Income inequality and CO2 emissions: Empirical evidence from Turkey

Caner Demir, Raif Cergibozan and Adem Gök
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Adem Gök

Energy & Environment, 2019, vol. 30, issue 3, 444-461

Abstract: The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of income inequality on environmental quality in Turkey within the Environmental Kuznets Curve framework. In order to observe the short-run and long-run effects of income inequality on environmental quality, an autoregressive distributed lag bounds test on CO 2 emission has been employed for the period 1963–2011 of Turkey. The results of the analysis reveal that there is a negative association between CO 2 emission level and income inequality, which implies that increasing income inequality reduces environmental degradation in Turkey. Hence, a greater inequality in the society leads to less aggregate consumption in the economy due to lower propensity to emit in the richer households resulting in better environmental quality. The findings confirm an argument in the existing literature, which suggests that for developing countries, until a certain level of development, environmental degradation increases as income inequality in the society decreases. The results also confirm the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis.

Keywords: CO2 emissions; income inequality; Turkey; Environmental Kuznets Curve; cointegration; autoregressive distributed lag (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:engenv:v:30:y:2019:i:3:p:444-461

DOI: 10.1177/0958305X18793109

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