An Entropy Approach to Regional Differences in Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Implications for Ethanol Usage

Dong Hee Suh

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: The growth of the U.S. economy has been accompanied with a significant rise in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. As CO 2 emissions are dependent on regional climatic conditions and energy-related activities in states, this study examines the extent to which the distribution of CO 2 emissions vary across nine climatically consistent regions in the U.S. The results obtained from the entropy approach reveal that the inequalities of CO 2 emissions vary across the regions. While the total inequality of CO 2 emissions is determined by the between-region and the average within-region inequalities, the between-region inequality begins to dominate the average within-region inequalities around 1980s; the emission inequalities between regions increase, but those within each region decrease. Given that ethanol usage is relevant to energy-related CO 2 emissions, this study also evaluates the impact of ethanol usage on the changes in the emission inequalities. The results show that an increase in the ratio of ethanol to fossil fuels is associated closely with the reductions in the inequalities of CO 2 emissions.

Keywords: carbon dioxide emission; ethanol; entropy; inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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