Is income inequality a driver for renewable energy consumption?

ÜZAR U.

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION, cilt.255, 2020 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 255
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120287
  • Dergi Adı: JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, PASCAL, Aerospace Database, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, CAB Abstracts, Chimica, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, INSPEC, Metadex, Pollution Abstracts, Public Affairs Index, Veterinary Science Database, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Renewable energy consumption, Income inequality, Institutional quality, CO2 emission, Panel ARDL model, CO2 EMISSIONS, ECONOMIC-INEQUALITY, AFRICA EVIDENCE, OIL PRICES, CHINA, TESTS, DETERMINANTS, ENVIRONMENT, GROWTH, TRADE
  • Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Although many initiatives have been made to research the effect of income inequality on environmental issues, the question of whether income inequality affects renewable energy consumption hasn't been answered. This gap in the literature raises an important question that needs to be answered by researchers: can the income inequality affect renewable energy consumption? As far as is known, the study is the first attempt to discover this relationship. Therefore, the impact of income inequality on renewable energy consumption is examined theoretically and empirically in 43 developed and developing countries for 2000-2015. In order to avoid the omitted variable problem; economic, environmental and institutional variables such as GDP per capita, corruption, CO2 emissions and trade openness are included in the model. The results demonstrate that the decline in income inequality will enhance renewable energy consumption. In other words, policymakers have the opportunity to reduce income inequality and environmental degradation at the same time. Similarly, corruption control and raise CO2 emissions will increase also renewable energy consumption. Otherwise, economic determinants such as economic growth and trade openness have no meaningful effect on renewable energy consumption. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.