Economic Growth and the Environment: A Review of Theory and Empirics

William A. Brock, M. Scott Taylor

NBER Working Paper No. 10854
Issued in October 2004
NBER Program(s):   EFG   EEE

This paper reviews both theory and empirical work on economic growth and the environment. We develop four simple growth models to help us identify key features generating sustainable growth. We show how some combination of technological progress in abatement, intensified abatement, shifts in the composition of national output and induced innovation are necessary for sustainable growth, and then demonstrate how growth models employing any one of these mechanisms generate other potentially refutable predictions on abatement costs, pollution levels, or emission intensities.

(669 K)

Published: Brock, William A. & Taylor, M. Scott, 2005. "Economic Growth and the Environment: A Review of Theory and Empirics," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 28, pages 1749-1821 Elsevier.

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