Resource use and its relation to economic growth

The!use!of!natural! resources!underpins! the! functioning!of! the!global!economy.!These! raw!materials!are!an! important! source! of! economic!welfare,! but! their! use! also! eventually! leads! to!waste! and! pollution.!Thus! there! exists! the! notion! that! if!we!wish! to! reduce! our!waste! and!emissions,!we!must! reduce! the! use! of! the! natural! resources! that! cause! these! waste! and! emissions! in! the! first! place,! consequently! increasing! our! resource! efficiency.! This! is! otherwise! known! as! the! dematerialization! of! the! economy.! To! achieve! this! it! is! crucial! to! quantify!the!amount!of!resources!that!go!into!and!flow!out!of!the!economy,!and!this!is!the!goal!of!economyWwide! Material!Flow!Accounts!(MFA)!developed!by!EUROSTAT.!! This!bachelor!thesis!attempts!to!contribute!to!the!discussion!on!dematerialization!by!investigating!whether! material!use!follows!an!inverted!UWshaped!relationship!in!relation!to!economic!development,!effectively!testing! the!Material!Kuznets!Curve!hypothesis.!The!dataset!is!a!panel!of!150!industrialized!and!developing!countries!for! the!period!1980W2008.! In! the! case! of! this! analysis,! the!material!use! indicator! is! an! extended! variant! of! direct! material!input!(DMIext)!per!capita,!and!serves!as!the!dependent!variable!in!the!panelWlevel!and!countryWlevel!MKC! analysis.!For!the!MKC!analysis!on!specific!material!flows,!total!domestic!consumption!(TDE)!per!capita!serves!as! the! dependent! variable.! As! per! usual,! the! independent! variable! is! gross! domestic! product! (GDP)! per! capita.! Results! show! that! there! is!no! indication! for! a!withinWsample! turning!point! for!DMIext!per! capita!on! the!panelW level.! The! countryWlevel! analysis! showed! that! some! highWincome! economies! do! exhibit! an! inverted! UWshaped! relationship,!although!this!is!attributed!to!rising!imports!of!raw!materials!from!abroad.!The!analysis!for!separate! material!flows!also!gives!tentative!indications!for!an!MKC,!however!further!analysis!shows!that!the!results!are! sensitive!to!certain!aspects!of!MKC!investigation!methodology.!