In the present investigation, an analysis of the impact of economic growth on the environment during the period 1971–2015 in Ecuador was made. The hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve was used as a study tool. We estimated this relationship in a country with strong dependence on revenues from the exploitation of natural resources and a low level of industry participation in gross domestic product (GDP). To generate empirical evidence, the methodology of the third degree Almon polynomial was applied with three lags in time. The variables were examined by informal econometric tests such as graphs of time series, stationarity, and seasonality as well as formal differences such as Dickey Fuller to check the effectiveness of their contribution in the research. Finally, the results reveal a direct, positive relationship in the short term between economic growth and CO₂ emissions. The confirmation of the hypothesis opens the door to the discussion of optimal conditions of production while minimizing pollution, which is a dilemma that states face since they require a way to produce while maintaining a healthy and balanced environment.

Whether Kaldor’s three growth laws still operate in commodity-dependent middle-income economies—and through what transmission mechanism—is an open empirical question after three decades of trade liberalisation, financial opening, and the 2002–2014 commodity super-cycle. This paper provides the first bloc-level panel test of the three laws for the Andean Community of Nations (ACN—Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru) over 1993–2019, combining static feasible generalised regressions with dynamic Arellano–Bond difference-GMM and long-run multipliers. The predictions are as follows: manufacturing growth is positively associated with aggregate output (long-run multiplier 0.91), the Verdoorn coefficient is positive and significant at 0.42, and labour reallocation from non-manufacturing activities is associated with rising aggregate productivity over the time. The headline finding, however, is a decomposition failure: the Verdoorn and employment elasticities coefficients sum up to 0.35 rather than 1 as required by the accounting identity, leaving a residual of 0.65. We term this “jobless manufacturing growth” (capital-deepening). This suggests that the Kaldorian regime in the ACN has neither collapsed nor remained intact, but has mutated into a capital-intensive, labour-saving form consistent with Dutch-disease. Thus, industrial policy alone would deepen the jobless pattern: structural transformation in these economies requires pairing subsidy plans with the macroeconomic management of commodity-dependent exchange rates.