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Due to large amounts of coal burning, huge carbon dioxide emission and poor environmental quality, it is important to identify whether environmental Kuznets curve exists in China and India since in downward period of environmental Kuznets curve, economic growth in these countries will largely contribute to world environmental quality. Further, it helps to make a comparative analysis between China and India on how economic growth will contribute to the environmental quality in both upward and downward period of environmental Kuznets curve due to energy consumption.

This study uses the data of carbon dioxide emission, per capita GDP and energy consumption from 1972 to 2017 to identify individual and panel-level environmental Kuznets curve of China and India. Before going to regression and causality analysis, unit root and cointegration tests are performed.

This study finds the existence of environmental Kuznets curve in China and India at both individual and panel level. Further, due to high energy consumption, environmental quality in China will deteriorate at a lower rate in the long run than that of India. Next, the increase in economic growth or per capita GDP in the long run will deteriorate environmental quality at a lower rate in China than that of India. Besides, with the zero level of energy consumption and per capita GDP, the environmental quality of China will be worse than that of India. However, increase in per capita GDP after threshold level will improve environmental quality in India at a higher rate than that of China.

It helps to formalize the comparative relationship between the two large Asian economies by knowing the influence of economic growth on environmental degradation due to energy consumption. However, this study cannot conclude exactly when China and India can avail the downturn in environmental Kuznets curve.

It firstly establishes a link among energy consumption, economic growth and environmental quality between China and India including comparative pace in both upward and downward period of environmental Kuznets curve.

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.

The goal of sustainable economic growth is achievable only when economic growth and development occur without environmental degradation. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis explains the inverted U-shaped association between economic activity and environmental degradation. The primary objective of this study is to empirically test the truth behind the EKC hypothesis. In addition to that, the study is intended to analyze the variation in the shape of the EKC; that is, cross-country variation, as well as variation over time. In order to achieve the stated objectives, the study analyzed a long list of countries (75 countries) for a fairly long period of time (1960–2016, i.e., 57 years). The empirical literature in this area estimated the EKC using some form of a polynomial regression equation. This study also used a similar kind of modeling structure to understand cross-country as well as dynamic variation in the shape of the EKC. In this study, firstly the selected countries are grouped on the basis of the shape of the EKC. Secondly, the dynamic behavior of each parameter in the polynomial equation is analyzed to understand the degree of association between economic activity and environmental degradation. This study suggests a decline in degree of association between the two over time.

This study aims to examine the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in the case of 100 developed and developing nations by taking into account the role of institutional quality (IQ). Using generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators, we find an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions only in the developed world but not in the developing nations. It is also revealed that control of corruption plays a vital role in reducing CO₂ emissions in high income countries. Furthermore, rule of law is found to have a beneficial effect on the environment in all countries except for low income countries. Overall, our results confirm the importance of IQ in reducing CO₂ emissions. Additionally, foreign direct investment contributes to CO₂ reduction in rich countries while deteriorates the environmental quality in developing nations. Trade openness was shown to exert a positive impact on environmental quality in developing countries. These findings can be of great importance to policy makers of different income groups in designing appropriate economic and environmental policies toward the dual goals of high growth and low pollution.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a survey of the empirical literature on environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) estimation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions over the period of 1991–2017.

This survey categorizes the studies on the basis of power of income in empirical models of EKC. It has been hypothesized that the EKC shows an inverted U-shaped association between economic growth and CO₂ emissions.

For all the contexts, the results of EKC estimation for CO₂ emissions are inconclusive in nature. The reasons behind this discrepancy can be attributed to the choice of contexts, time period, explanatory variables, and methodological adaptation.

The future studies in this context should not only consider new set of variables (e.g. corruption index, social indicators, political scenario, energy research and development expenditures, foreign capital inflows, happiness, population education structure, public investment toward alternate energy exploration, etc.), but also the data set should be refined, so that the EKC estimation issues raised by Stern (2004) can be addressed.

By far, no study in the literature of ecological economics has focused on the empirical estimation of EKC for CO₂ emissions. This particular context has been used for this study, as CO₂ is one of the highest studied pollutants in the ecological economics, and especially within the EKC hypothesis framework.

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.

Much of the environmental sociology literature calls for economic development to lead to environmental destruction, but growing bodies of work on “ecological modernization” and “environmental Kuznets curves” (EKCs) argue that, beyond a certain point, socioeconomic development can lead to environmental improvement. A third hypothesis (Boyce) argues that inequality may be more relevant than levels of prosperity. Published findings have been sufficiently mixed to warrant more detailed analyses. This chapter considers both cross-sectional and two-wave panel data and the three competing expectations, considering air emissions and toxic manufacturing releases for U.S. counties. Air emissions tend to correlate positively with economic prosperity, supporting the “core” environmental sociology hypothesis, while toxic emissions show greater support for the EKC/ecological modernization hypothesis. The most consistent theoretical support is found among indicators of inequality and power that support the Boyce hypothesis. The findings suggest implications for policy as well as for future research.

The purpose of this research is to examine the validity of the agriculture-induced environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis with evidence from an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach with a structural break including real income and energy consumption in the model for Ghana over the period 1980–2014.

The ARDL approach with a structural break was used to analyze the agriculture-induced EKC model which has not been studied in Ghana. The dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), canonical cointegration regression (CCR) and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) econometric methods were further used to validate the robustness of the estimates, and the direction of the relationship between the study variables was also clarified using the Toda–Yamamoto Granger causality test.

The ARDL results revealed that GDP, energy consumption and agricultural value added have significant positive effects on CO₂ emissions, while GDP² reduces CO₂ emissions. The Toda-Yamamoto causality test results show a bidirectional causality running from GDP and energy consumption to CO₂ emissions whereas a unidirectional long-term causality runs from GDP² and agriculture value-added to CO₂ emissions.

This finding validated the presence of the agriculture-induced EKC hypothesis in Ghana in both the short run and long run, and the important role of agriculture and energy consumption in economic growth was confirmed by the respective bidirectional and unidirectional causal relationships between the two variables and GDP. Thus, a reduction in unsustainable agricultural practices is recommended through specific policies to strengthen institutional quality in Ghana for a paradigm shift from rudimentary technology to modern sustainable agrarian technologies.

This study is novel in the EKC literature in Ghana, as no study has yet been done on agriculture-induced EKC in Ghana, and the other EKC studies also failed to account for structural breaks which have been done by this study. This study further includes a causality analysis to examine the direction of the relationship which the few EKC studies in Ghana failed to address. Finally, dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), canonical cointegration regression (CCR) and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) methods are used for robustness check, unlike other studies with single methodologies.

The modernization of the agro-based industry has encouraged the application of inorganic fertilizers to increase productivity. However, such fertilizer emissions may pose harmful environmental effects in the long run. This study aims to empirically explore the matter by applying the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the Indian agro-based industry.

The study builds two models considering nitrous oxide emission levels from inorganic (synthetic) and organic (manure) fertilizers to evaluate the safer option for the environment. The validity of an industry-specific EKC (IEKC) is tested for the models considering time series data from 1975 to 2019. Here, the autoregressive distributed lag model is applied for the 45 years long time series analysis to test the hypothesis with respect to inorganic and organic fertilizers emissions.

The existence of the IEKC is rejected by the inorganic fertilizer emissions model. Its U-shaped curve implies that applying such fertilizers will gradually cause degrading environmental effects. On the other hand, the organic fertilizer emissions model supports the existence of an inverted U-shaped IEKC. It proves that organic fertilizers are a better choice for safeguarding the environment in the long run.

Applying the EKC hypothesis on an industrial level can signify whether an industry worsens the environment in the long run. However, very few studies have explored such an application of the hypothesis in the past. Moreover, the literature could not find any previous study exploring the environmental effects of inorganic and organic fertilizers by analyzing the EKC hypothesis. The hypothesis can offer such insights with simplified empirical assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the emissions of SO₂, NO₂ and SPM in India during 1991‐2003. The Environmental Kuznets' Curve (EKC) is applied to explore the relationship between economic development measured in terms of State Domestic Product (SDP) per capita and different air quality parameters for industrial and residential locations respectively. Several developmental factors contribute to change in emissions of these air quality parameters. These factors generally include the scale effect, composition effect and the pollution abatement effect.

The methodology has focused on testing the EKC hypothesis at state level in India, using cross‐section and time series data for 15 major states. The study has made use of fixed effect version of pooled data estimation technique.

The findings in the paper indicate only a directional inverted U‐shaped EKC relationship for both industrial and residential locations, without being significant statistically. Basically, some developmental factors such as population density, urbanization and policy variables are significant with expected signs in explaining the relationship for most of the cases. The calculated turning point of SDP per capita for different air quality parameters ranges between $163.46 and $408.66

The present study has been restricted to a shorter time period (i.e. 1991‐2003) because of the unavailability of continuous time series data. The study only includes 15 major Indian states and excludes other states due to lack of proper data sources.

The inclusion of several developmental variables (such as urbanization, infrastructure development, population density, policy) helps to detect whether the emissions of different air quality is mainly due to economic growth or other reasons.

The investigation in the paper allows determination of the level of SDP per capita, the emissions of different types of air quality will start to decrease in different Indian states.