TY  - JOUR
AU  - Grossman,Gene M.
AU  - Krueger,Alan B.
TI  - Economic Growth and the Environment
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4634
PY  - 1994
Y2  - February 1994
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4634
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4634.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Gene M. Grossman
International Economics Section
Department of Economics
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-4823
Fax: 609/258-1374
E-Mail: grossman@princeton.edu

Alan B. Krueger
Industrial Relations Section
Firestone Library
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-4046
Fax: 609/258-2907
E-Mail: akrueger@princeton.edu
AB  - Using data assembled by the Global Environmental Monitoring System we examine the reduced-form relationship between various environmental indicators and the level of a country's per capita income.  Our study covers four types of indicators: concentrations of urban air pollution; measures of the state of the oxygen regime in river basins; concentrations of fecal contaminants in river basins; and concentrations of heavy metals in river basins.  We find no evidence that environmental quality deteriorates steadily with economic growth.  Rather, for most indicators, economic growth brings an initial phase of deterioration followed by a subsequent phase of improvement.  The turning points for the different pollutants vary, but in most cases they come before a country reaches a per capita income of $8,000.
ER  -