IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v204y2023ipas0921800922002944.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income inequality and carbon emissions in the United States 1929–2019

Author

Listed:
  • Andersson, Fredrik N.G.

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between income inequality and carbon emissions in the United States between 1929 and 2019. We contribute to the literature by studying if and how the relationship has varied over time. To this end we estimate a band spectrum regression model and a smooth-varying coefficients model. Our results show that higher inequality was associated with lower emissions during the early part of the sample and higher emissions towards the end of the sample.

Suggested Citation

  • Andersson, Fredrik N.G., 2023. "Income inequality and carbon emissions in the United States 1929–2019," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:204:y:2023:i:pa:s0921800922002944
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107633
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800922002944
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107633?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. Andreas Chai & Nicholas Rohde & Jacques Silber, 2015. "Measuring The Diversity Of Household Spending Patterns," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 423-440, July.
    2. Martin Gassebner & Noel Gaston & Michael J Lamla, 2008. "Relief For The Environment? The Importance Of An Increasingly Unimportant Industrial Sector," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 46(2), pages 160-178, April.
    3. Dean Corbae & Sam Ouliaris & Peter C. B. Phillips, 2002. "Band Spectral Regression with Trending Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(3), pages 1067-1109, May.
    4. Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949–2016," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(9), pages 3469-3519.
    5. 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.
    6. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Inequality in the long run," Post-Print halshs-01053609, HAL.
    7. Scruggs, Lyle A., 1998. "Political and economic inequality and the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 259-275, September.
    8. 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.
    9. Giovanni Baiocchi & Jan Minx & Klaus Hubacek, 2010. "The Impact of Social Factors and Consumer Behavior on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the United Kingdom," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 14(1), pages 50-72, January.
    10. Andersson, Fredrik N.G. & Karpestam, Peter, 2013. "CO2 emissions and economic activity: Short- and long-run economic determinants of scale, energy intensity and carbon intensity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1285-1294.
    11. Jones, Donald W., 1991. "How urbanization affects energy-use in developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 621-630, September.
    12. Phillips, P.C.B., 1986. "Understanding spurious regressions in econometrics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 311-340, December.
    13. Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2004. "Trade, Growth, and the Environment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 7-71, March.
    14. Fernando Rios-Avila, 2020. "Smooth varying-coefficient models in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 20(3), pages 647-679, September.
    15. Freeman, Chris & Louca, Francisco, 2002. "As Time Goes By: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199251056.
    16. Barlevy, Gadi & Tsiddon, Daniel, 2006. "Earnings inequality and the business cycle," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 55-89, January.
    17. Engle, Robert F, 1974. "Band Spectrum Regression," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, February.
    18. Anthony Atkinson & Thomas Piketty, 2007. "Top incomes over the twentieth century: A contrast between continental european and english-speaking countries," Post-Print halshs-00754859, HAL.
    19. Jonathan Heathcote & Fabrizio Perri & Giovanni L. Violante, 2010. "Unequal We Stand: An Empirical Analysis of Economic Inequality in the United States: 1967-2006," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 13(1), pages 15-51, January.
    20. LaVaughan Henry, 2014. "Income Inequality and Income-Class Consumption Patterns," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Oct.
    21. David I. Stern, 2017. "The environmental Kuznets curve after 25 years," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 7-28, April.
    22. Jorgenson, Andrew & Schor, Juliet & Huang, Xiaorui, 2017. "Income Inequality and Carbon Emissions in the United States: A State-level Analysis, 1997–2012," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 40-48.
    23. Berthe, Alexandre & Elie, Luc, 2015. "Mechanisms explaining the impact of economic inequality on environmental deterioration," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 191-200.
    24. Atkinson, A. B. & Piketty, Thomas (ed.), 2010. "Top Incomes: A Global Perspective," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199286898.
    25. Li, Qi, et al, 2002. "Semiparametric Smooth Coefficient Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(3), pages 412-422, July.
    26. Li, Qi & Racine, Jeffrey S., 2010. "Smooth Varying-Coefficient Estimation And Inference For Qualitative And Quantitative Data," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(6), pages 1607-1637, December.
    27. Boyce, James K., 1994. "Inequality as a cause of environmental degradation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 169-178, December.
    28. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    29. 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.
    30. Alvaredo, Facundo, 2011. "A note on the relationship between top income shares and the Gini coefficient," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(3), pages 274-277, March.
    31. James Boyce, 1994. "Inequality as a Cause of Environmental Degradation," Published Studies ps1, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    32. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01053609 is not listed on IDEAS
    33. 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.
    34. Simon C. Parker, 1998. "Income Inequality and The Business Cycle: A Survey of The Evidence and Some New Results," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 201-225, December.
    35. Carlota Perez, 2010. "Technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigms," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 34(1), pages 185-202, January.
    36. 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.
    37. Atkinson, A. B. & Piketty, Thomas (ed.), 2007. "Top Incomes Over the Twentieth Century: A Contrast Between Continental European and English-Speaking Countries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199286881.
    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. 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).
    2. Andersson, Fredrik N.G., 2024. "Economic inequality and the ecological footprint: Time-varying estimates for four developed economies, 1962–2021," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    3. Shobande, Olatunji A. & Ogbeifun, Lawrence & Apergis, Nicholas, 2024. "Crafting monetary policy beyond low carbon legacy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 764-781.
    4. Kemal Erkisi, 2024. "Income inequality and CO2 emissions nexus: A long-run analysis for Turkey," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2024(1), pages 171-191.

    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. Andersson, Fredrik N.G., 2024. "Economic inequality and the ecological footprint: Time-varying estimates for four developed economies, 1962–2021," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    2. Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen & Wang, Jinxian & Zhang, Xun, 2022. "The income inequality-CO2 emissions nexus: Transmission mechanisms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    3. 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).
    4. Abebe Hailemariam & Ratbek Dzhumashev & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2020. "Carbon emissions, income inequality and economic development," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1139-1159, September.
    5. Nicolli, Francesco & Gilli, Marianna & Vona, Francesco, 2022. "Inequality and Climate Change: Two Problems, One Solution?," FEEM Working Papers 329340, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Kopp, Thomas & Nabernegg, Markus, 2022. "Inequality and Environmental Impact – Can the Two Be Reduced Jointly?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Angelo Antoci & Paolo Russu & Elisa Ticci, 2022. "Modeling maladaptation in the inequality–environment nexus," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 17(1), pages 115-140, January.
    13. Henninger, Ella & Smith, E. Keith, 2024. "Beyond the haze: Decomposing the effect of economic inequality on global air quality from 2000 to 2020," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Adua, Lazarus, 2022. "Super polluters and carbon emissions: Spotlighting how higher-income and wealthier households disproportionately despoil our atmospheric commons," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    17. 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.
    18. Sulhi Ridzuan, 2024. "Income redistribution and carbon emissions in Portugal," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 23(3), pages 421-437, September.
    19. 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).
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; Climate change; Carbon emissions; Income redistribution; Taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    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:204:y:2023:i:pa:s0921800922002944. 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.