IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijsusd/v24y2021i2p124-140.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic growth, inequality and environmental degradation

Author

Listed:
  • Michael T. Dorsch
  • Bethany Kirkpatrick

Abstract

This paper re-examines the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation and tests the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by considering the role of income inequality. Using the ecological footprint (EF) as a consumption-based indicator of environmental degradation and the most comprehensive income inequality data available, we demonstrate that the environmental impact of economic growth depends on the distribution of income. We find evidence of an EKC relationship between the EF and economic growth; however, this result is conditional upon a perfectly egalitarian distribution of within-country income. For higher degrees of income inequality, we find no evidence of a 'turning point' within an empirically feasible range. These results suggest that when the gains of economic growth are concentrated the associated rate of environmental degradation is greater than when they are more broadly shared.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael T. Dorsch & Bethany Kirkpatrick, 2021. "Economic growth, inequality and environmental degradation," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 24(2), pages 124-140.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijsusd:v:24:y:2021:i:2:p:124-140
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=118844
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    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:ids:ijsusd:v:24:y:2021:i:2:p:124-140. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=25 .

    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.