Relationship between technological progress, capital elasticity and emissions of industrial pollutants for the production sectors in Catalonia

Six pollutants are considered, four directly related to greenhouse effect. A multi-level model, with two levels, pollutants and productive sectors, was specified. Both technological progress and elasticity of capital were introduced as random effects. Hence, it has been permitted that these coefficients vary according to one or the other level. The most important finding in this paper is that elasticity of capital has been estimated as very non-elastic, with a range that varies between 0.162 (the paper industry) and 0.556 (commerce). In fact, and generally speaking, greater the capital in the sector, lower the elasticity of capital estimated.