Population growth and the environmental Kuznets curve

- We model the pollution-income relationship using an OLG model.
- We examine the effect of population growth on the EKC theoretically and empirically.
- The model predicts an inverted-U shaped relationship between pollution and income.
- Population growth makes the EKC steeper and has limited effect on environment.
- Empirical evidence from China confirms the model's predictions.

This paper provides a specific application of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in order to explain the effect of population growth on the environment. The main purpose is contributing to enhance the connection between theoretical and empirical analysis. We develop an overlapping generations (OLG) model that featured with an inverted U-shaped relationship between pollution emission and income and we examine the effect of population growth on this relationship. Simulations illustrate the model's predictions that positive population growth makes the EKC steeper and have higher peak, but it does not fundamentally change the pollution-income relationship. The econometric analysis finds evidence supporting our model's predictions using Chinese data at the province level.