Environmental Policy and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Europe

The aim of this study is to determine whether environmental policies affect economic growth. Using a standard model of economic growth and a panel of European data, there is evidence that environmental taxes have had a negative effect on economic growth over the last ten years, indicating the ‘double dividend’ does not hold. This effect is particularly evident when other distortionary taxes are included in the model. A second contribution of this study is to incorporate the complimentary measure of renewable energy provision into the model. Again the results indicate a negative relationship between renewable energy and economic growth, offering support for the curse of natural resources.