Does Economic Growth Reduce Environmental Pollution?

In recent times, it has been mostly discussed that although economic growth increases environmental problems, environmental problems can be diminished after reaching a certain threshold value. Likewise, the subject is drawing much attention in economics literature. In line with, this study has been carried out to find out whether Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis is valid or not on province basis in Turkey. Whether or not the hypothesis is valid has been tested with the help of the smooth transition regression model by applying total waste amount and per capita GDP data between 2004-2014. The results have indicated that the increase in real income increases the amount of waste, after reaching the first income threshold, the effect of the increase in real amount on waste amount is lesser than the previous trend but it has been still positive. As a result, this has pointed out that the amount of waste does not decrease as the real income increases. Therefore, the study has revealed that the EKC hypothesis is not valid in terms of waste amount