Abstract

This paper aims to assess the impact of certain economic factors on pollution for selected 112 countries worldwide. Due to data availability, carbon dioxide emissions in tonnes per capita were chosen as the dependent variable measuring pollution. Based on panel data and generalized moments method, the relationship between economic activity and environmental pollution was estimated. The results show that in the whole sample, as well as for two subsamples of developed and undeveloped countries, carbon dioxide emissions are statistically significantly affected by gross domestic product per capita, energy intensity and renewable energy consumption. The linear effect of economic activity positively effects the pollution, while the quadratic relationship is negative. Thus, the validity of inverted-U curve of the environmental Kuznets curve has been demonstrated. The estimated effect of economic activity measured by gross domestic product per capita on pollution does not differ in developed and undeveloped countries.