Testing the environmental Kuznets curve in the case of Croatia

Sa？etak The environmental Kuznets curve is a relationship between various indicators of environmental degradation and income per capita. The EKC hypothesis states that environmental degradation worsens as economic development increases, however after reaching a certain level of GDP per capita, it begins to decrease. The aim of the paper is to test the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve in Croatia in the period from 1990 to 2013. This paper required constructing and testing linear, quadratic and cubic models using a liner regression model. The results of the analysis have shown that economic growth affects CO2 emissions in Croatia, indicated however by is very weak linear relationship and applying only to short-term model dynamics. Furthermore, the measured carbon intensity of GDP for Croatia indicates that Croatia uses its anthropogenic resources relatively efficiently