Environmental policy options in the multi-regimes framework

This paper extends the multi-regime framework to variables involved in the debate on the relation between environmental quality and economic growth. In this light, it reexamines the interpretation of the so-called Environmental Kutznets Curve. The adapted framework can account for one fundamental finding, which does not find a place in the relevant literature: namely, the diversity across countries and regions of the development experience in terms of both growth performance and evolution of environmental quality. On the other hand, the paper reviews the proposition of the associated potential conflict between these two targets, and the presence of a trade-off between them. The issues captured by this simpler notion of tradeoff are essentially of a qualitative nature. We propose hereafter a formal way to think about these issues. The bonus is a framework that seems more appropriate for designing integrated policy plans apt to guide an economy along the difficult traverse between two different growth mixes.