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Income inequality and CO2 emissions: Empirical evidence from Turkey

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  • Caner Demir
  • Raif Cergibozan
  • Adem Gök

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of income inequality on environmental quality in Turkey within the Environmental Kuznets Curve framework. In order to observe the short-run and long-run effects of income inequality on environmental quality, an autoregressive distributed lag bounds test on CO 2 emission has been employed for the period 1963–2011 of Turkey. The results of the analysis reveal that there is a negative association between CO 2 emission level and income inequality, which implies that increasing income inequality reduces environmental degradation in Turkey. Hence, a greater inequality in the society leads to less aggregate consumption in the economy due to lower propensity to emit in the richer households resulting in better environmental quality. The findings confirm an argument in the existing literature, which suggests that for developing countries, until a certain level of development, environmental degradation increases as income inequality in the society decreases. The results also confirm the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis.

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  • Caner Demir & Raif Cergibozan & Adem Gök, 2019. "Income inequality and CO2 emissions: Empirical evidence from Turkey," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(3), pages 444-461, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:30:y:2019:i:3:p:444-461
    DOI: 10.1177/0958305X18793109
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    2. Roberto J. Santill n-Salgado & Humberto Valencia-Herrera & Francisco Venegas-Mart nez, 2020. "On the Relations among CO2 Emissions, Gross Domestic Product, Energy Consumption, Electricity Use, Urbanization, and Income Inequality for a Sample of 134 Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(6), pages 195-207.
    3. Olatunji A. Shobande & Simplice A. Asongu, 2022. "The Dilemmas of Relevance: Exploring the role of Natural resources and the Carbon Kuznets Curve hypothesis in managing climate crisis in Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 22/077, African Governance and Development Institute..
    4. Olatunji A. Shobande & Simplice A. Asongu, 2023. "The dilemmas of relevance: exploring the role of Natural resources and Energy Consumption in managing climate crisis in Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 23/026, African Governance and Development Institute..
    5. Tobias Angel & Alexandre Berthe & Valeria Costantini & Mariagrazia D’Angeli, 2024. "How the nature of inequality reduction matters for CO2 emissions," Working Papers 2024.14, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    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. Eren Gürer & Alfons J. Weichenrieder, 2024. "Is there a Green Dividend of National Redistribution?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(1), pages 33-47, March.
    8. Dorn, Franziska & Maxand, Simone & Kneib, Thomas, 2024. "The nonlinear dependence of income inequality and carbon emissions: Potentials for a sustainable future," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
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    11. 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.
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    15. Obadiah Jonathan Gimba & Abdulkareem Alhassan & Huseyin Ozdeser & Wafa Ghardallou & Mehdi Seraj & Ojonugwa Usman, 2023. "Towards low carbon and sustainable environment: does income inequality mitigate ecological footprints in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 10425-10445, September.
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