Is There an Extended Education-Based Environmental Kuznets Curve? An Analysis of U.S. States

This is the first paper to use U.S. state-level data to econometrically assess education’s role in an environmental Kuznets curve setting. The empirical analysis involves testing several models to evaluate the impact of education on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and energy consumption and determine the shape of their interrelationships. We employ recent econometric approaches that deal with the bias arising in panel datasets due to cross-section dependence. Our findings indicate that education attainment contributes significantly and positively towards environmental improvements. Granger causality tests reveal that CO2 discharges and energy usage are caused by education. Furthermore, education exhibits a U-shaped relationship with energy consumption and carbon emissions, providing evidence that education can improve environmental quality in the long term