Article
The impact of urbanization on CO2 emissions: evidence from developing countries
Ecological Economics
(2011)
Abstract
This paper analyzes the impact of urbanization on CO2 emissions in developing countries from 1975 to 2003. It contributes to the existing literature by examining the effect of urbanization, taking into account dynamics and the presence of heterogeneity in the sample of countries. The results show an inverted-U shaped relationship between urbanization and CO2 emissions. Indeed, the elasticity emission-urbanization is positive for low urbanization levels, which is in accordance with the higher environmental impact observed in less developed regions. Among our contributions is the estimation of a semi-parametric mixture model that allows for unknown distributional shapes and endogenously classifies countries into homogeneous groups. Three groups of countries are identified for which urbanization's impact differs considerably.
Keywords
- CO2 emissionsDeveloping countriesPanel dataSemi-parametric mixture modelUrbanization
Disciplines
Publication Date
2011
Citation Information
Inmaculada Martinez-Zarzoso and Antonello Maruotti. "The impact of urbanization on CO2 emissions: evidence from developing countries" Ecological Economics Vol. 70 Iss. 7 (2011) p. 1344 - 1353 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/inma_martinez_zarzoso/36/