ECONOMIC GROWTH AND AIR POLLUTION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC: DECOUPLING CURVES

Abstract

The decoupling curve, together with the Environmental Kuznets Curve, has been recognized as one of the important indicators showing relations between economic growth and environmental degradation/pollution. Many both theoretical and empirical studies have been published on it. Our paper brings models which investigate relations between the economic growth per capita and selected indicators of air pollution in the Czech Republic. The analysis tried to go before the year 1990, despite the difficulties when dealing with different macroeconomic indicators published during the socialist period and those introduced after the transition to a market economy. The results might be somehow surprising for those dealing only with data generated after the year 1990: it is possible to discover the turning points for some of the airborne pollutants already in the 1980s.