Economic Growth and the Environment 1 Anastasios Xepapadeas 2 University of Crete, Department of Economics University Campus, 74 100 Rethymno, Greece, e-mail: xepapad@econ.soc.uoc.gr August 24, 2003 1 Prepared for the Handbook of Environmental Economics, edited by Karl- Göran Mäler and Jeffrey Vincent. 2 I would like to thank the editors Karl-Göran Mäler and Jeff Vincent, and my colleagues Pantelis Kalaitzidakis, Catarina Roseta-Palma and Sjak Smulders, for valuable comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Joan Stefan for editorial assistance.