IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v143y2025ics0140988325000465.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the trade-offs between carbon emissions, income inequality, and poverty: A theoretical and empirical framework

Author

Listed:
  • Coşkun, Esra Alp

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between income inequality, poverty, and carbon emissions using a balanced panel dataset of 83 countries from 1990 to 2020. Employing panel quantile regression, which provides insights into distributional heterogeneity, the research analyzes both consumption-based and production-based CO2 emissions through the lens of classical economic theories, including Keynes' Absolute Income Hypothesis and Duesenberry's Relative Income Hypothesis. The findings challenge the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, as income increases consistently lead to higher emissions across all quantiles, regardless of income level. Notably, reducing income inequality in high-income countries lowers consumption-based emissions, though it may increase production-based emissions, highlighting the need for degrowth policies. In contrast, for lower- and upper-middle-income countries, reducing inequality tends to increase both consumption- and production-based emissions, illustrating the complex relationship between income levels and emissions. Poverty-related factors such as household consumption and animal protein intake positively affect emissions, while vegetable protein intake reduces them, aligning with the principles of Doughnut Economics and the circular economy. Renewable energy usage consistently reduces emissions across all income groups and quantiles, while daily caloric supply reduces emissions only in high-income countries but contributes to increased emissions in low, lower-middle, and upper-middle-income countries. Policymakers should prioritize reducing consumption-based emissions in high-income countries through income redistribution, while ensuring that poverty alleviation in lower-income nations is pursued sustainably to balance emissions and equity.

Suggested Citation

  • Coşkun, Esra Alp, 2025. "Exploring the trade-offs between carbon emissions, income inequality, and poverty: A theoretical and empirical framework," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:143:y:2025:i:c:s0140988325000465
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108223
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988325000465
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108223?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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income inequality; Poverty; Carbon emissions; Panel quantile regression; Degrowth theory; Doughnut economics; Circular economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • O44 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Environment and Growth
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    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:eneeco:v:143:y:2025:i:c:s0140988325000465. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    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.