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This study adds to the emerging literature examining empirically the link between population size, other demographic factors and pollution. We contribute by using more reliable estimation techniques and examine two air pollutants. By considering sulfur dioxide, we become the first study to explicitly examine the impact of demographic factors on a pollutant other than carbon dioxide at the cross-national level. We also take into account the urbanization rate and the average household size neglected by many prior cross-national econometric studies. For carbon dioxide emissions we find evidence that population increases are matched by proportional increases in emissions while a higher urbanization rate and lower average house- hold size increase. | Examining the Impact of Demographic Factors On Air Pollution Matthew A. Cole University of Birmingham Eric Neumayer London School of Economics This study adds to the emerging literature examining empirically the link between population size other demographic factors and pollution. We contribute by using more reliable estimation techniques and examine two air pollutants. By considering sulfur dioxide we become the first study to explicitly examine the impact of demographic factors on a pollutant other than carbon dioxide at the cross-national level. We also take into account the urbanization rate and the average household size neglected by many prior cross-national econometric studies. For carbon dioxide emissions we find evidence that population increases are matched by proportional increases in emissions while a higher urbanization rate and lower average household size increase emissions. For sulfur dioxide emissions we find a U-shaped relationship with the population-emissions elasticity rising at higher population levels. Urbanization and average household size are not found to be significant determinants of sulfur dioxide emissions. For both pollutants our results suggest that an increasing share of global emissions will be accounted for by developing countries. Implications for the environmental Kuznets curve literature are described and directions for further work identified. KEY WORDS carbon dioxide demography and the environment environmental Kuznets curve IPAT sulfur dioxide. Please address correspondence to Eric Neumayer Department of Geography and Environment London School of Economics and Political Science London WC2A 2AE UK e-mail e.neumayer@lse.ac.uk Population and Environment Vol. 26 No. 1 September 2004 2004 Springer Science Business Media Inc. 5 6 POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT INTRODUCTION This article contributes to the general debate on the link between population growth and the environment by analyzing the impact of demographic factors on two air .
