Freedom from Pollution? The State, The People, and the Environmental Kuznets Curve
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We develop and estimate an econometric model of the relationship
between several local and global air and water pollutants and economic
development while allowing for critical aspects of the socio-politicaleconomic
regime of a State. We obtain empirical support for our
hypothesis that democracy and its associated freedoms provide the conduit
through which agents can exercise their preferences for environmental
quality more effectively than under an autocratic regime, thus leading to
decreased concentrations or emissions of pollution. However, additional
factors such as income inequality, age distribution, and urbanization may
mitigate or exacerbate the net effect of the type of political regime on
pollution, depending on the underlying societal preferences and the
weights assigned to those preferences by the State.