Environmental Pressure and Armed Conflict - Is there an Empirical Kuznets Curve for Myanmar?

Anton Parlow

Abstract

Empirical Kuznets Curves (EKC) usually implies an inverted U-shaped relationship between a pollutant and per capita GDP growth. We initially find an inverted U-shaped EKC between CO2 emissions and per capita GDP for the period 1960 to 2004. However, once accounting for a major uprising in 1988 in Myanmar, we can identify two different growth regimes. This structural break changes the nature of the EKC relationship.