World emissions and economic growth: application of non-parametric methods

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesises an inverse U-shaped relationship between a measure of environmental pollution and per capita income levels. In this study, we apply non-parametric estimation of local polynomial regression (local quadratic fitting) to allow more flexibility in local estimation. This study uses a larger and globally representative sample of many local and global pollutants and natural resources including Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) emission, CO<SUB align="right">2</SUB> emission, CO<SUB align="right">2</SUB> damage, energy use, energy depletion, mineral depletion, improved water source, PM10, particulate emission damage, forest area and net forest depletion.