Trends and developments in the intensity of steel use : an econometric analysis

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the shape of the intensity of steel use and to test if it exhibits an inverted U-shaped form as the intensity of use hypothesis suggests. This hypothesis states that the intensity of metal use in a country is related to its economic development. This thesis also investigates if high, middle and low income countries affect the intensity of steel use differently. The theoretical framework used in this thesis is the intensity of use hypothesis. Two variations of the intensity of steel use model were tested empirically through Ordinary Least Squares regressions. They were tested on data from 61 countries under the period 1970 to 2004. The results showed that the estimations correspond to the hypothesis when tested on all countries simultaneously, and on high income countries. This implies that the industrialised high income countries are those who have led the development and followed the shape of the intensity of use curve during this period of time, but the developing countries are believed to follow.Validerat; 20101217 (root