the relationship between air pollution and economic growth in 28 provinces of iran (the case study of co, so2 and nox)

the environmental kuznets curve (ekc) hypothesis posits an inverted u relationship between environmental pollutants and per capita income. recent researches have examined this hypothesis for different pollutants in different countries. however, so far a few number of ekc studies have been carried out in iran. this might be due to the lack of reliable environmental data in this field. the aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between environmental pollutants and economic growth in iran. therefore, during 4 years (2002-2006) the relationship between per capita income and per capita pollutant emission for three atmospheric pollutants (co, so2 and nox) was examined by using panel data and iran's provincial data. the results show that the two pollutants co and nox are n-shaped and for so2 a u-shaped was found.