Environment and productivities in developed and developing countries: The case of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide

We propose a productivity index for undesirable outputs such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and measure it using data from 51 developed and developing countries over the period 1971–2000. About half of the countries exhibit the productivity growth. The changes in the productivity index are linked with their respective per capita income using a semi-parametric model. Our results show technological catch up of low-income countries. However, overall productivities both of SO2 and CO2 show somewhat different results.