Economic growth and environmental pressure: a worldwide panel analysis

This paper deepens the consumption-based line of inquiry on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) question by means of a large panel dataset of world countries covering the 1961–2003 period. As indicator of environmental pressure, we employ ecological footprint estimates. The ecological footprint is a consumption-based measure, since it attributes the environmental impact of a given good or service to the final consumer, independently of where the supplying area is located. We measure income by means of per capita GDP expressed both in absolute and in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. None of the estimated models show evidence of a de-linking between economic growth and environmental pressure for high levels of income. Hence, as a whole, our analysis does not support the EKC hypothesis.