Crecimiento económico y medio ambiente en México

Abstract

This article performs an analysis of the relationship that exists between economic growth and the environment in the 32 states of the Mexican Republic. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) suggests that there is indeed a relationship between economic growth and the environment. As economies come to enjoy greater economic growth, so environmental degradation becomes apparent, and once a certain level of growth is reached, the willingness to pay to conserve the environment increases. In the case of the Mexican economy, by applying convergence analysis using cross-sectional panel data we find that: i) there exists β-convergence as regards trees planted, protected natural areas, environmental licenses and the volume of water treatment in per capita levels; ii) there is no evidence of σ-convergence in the environmental variables for the states of the Mexican economy, except in protected natural areas, trees planted and environmental licenses; iii) no relation-ship is to be found between economic growth and the increase in the care taken of environmental variables, except for the volume of waste collected and the volume of sewage; iv) the results suggest that the environment is not a priority issue in the Mexican economy according to the EKC hypothesis.