ABSTRACT
Although more than a hundred papers had already been published by the mid2000s on the middle-income trap and the EKC2 since the introduction of the EKC hypothesis, the relationship between income level and pollution still remains to be tackled for empirical validation, particularly in middle-income countries (MICs). Middle-income countries have significantly increased their share to 30 per cent of global GDP,3 while they accounted for 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions.4 Among six developing regions in the world, the East Asian and Pacific region has expanded the most in terms of global output, doubling its regional share to over 10 per cent by absorbing the largest inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI). It has also increased CO2 emissions at the fastest rate in the six regions over the last two decades.
