Giedrė Lapinskienė

Greenhouse gases emissions and economic growth – evidence substantiating the presence of environmental Kuznets curve in the EU

AbstractThe paper considers the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) as the main variable of climate change and gross domestic product (GDP), using the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) technique. At early stages of economic growth, EKC indicates the increase of pollution related to the growing use of resources. However, when a certain level of income per capita is reached, the trend reverses and at a higher stage of development, further economic growth leads to improvement of the environment. According to the researchers, this implies that the environmental impact indicator is an inverted U-shaped function of income per capita. In this paper, the cubic equation is used to empirically check the validity of the EKC relationship for European countries. The analysis is based on the survey of EU-27, Norway and Switzerland in the period of 1995–2010. The data is taken from the Eurostat database. To gain some insights into the environmental trends in each country, the article highlights the speci...

Sustainable Development across Central and Eastern Europe: Key Factors Driving the Economic Growth of the Countries

Sustainable development is the leading concept of our days, and it is measured by a number of various indicators. The paper analyses sustainable development indicators (Eurostat database), taking Central and Eastern Europe as the research object. The suggested hypothesis implies that, in a particular region, there might be a set of sustainable development indicators reflecting the factors strongly influencing GDP. The results obtained outline the main issues relating to economic development of Lithuania and other Central and Eastern European countries and demonstrate similar development trends in the region.

Analysis of the Validity of Environmental Kuznets Curve for the Baltic States

Abstract The paper analyses a traditional Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) relationship between greenhouse gases (GHG) and gross domestic product (GDP), extending the research to include some additional factors, such as environmental tax, research and development expenditure, implicit tax rate on energy, primary production of coal and lignite, energy intensity of the economy taken from the Eurostat database. The EKC indicates that, at the early stages of economic growth, pollution increases with the growing use of resources, but when a certain level of income per capita is reached, the trend reverses so that, at a higher development stage, further economic growth leads to the improvement of the environment. In the first part of the research, the validity of the reduced EKC for the Baltic region for the period 1995-2008 is determined. In the second part, the impact of selected factors is statistically tested. In both cases, the standard cubic equation is used because it is believed that this model is the most accurate for the development stage of this region. The research results may be useful for climate change policy design.

Impact of Sustainable Development Indicators on Economic Growth: Baltic Countries in the Context of Developed Europe

The paper aims to analyse sustainable development indicators taken from the Eurostat database and to determine a rational relationship between the sustainable development indicators and the economic growth of the country. The suggested hypothesis implies that the process of the country’s development differs depending on the stage of the development. In order to establish the relationship between the sustainable development and the economic growth, the correlation analysis was used. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were taken as the research objects and the results obtained were compared with those describing the developed countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Germany). The results obtained outline the main economic trends as well as determining their variation depending on the development stage of the country.

Testing environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: the role of enterprise’s sustainability and other factors on GHG in European countries

The paper analyses the environmental Kuznets curve relationship between greenhouse gases and chosen indicators of economic development based on the panel data of 20 countries of the EU in the period 2006–2013. Besides the typical variables, such as the share of a particular polluting industry, environmental taxes, energy taxes, research and development, the dummy variable of the crises and enterprise’s sustainability score were also included in the model. The fixed effect panel model was used as a framework for the analysis. The original contribution of this paper is that the factor referring to the enterprises’ sustainability was empirically tested in the expanded model. Higher energy taxes, research and development and the number of sustainable enterprises decrease the level of greenhouse gases. The size of agriculture, production and construction has a positive sign, which means that a higher value of the indicator is associated with a higher level of greenhouse gases. This implies that the analysed set of factors can be applied to adjust the trend in the region and might be useful for the climate change policy adjustment.

Energy consumption, economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union countries

This paper investigates the relationship between economic growth, greenhouse gas emissions and other factors based on the panel data of 22 countries of the EU in the period 1995–2014. The fixed effect panel model was used as a framework for the analysis. The novel contribution of this paper is that the factors of economic growth, energy consumption, energy taxes as well as R&D were tested in one expanded EKC model, including the data of three Baltic States. The regression coefficients referring to GDP, Energy consumption have a positive sign, while R&D and Energy taxes have a negative sign. The empirical analysis combines two steps of evaluation of panel models of different groups of countries. The results imply that the analysed factors (energy consumption, energy taxes as well as R&D) can be applied to adjust the EKC trend in the region and might be useful for the climate change policy adjustment.