Relations between GDP growth and environmental performance using latent growth curve model applied for environmental Kuznets curve

The mixed results of existing studies for economic growth and environmental sustainability need to be re-examined by taking into account the complexity of the relationship between environmental issues and economic growth. This study investigates the impact of the growth rate of gross domestic product on the environmental performance index across countries with a new approach using latent growth curve models. The authors propose an improved methodology and exploit a systematic approach for institutional and longitudinal datasets. Therefore, the study considers the economic development rate of each country, which is a different approach from the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) literature conducted. The results demonstrate as GDP growth rate increases, the EPI score neither increases nor decreases.