Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
using pooled cross-country and time series data in order to quantify the
impact of the actual movement of goods between countries. They used
observations from 33 countries over the period 1971 to 1990. The energy
data, expressed in oil equivalents, were obtained from the IEA, while the
income and trade data were obtained from the Penn World Table and the
income data were expressed in 1985 US dollars PPP. The authors pre-
sented two types of models. The i rst model implicitly captured the impacts
of both structural change and international trade, while the second model
explicitly analysed the ef ect of international trade on commercial energy
use. The variable representing structural change was the share of total
manufacturing in GDP (that is, manufacturing for domestic market and
production for exports). International trade variables were represented
by import- and export-manufacturing ratios. In both models, the EKC
pattern was depicted, with a turning point of $55 000 in the i rst model and
$224 000 in the second one. Accordingly, they concluded that, all things
being equal, international trade would tend to increase the pollutant
emissions related to commercial energy consumption. The authors also
found that energy use increased in both industrialized and industrializing
countries, however, it was substantially higher in the latter. Moreover, as
opposed to industrializing countries, whose imports were largely interme-
diate and capital goods, which were essential for building an industrial
base, industrialized nations benei ted from importing manufactured goods
from industrializing countries. Therefore, their relative increase in energy
requirements to GDP was substantially lower. The authors concluded that
the imports of manufactured goods, in addition to the structural change
from manufacturing to non-energy-intensive service sector, were the result
of this decline.
Some authors concentrated on trade patterns and consumption, rather
than production, in examining the income-environment relationship.
Rothman (1998) studied the relationship between per capita GDP and
consumption activities using data on eight categories of consumer goods
from the United Nations International Comparison Programme (1994).
Among the commodities used were food, beverages and tobacco, clothing
and footwear, gross rent, fuel and power, medical care and services, trans-
port and communications, recreation, entertainment and education. The
unit for each commodity was the quantity that could be bought for $1 at
average international prices. The data used for the per capita GDP were in
1985 US dollars PPP. The only commodity they found showing evidence
of EKC was food, beverages and tobacco with a turning point of $12 889.
Other commodities, in terms of shares, also changed with income, such as
clothing and footwear, gross rent, fuel and power and medical care and
services, with turning points of $35 263, $23 278 and $47 171, respectively.
