Income Inequality and Carbon Emissions in the United States 1929–2019
33 Pages Posted: 31 May 2022
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 taking a long-term perspective, which allows us to study how the relationship has varied over time. 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. Changes in consumption and investment patterns across income groups may partially explain the time-varying effect of inequality on emissions.
Keywords: Inequality, climate change, carbon emissions, income redistribution, taxation
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation