FACTORING THE ENVIRONMENTAL KUZNETS CURVE - EVIDENCE FROM AUTOMOTIVE LEAD EMISSIONS

This article describes the relationship between automotive lead emissi ons and national income for 48 countries over 20 years. It draws three principal conclusions. First, lead emissions can be shown to follow a n inverse-U or an ''environmental Kuznets curve'' with respect to inco me. Second, the peak of this curve is sensitive to both the functional form estimated and the time period considered. Third, automotive lead pollution is the product of two separate factors, lead per gallon of gasoline (pollution intensity) and gasoline consumption (polluting act ivity); and the declining portion of the curve depends critically on r educing gasoline lead content, not gasoline use. (C) 1998 Academic Pre ss.