IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v134y2017icp174-185.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The inequality-emissions nexus in the context of trade and development: A quantile regression approach

Author

Listed:
  • Hübler, Michael

Abstract

If the emissions attributed to households' consumption rise in their income in a concave way, higher within-country inequality will reduce emissions. To test this negative nexus, the article utilizes simultaneous-quantile regressions with per capita CO2 emissions (or energy intensities of GDP) as the dependent variable and draws on country-level panel data. Overall, the estimates vary considerably across quantiles. Regressions with pooled data support the negative inequality-emissions (energy) nexus, whereas regressions with fixed-effects question it. International trade and international investments are mostly positively related to emissions (energy).

Suggested Citation

  • Hübler, Michael, 2017. "The inequality-emissions nexus in the context of trade and development: A quantile regression approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 174-185.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:134:y:2017:i:c:p:174-185
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.12.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800916308552
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.12.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carlos A. Flores & Alfonso Flores-Lagunes & Dimitrios Kapetanakis, 2014. "Lessons From Quantile Panel Estimation of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(8), pages 815-853, November.
    2. Faiza Azhar Khan & John Hudson, 2014. "Initial human capital or the rule of law: what matters for the income convergence of poor countries?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 179-189, January.
    3. Azomahou, Theophile & Laisney, Francois & Nguyen Van, Phu, 2006. "Economic development and CO2 emissions: A nonparametric panel approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(6-7), pages 1347-1363, August.
    4. Rachel Griffith & Stephen Redding & John Van Reenen, 2004. "Mapping the Two Faces of R&D: Productivity Growth in a Panel of OECD Industries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(4), pages 883-895, November.
    5. Choi, In, 2001. "Unit root tests for panel data," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 249-272, April.
    6. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    7. Stern, David I., 2004. "The Rise and Fall of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1419-1439, August.
    8. Boyce, James K., 1994. "Inequality as a cause of environmental degradation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 169-178, December.
    9. Selden Thomas M. & Song Daqing, 1994. "Environmental Quality and Development: Is There a Kuznets Curve for Air Pollution Emissions?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 147-162, September.
    10. Hãœbler, Michael & Keller, Andreas, 2010. "Energy savings via FDI? Empirical evidence from developing countries," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 59-80, February.
    11. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    12. Edward Wolff & Ajit Zacharias, 2009. "Household wealth and the measurement of economic well-being in the United States," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(2), pages 83-115, June.
    13. Michael Hübler & Alexander Glas, 2014. "The Energy-Bias of North–South Technology Spillovers: A Global, Bilateral, Bisectoral Trade Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(1), pages 59-89, May.
    14. James Boyce, 1994. "Inequality as a Cause of Environmental Degradation," Published Studies ps1, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    15. Scruggs, Lyle A., 1998. "Political and economic inequality and the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 259-275, September.
    16. Cole, Matthew A., 2004. "Trade, the pollution haven hypothesis and the environmental Kuznets curve: examining the linkages," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 71-81, January.
    17. Baek, Jungho & Gweisah, Guankerwon, 2013. "Does income inequality harm the environment?: Empirical evidence from the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1434-1437.
    18. Torras, Mariano & Boyce, James K., 1998. "Income, inequality, and pollution: a reassessment of the environmental Kuznets Curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 147-160, May.
    19. Mills, Julianne H. & Waite, Thomas A., 2009. "Economic prosperity, biodiversity conservation, and the environmental Kuznets curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2087-2095, May.
    20. Hübler, Michael & Baumstark, Lavinia & Leimbach, Marian & Edenhofer, Ottmar & Bauer, Nico, 2012. "An integrated assessment model with endogenous growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 118-131.
    21. Antonio Musolesi & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Roberto Zoboli, 2010. "A panel data heterogeneous Bayesian estimation of environmental Kuznets curves for CO2 emissions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(18), pages 2275-2287.
    22. Heerink, Nico & Mulatu, Abay & Bulte, Erwin, 2001. "Income inequality and the environment: aggregation bias in environmental Kuznets curves," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 359-367, September.
    23. Rossana Galli, 1998. "The Relationship Between Energy Intensity and Income Levels: Forecasting Long Term Energy Demand in Asian Emerging Countries," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 85-105.
    24. Richard Perkins & Eric Neumayer, 2012. "Do recipient country characteristics affect international spillovers of CO 2 -efficiency via trade and foreign direct investment?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 469-491, May.
    25. Cole, Matthew A., 2006. "Does trade liberalization increase national energy use?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 108-112, July.
    26. Nikodinoska, Dragana & Schröder, Carsten, 2016. "On the emissions–inequality and emissions–welfare trade-offs in energy taxation: Evidence on the German car fuels tax," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 206-233.
    27. A. Colin Cameron & Pravin K. Trivedi, 2010. "Microeconometrics Using Stata, Revised Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, number musr, March.
    28. Magnani, Elisabetta, 2000. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve, environmental protection policy and income distribution," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 431-443, March.
    29. Ravallion, Martin & Heil, Mark & Jalan, Jyotsna, 2000. "Carbon Emissions and Income Inequality," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 651-669, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Uddin, Md. Main & Mishra, Vinod & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "Income inequality and CO2 emissions in the G7, 1870–2014: Evidence from non-parametric modelling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Zheng, Yan & Yin, Hua & Zhou, Min & Liu, Wenhua & Wen, Fenghua, 2021. "Impacts of oil shocks on the EU carbon emissions allowances under different market conditions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    3. Khan, Hamad Hasul & Khan, Oshin, 2018. "Income-FDI-Environmental degradation nexus for developing countries: A panel analysis of America continent," MPRA Paper 88154, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Kopp, Thomas & Nabernegg, Markus, 2022. "Inequality and Environmental Impact – Can the Two Be Reduced Jointly?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    5. Cappelli, Federica, 2024. "Unequal contributions to CO2 emissions along the income distribution within and between countries," FEEM Working Papers 341641, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    6. Yongming Wang & Irfan Uddin & Yingmei Gong, 2021. "Nexus between Natural Resources and Environmental Degradation: Analysing the Role of Income Inequality and Renewable Energy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-20, July.
    7. Xie, Qichang & Ma, Di & Raza, Muhammad Yousaf & Tang, Songlin & Bai, Dingchuan, 2023. "Toward carbon peaking and neutralization: The heterogeneous stochastic convergence of CO2 emissions and the role of digital inclusive finance," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    8. Muhammad Awais Baloch & Danish, 2022. "The nexus between renewable energy, income inequality, and consumption‐based CO2 emissions: An empirical investigation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1268-1277, October.
    9. Miguel Angel Esquivias & Lilik Sugiharti & Hilda Rohmawati & Omar Rojas & Narayan Sethi, 2022. "Nexus between Technological Innovation, Renewable Energy, and Human Capital on the Environmental Sustainability in Emerging Asian Economies: A Panel Quantile Regression Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, March.
    10. Hazrat YOUSAF* & Anwar HUSSAIN** & Samina KHALIL***, 2018. "Ecological Footprint, Environmental Intensity And Income Inequality," Pakistan Journal of Applied Economics, Applied Economics Research Centre, vol. 28(1), pages 19-31.
    11. Ibrahim Mohamed Ali Ali, 2023. "Income Inequality and Environmental Degradation in Middle-Income Countries: A Test of Two Competing Hypotheses," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 299-321, April.
    12. Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen & Wang, Jinxian & Zhang, Xun, 2022. "The income inequality-CO2 emissions nexus: Transmission mechanisms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    13. Federica Cappelli, 2024. "Unequal contributions to CO2 emissions along the income distribution within and between countries," Working Papers 2024.06, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    14. Shi Wang & Wen Zhang & Hua Wang & Jue Wang & Mu-Jun Jiang, 2021. "How Does Income Inequality Influence Environmental Regulation in the Context of Corruption? A Panel Threshold Analysis Based on Chinese Provincial Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-18, July.
    15. Donia Aloui & Brahim Gaies & Rafla Hchaichi, 2023. "Exploring environmental degradation spillovers in Sub-Saharan Africa: the energy–financial instability nexus," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1699-1724, June.
    16. Rongrong Li & Xue-Ting Jiang, 2017. "Inequality of Carbon Intensity: Empirical Analysis of China 2000–2014," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-12, April.
    17. Gyamfi, Bright Akwasi & Bein, Murad A. & Udemba, Edmund Ntom & Bekun, Festus Victor, 2021. "Investigating the pollution haven hypothesis in oil and non-oil sub-Saharan Africa countries: Evidence from quantile regression technique," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    18. Qi, Shaozhou & Peng, Huarong & Zhang, Xiaoling & Tan, Xiujie, 2019. "Is energy efficiency of Belt and Road Initiative countries catching up or falling behind? Evidence from a panel quantile regression approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Andersson, Fredrik N.G., 2023. "Income inequality and carbon emissions in the United States 1929–2019," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    20. Peng, Hua-Rong & Zhang, Yue-Jun & Liu, Jing-Yue, 2023. "The energy rebound effect of digital development: Evidence from 285 cities in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    21. Yulin Liu & Min Zhang & Rujia Liu, 2020. "The Impact of Income Inequality on Carbon Emissions in China: A Household-Level Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, March.
    22. Abebe Hailemariam & Ratbek Dzhumashev & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2020. "Carbon emissions, income inequality and economic development," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1139-1159, September.
    23. Pablo-Romero, María P. & Sánchez-Braza, Antonio & Gil-Pérez, Jesús, 2023. "Is deforestation needed for growth? Testing the EKC hypothesis for Latin America," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    24. Zheng, Yan & Wen, Fenghua & Deng, Hanshi & Zeng, Aiqing, 2022. "The relationship between carbon market attention and the EU CET market: Evidence from different market conditions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicolli, Francesco & Gilli, Marianna & Vona, Francesco, 2022. "Inequality and Climate Change: Two Problems, One Solution?," FEEM Working Papers 329340, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    2. Fateh Belaïd, Sabri Boubaker, Rajwane Kafrouni, 2020. "Carbon emissions, income inequality and environmental degradation: the case of Mediterranean countries," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 17(1), pages 73-102, June.
    3. Nyakundi M. Michieka & John Deal & Kyle Lahman, 2022. "Air pollution and income inequality: a spatial econometric approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(1), pages 1-31, August.
    4. Bo Yang & Minhaj Ali & Shujahat Haider Hashmi & Mohsin Shabir, 2020. "Income Inequality and CO 2 Emissions in Developing Countries: The Moderating Role of Financial Instability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-24, August.
    5. Zhang, Chuanguo & Zhao, Wei, 2014. "Panel estimation for income inequality and CO2 emissions: A regional analysis in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 382-392.
    6. Inmaculada Martinez-Zarzoso & Leon Pilgrim, 2023. "Revisiting the link between income inequality and emissions," Working Papers 2023.04, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    7. Lin Guo, 2017. "Income Inequality, Household Consumption And Co2 Emissions In China," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(02), pages 531-553, June.
    8. Abebe Hailemariam & Ratbek Dzhumashev & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2020. "Carbon emissions, income inequality and economic development," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1139-1159, September.
    9. Feng Wang & Jian Yang & Joshua Shackman & Xin Liu, 2021. "Impact of Income Inequality on Urban Air Quality: A Game Theoretical and Empirical Study in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-17, August.
    10. Grunewald, Nicole & Klasen, Stephan & Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada & Muris, Chris, 2017. "The Trade-off Between Income Inequality and Carbon Dioxide Emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 249-256.
    11. Coondoo, Dipankor & Dinda, Soumyananda, 2008. "Carbon dioxide emission and income: A temporal analysis of cross-country distributional patterns," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 375-385, April.
    12. Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen & Wang, Jinxian & Zhang, Xun, 2022. "The income inequality-CO2 emissions nexus: Transmission mechanisms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    13. Salih Ozturk & Murat Cetin & Harun Demir, 2022. "Income inequality and CO2 emissions: nonlinear evidence from Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(10), pages 11911-11928, October.
    14. Unmesh Patnaik & Santosh K. Sahu, 2016. "The Tradeoffs between GHGs Emissions, Income Inequality and Productivity," Working Papers id:10882, eSocialSciences.
    15. Vona, Francesco & Patriarca, Fabrizio, 2011. "Income inequality and the development of environmental technologies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 2201-2213, September.
    16. Moritz A. Drupp & Ulrike Kornek & Jasper N. Meya & Lutz Sager, 2021. "Inequality and the Environment: The Economics of a Two-Headed Hydra," CESifo Working Paper Series 9447, CESifo.
    17. Berthe, Alexandre & Elie, Luc, 2015. "Mechanisms explaining the impact of economic inequality on environmental deterioration," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 191-200.
    18. Wolde-Rufael, Yemane & Idowu, Samuel, 2017. "Income distribution and CO2 emission: A comparative analysis for China and India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1336-1345.
    19. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "Inequality and Renewable Energy Consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implication for High Income Countries," Working Papers 20/094, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    20. Lesly Cassin & Paolo Melindi-Ghidi & Fabien Prieur, 2021. "The impact of income inequality on public environmental expenditure with green consumerism," Working Papers 2021.08, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; CO2 emissions; Energy intensity; Environmental Kuznets curve; Trade; FDI;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C5 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling
    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • Q3 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation
    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:134:y:2017:i:c:p:174-185. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.