Speaker
Description
The study explores the evolution of the research on the Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) through a exhaustive bibliometric analysis, using SCOPUS platform, aiming to map its theoretical foundations, empirical contributions and emerging research directions. The EKC hypothesis, originally introduced by Grossman and Krueger in 1991, proposes an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation, suggesting that environmental pressure tend to worse in early stages of development before gradually improving as income level rise. The bibliometric analysis was performed on a Scopus database, the query generating a number of 634 articles, covering the last 25 years of academic research. The bibliometric network visualization reveals the main thematic clusters, keyword co-occurrence and dominant trends in specialized literature, illustrating at the same time the multidisciplinary nature of EKC research, a field that integrates environmental economics, energy studies, sustainability science and econometrics methodology. Frequent associations with keywords such as” economic growth”,” carbon emissions”,” energy consumption” and renewable energy” indicate that the EKC literature mainly focuses on the relations between economic development and environmental degradation. At the same time, the study demonstrates that EKC research has emerged as a globally interconnected scientific field, supported by academic contributions from both developed and emerging economies. This reflects the worldwide relevance of the issue of harmonizing economic growth with the imperatives of ecological sustainability and highlights the increasingly important role of international partnerships in advancing environmental economics research. Although the field is highly developed, several important research gapes within the EKC literature were reveal. One major research gap concerns the limited integration of social dimensions into EKC studies, related keywords appearing relatively peripheral and weakly connected, compared to dominant environmental and economic terms. Another gape relates to technological transformation and digitalization, as future research could investigate how artificial intelligence, smart cities and green innovation influence the EKC relationship and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, EKC research remains heavily carbon-centered and could be improved with future research that pays increased attention to biodiversity loss, ecosystem service, circular economy and climate resilience. Regarding methodologically, there is a concentration around traditional econometric methods, such as panel data analysis and regressions. Thus, future studies may take into consideration emerging techniques such as machine learning, spatial econometrics and dynamic simulations. Regional diversity should also be considerate, as most of the studies are related to China, BRICS and emerging economies, neglected small island and low-income countries.
