IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/92171.html

A Panel Analysis of Income Inequality and Energy Use

Author

Listed:
  • Robert, Sonora

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between energy consumption and income inequality in an unbalanced panel of 147 countries over the period 1990 - 2014. Using a variety of panel and dynamic panel methods and controlling for other determinants of inequality, such as education, health, investment, etc., I find a large and strong negative relationship between access to energy and income inequality. Moreover, I demonstrate that greater access reduces the share of income enjoyed by the top 20% and increases the share for the bottom 20%. Results are less robust when the sample is divided into regions and economic 'blocs', but the overall results are unchanged.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert, Sonora, 2018. "A Panel Analysis of Income Inequality and Energy Use," MPRA Paper 92171, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:92171
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/92171/1/MPRA_paper_92171.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ron A. Boschma & Jan G. Lambooy, 1999. "Evolutionary economics and economic geography," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 411-429.
    2. José De Gregorio & Jong–Wha Lee, 2002. "Education and Income Inequality: New Evidence From Cross‐Country Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(3), pages 395-416, September.
    3. Thomas Piketty, 2015. "Putting Distribution Back at the Center of Economics: Reflections on Capital in the Twenty-First Century," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 67-88, Winter.
    4. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    5. Padilla, Emilio & Serrano, Alfredo, 2006. "Inequality in CO2 emissions across countries and its relationship with income inequality: A distributive approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(14), pages 1762-1772, September.
    6. Albert O. Hirschman & Michael Rothschild, 1973. "The Changing Tolerance for Income Inequality in the Course of Economic DevelopmentWith A Mathematical Appendix," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(4), pages 544-566.
    7. Philippe Aghion, 2005. "Growth and Institutions," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 3-18, March.
    8. John A. List & Craig A. Gallet, 1999. "The Kuznets Curve: What Happens After the Inverted‐U?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 200-206, June.
    9. Barro, Robert J, 1996. "Democracy and Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-27, March.
    10. Belke, Ansgar & Dobnik, Frauke & Dreger, Christian, 2011. "Energy consumption and economic growth: New insights into the cointegration relationship," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 782-789, September.
    11. Fuad Hasanov & Oded Izraeli, 2011. "Income Inequality, Economic Growth, And The Distribution Of Income Gains: Evidence From The U.S. States," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 518-539, August.
    12. William Robert Reed, 2015. "On the Practice of Lagging Variables to Avoid Simultaneity," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 77(6), pages 897-905, December.
    13. Hirschman, Albert O., 1973. "The changing tolerance for income inequality in the course of economic development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 1(12), pages 29-36, December.
    14. Nuxoll, Daniel A, 1994. "Differences in Relative Prices and International Differences in Growth Rates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1423-1436, December.
    15. Bennett, Daniel L. & Vedder, Richard K., 2013. "A Dynamic Analysis of Economic Freedom and Income Inequality in the 50 U.S. States: Empirical Evidence of a Parabolic Relationship," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 43(01).
    16. Huang, Bwo-Nung & Hwang, M.J. & Yang, C.W., 2008. "Causal relationship between energy consumption and GDP growth revisited: A dynamic panel data approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 41-54, August.
    17. François Bourguignon & Christian Morrisson, 2002. "Inequality Among World Citizens: 1820-1992," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 727-744, September.
    18. Herzer, Dierk & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2011. "Income inequality and health: New evidence from panel data," Kiel Working Papers 1736, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    19. Gottschalk, Peter & Smeeding, Timothy M., 2000. "Empirical evidence on income inequality in industrialized countries," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 261-307, Elsevier.
    20. Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2005. "Energy consumption and GDP in developing countries: A cointegrated panel analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 415-427, May.
    21. Boris Podobnik & Jia Shao & Djuro Njavro & Plamen Ivanov & H. Stanley, 2008. "Influence of corruption on economic growth rate and foreign investment," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 63(4), pages 547-550, June.
    22. Milanovic, Branko, 2011. "A short history of global inequality: The past two centuries," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 494-506.
    23. Alesina, Alberto & Perotti, Roberto, 1996. "Income distribution, political instability, and investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1203-1228, June.
    24. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    25. Amparo Castello & Rafael Domenech, 2002. "Human Capital Inequality and Economic Growth: Some New Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(478), pages 187-200, March.
    26. Herrerias, M.J. & Joyeux, R. & Girardin, E., 2013. "Short- and long-run causality between energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence across regions in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1483-1492.
    27. Ozturk, Ilhan, 2010. "A literature survey on energy-growth nexus," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 340-349, January.
    28. Simone Borghesi, 1999. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: a Survey of the Literature," Working Papers 1999.85, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    29. Atkinson, A B, 1997. "Bringing Income Distribution in from the Cold," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(441), pages 297-321, March.
    30. North, Douglass C., 1989. "Institutions and economic growth: An historical introduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 17(9), pages 1319-1332, September.
    31. Sanjeev Gupta & Hamid Davoodi & Rosa Alonso-Terme, 2002. "Does corruption affect income inequality and poverty?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 23-45, March.
    32. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    33. Chatterjee, Santanu & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2012. "Infrastructure and inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1730-1745.
    34. Esfahani, Hadi Salehi & Ramirez, Maria Teresa, 2003. "Institutions, infrastructure, and economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 443-477, April.
    35. Sudhir Anand & Paul Segal, 2008. "What Do We Know about Global Income Inequality?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 57-94, March.
    36. 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.
    37. -, 2012. "CEPAL Review Special Chinese Edition," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), November.
    38. Barro, Robert J, 2000. "Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 5-32, March.
    39. Vivien Foster & Daron Bedrosyan, 2014. "Understanding CO2 Emissions from the Global Energy Sector," World Bank Publications - Reports 17143, The World Bank Group.
    40. Chen, Ping-Yu & Chen, Sheng-Tung & Chen, Chi-Chung, 2012. "Energy consumption and economic growth—New evidence from meta analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 245-255.
    41. Mary C. Daly & Daniel J. Wilson, 2013. "Inequality and Mortality: New Evidence from U.S. County Panel Data," Working Paper Series 2013-13, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    42. Barham, Bradford & Boucher, Stephen, 1998. "Migration, remittances, and inequality: estimating the net effects of migration on income distribution," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 307-331, April.
    43. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    44. Judson, Ruth A. & Owen, Ann L., 1999. "Estimating dynamic panel data models: a guide for macroeconomists," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 9-15, October.
    45. Jonathan Haughton & Shahidur R. Khandker, 2009. "Handbook on Poverty and Inequality," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11985, April.
    46. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    47. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01207273 is not listed on IDEAS
    48. Borensztein, E. & De Gregorio, J. & Lee, J-W., 1998. "How does foreign direct investment affect economic growth?1," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 115-135, June.
    49. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James A., 2005. "Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 385-472, Elsevier.
    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. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Adams, Samuel & Ofori, Isaac K. & Gbolonyo, Emmanuel Y., 2025. "Energy Consumption, Democracy, and Income Inequality in Africa," EconStor Preprints 313785, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Samuel Adams & Isaac K. Ofori & Emmanuel Y. Gbolonyo, 2025. "Energy consumption, democracy, and income inequality in Africa," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 599-638, August.
    4. Lina Volodzkiene & Dalia Streimikiene, 2024. "Towards Energy Equity: Understanding and Addressing Multifaceted Energy Inequality," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Ofori, Isaac K. & Adams, Samuel & Gbolonyo, Emmanuel Y., 2024. "Energy Consumption, Democracy, and Income Inequality in Africa," MPRA Paper 124134, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 25 Mar 2025.

    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. Sonora, Robert, 2019. "Income Inequality, Poverty, and the Rule of Law: Latin America vs the Rest of the World1," MPRA Paper 91512, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Sonora, Robert, 2014. "Institutions and Economic Performance in Mexican States," MPRA Paper 58368, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Jun 2014.
    3. Capolupo, Rosa, 2009. "The New Growth Theories and Their Empirics after Twenty Years," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-72.
    4. Roberto Dell'Anno & Adalgiso Amendola, 2015. "Social Exclusion and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation in European Economies," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(2), pages 274-301, June.
    5. Gravina, Antonio Francesco & Lanzafame, Matteo, 2021. "Finance, globalisation, technology and inequality: Do nonlinearities matter?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 96-110.
    6. Eicher, Theo S. & Schreiber, Till, 2010. "Structural policies and growth: Time series evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 169-179, January.
    7. Ghazal Bayanpourtehrani & Kevin Sylwester, 2013. "Democracy and Female Labor Force Participation: An Empirical Examination," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 749-762, July.
    8. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2021. "Effect of the Utilization of Non-Reciprocal Trade Preferences offered by the QUAD on Economic Growth in Beneficiary Countries," EconStor Preprints 242848, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    9. Tiba, Sofien & Omri, Anis, 2017. "Literature survey on the relationships between energy, environment and economic growth," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1129-1146.
    10. Charles-Coll, Jorge A., 2010. "The optimal rate of inequality: A framework for the relationship between income inequality and economic growth," MPRA Paper 28921, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Stimpfle, Alexander & Stadelmann, David, 2015. "The Impact of Fundamental Development Factors on Different Income Groups: International Evidence," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113128, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    12. Aisen, Ari & Veiga, Francisco José, 2013. "How does political instability affect economic growth?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 151-167.
    13. Gravier-Rymaszewska, Joanna & Tyrowicz, Joanna & Kochanowicz, Jacek, 2010. "Intra-provincial inequalities and economic growth in China," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 237-258, September.
    14. Gründler, Klaus & Scheuermeyer, Philipp, 2015. "Income inequality, economic growth, and the effect of redistribution," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 95, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    15. Tun, yin-li & Azman-saini, w.n.w. & Law, siong-hook, 2012. "International evidence on the link between foreign direct investment and institutional quality," MPRA Paper 65644, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Zaiyang Li & Hassan Swedy Lunku & Shaohua Yang & Agus Salim, 2024. "The dynamic interplay of foreign direct investment and education expenditure on Sub-Saharan Africa income inequality," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 593-616, July.
    17. Ismail M. Cole, 2023. "The political economy triangle of government spending, interest‐group influence, and income inequality: Evidence and implications from the US states," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 1122-1176, November.
    18. Francisco José Veiga, 2013. "Instituições, Estabilidade Política e Desempenho Económico Implicações para Portugal," NIPE Working Papers 11/2013, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    19. Dirks, Maximilian & Schmidt, Torsten, 2023. "The relationship between political instability and economic growth in advanced economies: Empirical evidence from a panel VAR and a dynamic panel FE-IV analysis," Ruhr Economic Papers 1000, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    20. Han, Minsoo & Pyun, Ju Hyun, 2021. "Markups and income inequality: Causal links, 1975-2011," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 290-312.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E02 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Institutions and the Macroeconomy
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • O50 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - General
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:92171. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.