The Distribution of Pollution in the United States: An Environmental Gini Approach

Daniel L. Millimet () and Daniel Slottje
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Daniel Slottje: Southern Methodist University

No 2, Departmental Working Papers from Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics

Abstract: The concepts of an environmental Gini coefficient along with a measure of ''pollution elasticity'' are introduced and used to analyze the distribution of pollution across U.S. states from 1988 -- 1996. The special properties of the Gini coefficient allow one to decompose overall pollution inequality into several components based on pollution type and predict the effects on overall pollution inequality from stricter regulations on particular types of emissions. In addition, an environmental welfare function -- analogous to Sen's social welfare function -- is derived and used along with the extended Gini to analyze the impact of tighter environmental regulations on different types of emissions. Finally, Spearman correlations between per capita emissions and state attributes are used to assess whether states at the upper tail of the pollution distribution are randomly assigned. The emissions data is obtained from the U.S. EPA's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI).

Keywords: Pollution; Gini Coefficient; Inequality; Environmental Justice; Environmental Regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q0 J1 R3 C5 H0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999-09-22
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