Economic well-being and urban green areas in Mexico

Abstract

This research was done with cross-sectional data to contrast the hypothesis of economic decoupling between the percentage of urban green area and per capita green area in 305 Mexican municipalities with economic growth/well-being indicators [per capita income and Human Development Index (HDI)] together with their quadratic terms respectively. For this, multiple regressions were carried out, using population density and its quadratic term, rainfall, income/well-being interaction with density, green surface [model of green areas per capita (AVPC)] and municipal surface (percentage model of areas green), all this as control variables. The models did not found statistical evidence of short-term decoupling between economic indicators and green area variables. In the Model of AVPC with HDI, an inverse curve of U was found with the density (for the provision of goods indicates that after the inflection point there is a decrease of AVPC with increases in the HDI). Although the literature reports that studies testing decoupling and the Kuznets environmental curve hypotheses may be acceptable in cross-sectional studies, however the inflection point estimates are not very credible and should be viewed with caution. Future investigations should consider more municipalities and consider many years to corroborate the results obtained. However, an inventory of urban green surface is necessary in the 2469 Mexican municipalities that do not exist.