Economic Growth and the Environment: Ecological Kuznets Curve for Eastern Europe and Baltic States

Abstract

The issue of relation between economic growth and state of environment remains one of the debatable in modern economic science both in theory and in terms of making practical recommendations for carrying out economic policy. One of the most promising is the approach based on the idea of the environmental Kuznets curve, suggested by G. Grossman and A. Krueger. Our study is concerned with the assessment of the environmental Kuznets curve for Eastern Europe and Baltic states. The analysis is based on the data covering 16 Eastern Europe and Baltic states. This country group was selected as the target of the research since these countries are relatively similar in their institutional structure of economic management and rarely form target of studies. World Bank Development Indicators and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are data sources.