending in countries and economic development via tourism revenues via economic logic and the Kuznets curve.

This study applies economic modelling to test for the presence of a Kuznets curve. This study uses rare available matched data on heritage protection spending from UNESCO and on travel and tourism total contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) from the World Travel and Tourism Council.

This paper finds evidence of a negative quadratic relationship between heritage protection spending per capita and tourism GDP per capita, whereby increases in heritage spending initially lead to more tourism income (typically less developed nations), but then tourism spending increases more rapidly for smaller increases heritage spending on top of this initial investment (typically more developed nations). No countries are yet at the stage where they reap high tourism income from much lower levels of heritage spending.

The findings suggest that the future of heritage tourism will be very different to that of today; future tourism is likely to develop significantly through innovations in management approach and advanced technologies to manage the balance between demand and heritage degradation.

The predictive model allows us to plot future possibilities for heritage tourism, which in turn enables more informed decision-making regarding the planning and management of future heritage resources and tourism demand. Tourism heritage institutions and their benefactors should further plan and invest in innovations (such as technologies and management practices) to advanced economically and move along the tourism heritage Kuznets curve.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper formally tests, for the first time, for the presence of a Kuznets curve in the relationship between heritage protection spending and tourism income. It provides original evidence of the value of applying the underlying theory of the Kuznets curve in a tourism context.

遗产保护工作是实现可持续发展的基本要素。作为重要的旅游吸引物, 遗产资源可以推动旅游业增收, 同时也会带来更广泛的经济、社会和环境效益。借由经济学逻辑和库兹涅茨曲线, 本研究开拓性地剖析了国家遗产保护支出和旅游财政收入带来的经济增长之间的关系。

本研究运用经济模型来检验库兹涅茨曲线的存在。研究所用相匹配的遗产保护支出和旅游业对GDP总贡献的珍贵数据分别来自联合国教科文组织和世界旅游理事会。

结果显示人均遗产保护支出与人均旅游GDP之间存在负曲线关系, 即最初增加遗产保护支出会带来相应的旅游收入增长（特别对于欠发达国家而言）, 然而有了最初的投资积累之后, 后续较小幅度的遗产保护支出增长便能带来较大的旅游收入增长（特别对于较发达国家而言）。目前还没有国家达到以较低的遗产支出水平获得高额旅游收入的阶段。

本文首次正式验证了遗产保护支出与旅游收入之间存在库兹涅茨曲线, 由此支持了库兹涅茨曲线基本理论在旅游情境中的应用价值。

研究结果表明, 未来的遗产旅游将与今天截然不同。通过创新管理方法和应用先进技术以协调旅游需求与遗产资源退化之间的关系, 未来的遗产旅游可能会得到显著发展。

通过预测模型, 我们能够描绘出遗产旅游可能的未来, 这反过来又使我们能够就未来遗产资源和遗产旅游需求的规划与管理做出更明智的决策。旅游遗产机构及其赞助者应进一步做好驱动创新的规划和投资（如技术和管理实践）, 以实现经济繁荣, 并使遗产旅游实践沿着库兹涅茨曲线的方向发展。

La protección del patrimonio de una nación es un elemento esencial para el desarrollo sostenible. El patrimonio atrae al turismo e impulsa los ingresos turísticos, además de aportar mayores beneficios económicos, sociales y ambientales. Este estudio realiza una contribución original mediante el análisis de la relación entre el gasto en protección del patrimonio en los países y el desarrollo económico a través de los ingresos del turismo basándose en la lógica económica y la curva de Kuznets.

El estudio aplica modelos económicos para contrastar la presencia de una curva de Kuznets. El estudio utiliza datos combinados disponibles sobre el gasto en protección del patrimonio de la UNESCO y sobre la contribución total de los viajes y el turismo al PIB del Consejo Mundial de Viajes y Turismo.

El trabajo evidencia una relación cuadrática negativa entre el gasto en protección del patrimonio per cápita y el PIB turístico per cápita, de forma que inicialmente, los aumentos en el gasto en patrimonio conducen a más ingresos por turismo (generalmente en naciones menos desarrolladas), pero el gasto turístico aumenta más rápidamente ante pequeños aumentos del gasto en patrimonio además de esta inversión inicial (generalmente en naciones más desarrolladas). Ningún país se encuentra en la etapa donde se alcance altos ingresos por turismo a partir de niveles inferiores de gasto en patrimonio.

Este trabajo prueba formalmente, por primera vez, la presencia de una curva de Kuznets en la relación entre el gasto en protección del patrimonio y los ingresos del turismo. Proporciona evidencia original del valor de aplicar la teoría subyacente de la curva de Kuznets en un contexto turístico.

Los resultados sugieren que el futuro del turismo patrimonial será muy diferente al de hoy; es probable que el turismo futuro se desarrolle significativamente a través de innovaciones en el enfoque de gestión y tecnologías avanzadas para gestionar el equilibrio entre la demanda y la degradación del patrimonio.

El modelo predictivo nos permite trazar las posibilidades futuras para el turismo patrimonial, lo que a su vez permite una toma de decisiones más informada sobre la planificación y gestión de los recursos patrimoniales futuros y la demanda turística. Las instituciones de patrimonio turístico y sus benefactores deben planificar e invertir aún más en innovaciones (como tecnologías y prácticas de gestión) para avanzar económicamente y moverse a lo largo de la curva de Kuznets del patrimonio turístico.

Climate change is a bitter truth for the entire humanity, and it vehemently calls for thoughtful means for environmental protection along with sustainable economic growth. International trade blocs fundamentally represent amalgamation of countries to achieve unified goals like higher living standards, reduced trade barriers, freer labour mobility across member states, social and cultural upliftment, political allegiance to regional association, etc. Throughout the 1990s, these trade blocs have committed to reducing environmental pressures and shifting towards cleaner forms of energy. This chapter examines the relationship between rate of change in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per capita and rate of change in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in linear, quadratic and cubic polynomial forms with the other control variables like inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI), export of goods and services, population density, urban population percentage and location dummies for the 66 countries falling in seven regional trade blocs. Other than the European Union and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the remaining five trade blocs in the study – Association of South-East Nations (ASEAN), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Common Market for Eastern and South Africa (COMESA), Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – contain mostly the developing and some of the fastest growing economies of the world. The panel regression result finds an inverse relationship between rate of change in per capita CO₂ emissions and rate of change in GDP per capita (in linear and cubic polynomial forms), exports and population density, while the other coefficients of the explanatory variables are positive. The study also establishes an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) which is opposite to N-shape during 2005–2019, and that contradicts with the original EKC of inverted U-shaped. However, this shape admits the collective efforts of region-specific trade blocs towards achieving clean environment which is one of the important global goals.

The fluctuation of construction fatalities is influenced by both urbanization and economic levels. This study aims to understand the impact of Chinese construction economy development on construction accidents, providing valuable insights for enhancing construction safety and promoting sustainable development in construction.

The Kuznets curve model, multiple linear regression model, and data envelopment analysis (DEA) model are employed to process data sets spanning from 1992 to 2021 for examining the relationship between construction fatalities and the construction economy in China.

Significant correlations have been found between construction fatalities and the construction economy in China. Over the past three decades, as the total output value of construction increased, there have been upward, downward, and downward trends in per capita construction area, the mortality rate per million square meters, and the mortality rate per ten thousand persons respectively. However, it is worth noting that since 2015, there has been a slight upward trend in the fitted U-shaped curve depicting the relationship between the mortality rate per ten thousand persons and the construction economy. This specific trend necessitates the attention of construction safety policymakers. The growth of the construction economy is found to exhibit negative, positive, and positive correlations with the number of construction fatalities, construction area, and the number of employed persons respectively. The changing trends observed in the Kuznets curve model analysis align with the evaluation results obtained from the DEA-based model.

The research offers effective means to identify superior and inferior performance in macro construction safety, providing valuable references for construction safety policymakers to design effective safety strategies and enhance work safety conditions.

The growth of the Chinese economy has resulted in a significant increase in construction and demolition waste (CDW), and regional differences in CDW generation are gradually increasing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the regional differences in CDW generation and the driving factors that influence CDW generation in different areas of China. To provide a systematic advisement for local governments to select the appropriate policy, reduce CDW generation.

The generation of CDW was calculated by region, based on the area estimation method, from 2005 to 2018. The relationship between CDW generation and economic development, and the driving factors of CDW generation in different regions of China, was investigated using the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model and the STIRPAT theoretical model.

CDW generation of China increased at the average annual growth rate of 10.86% from 2005 to 2018. The main areas of CDW generation were concentrated in the eastern and central regions, while the proportion of CDW generation in the northeast region decreased gradually, and the changes varied significantly across different regions. The EKC between CDW generation and economic development was established for the whole country, North China, Northeast China, East China, Central South China, Southwest China and Northwest China. Three main factors based on the STIRPAT theoretical model were identified and explained into a framework to reduce CDW generation. The results provided a useful theoretical basis and data support guide for devising effective policies and regulations for the Chinese context.

The findings from this study can ultimately support policymakers and waste managers in formulating effective policies for waste management strategies and CDW-specific legislation. Additionally, it can help the coordinated reduction of CDW generation across regions in China and can support construction enterprises (in their development strategies), similar developing economies and foreign firms planning to operate in China.

This study contributes to the field through the STIRPAT model on driving factors of CDW generation in the Chinese context, in different regions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between redistribution, convergence and local cultural capital (as defined by culture-based development concept).

The paper infers the basic mechanism of the cultural dependence of convergence and inequality – through an empirical test for the case of the “German job miracle” during the current crisis. Two empirical questions are asked: first, is local income inequality associated with local cultural capital and second, is the negative convergence between East and West Germany during the crisis related to culturally sensitive employers’ preference for job preservation vs job loss. An OLS enquiry and two deeper estimation methods (a logit model and a 3SLS simultaneous equations model) are alternatively applied in order to triangulate the empirical results.

The findings support the existence of cultural effect on local income inequality and cultural path dependence of employers’ preferences for job preservation vs job loss in a condition of economic shock.

The paper provides both theoretical reasoning and empirical illustration of the significance of the cultural effect on human preferences which may or may not allow for redistribution and convergence between localities.