A Study On The Impact Of Income Inequality On Environmental Pollution

The rapid economic growth of the world economy has brought about a decline in absolute poverty,but it has brought even more serious inequality in income distribution.At the same time,environmental problems have become increasingly prominent.Soil erosion,over-exploitation of marine resources,increasing pollution,and declining biodiversity have reduced the results of poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth.84% of the world's population lives in the area where air pollution above the baseline specified by the World Health Organization.Reducing the income gap and reducing environmental pollution are not only the Millennium Development Goals proposed by the World Bank,but also the urgent problems that the Chinese government needs to solve.It is of great significance for global sustainable development.This dissertation links the two major issues of income inequality and environmental pollution,and uses the relationship of income disparity to affect environmental pollution,and explores in depth the mechanisms and feasible ways to promote environmental quality,providing sustainable economic development a new idea on a global scale.And also,highly compatible with the national strategic thinking of "common prosperity,beautiful China and global ecological security" proposed in China's 19 th National Congress.Based on this,this dissertation verifies the impact of income gap on environmental pollution from the three perspectives of general equilibrium,theoretical model and empirical test.This is also the logic of the chapters of this dissertation.Specifically: FRIST,the third chapter is based on the endogenous economic growth model in the general framework,in the case of individuals pursuing the maximization of intertemporal utility,based on the intermediate voter hypothesis,a general equilibrium solution is obtained,which verifies that the relative income level of different groups,that is,the income gap,is the determining factor of environmental policy.SECOND,The fourth chapter introduces the income gap and environmental pollution into the Cobb-Douglas production function,provides a theoretical framework for the proposition that the income gap affects environmental pollution,and also provides a theoretical model for the empirical part of the following.THRID,Based on the theoretical model,the empirical equations are constructed in Chapters 5 and 6.Using the panel data of 58 countries and the panel data of 30 provinces in China from,using panel fixed effects and system generalized distance,the estimated method empirically tests the static and dynamic models to verify the significant positive impact of the income gap on environmental pollution.FORTH,based on the intermediate voter's model of environmental preference selection,it is theoretically confirmed that the income gap affects environmental pollution.There may be a threshold effect of income level,and then use Chinese provincial data to test the existence of panel thresholds.Through the above research,the main conclusions of this dissertation are: First,through general equilibrium analysis,it is found that under most decision-making mechanisms,the expansion of the income gap will have a negative impact on the overall environmental quality needs of society.Under a direct democratic system,decision-making is determined by a simple majority principle,and the influence of the intermediate voter is decisive,and income inequality is harmful to the environment.The poorer the middle voter is than the average earner,the more likely he is to sacrifice the environment for high growth.In other words,the importance of the ecological environment does not only depend on the total income level of the society,but also its distribution.Not only does absolute income affect environmental quality,but relative income also affects environmental quality.Second,by introducing the income gap and environmental pollution into the Cobb Douglas production function,it is found that the income gap affects environmental pollution through three channels: scale effect,structural effect and technical effect.In the short-term,the expansion of the income gap is negative for the scale effect and structural effect of environmental pollution,the technical effect is positive,and the total effect of the widening income gap on environmental pollution is positive.Third,by using the panel data of 68 countries in 1994-2013,the static panel data were estimated by fixed effects,and the dynamic panel data was estimated by the System GMM.The econometric analysis found that the cross-country sample income gap was significantly positively correlated with environmental pollution.As the income gap widens or shrinks,environmental quality deteriorates or improves,and empirical tests for developing and developed countries support this conclusion;political freedom and improved education have significant improvements in environmental quality.Developed countries have transferred the pollution-intensive industries to developing countries by participating in international trade,verifying the hypothesis of “Pollution Paradise”.Fourth,by using China's 1997-2015 provincial panel data,the income gap is measured by the Gini coefficient and ratio of urban-rural income,and the environment is measured by industrial wastewater discharge per capita,industrial waste emissions per capita,and industrial solid waste emissions per capita.An empirical analysis of the relationship between income disparity and environmental pollution in China are conducted by static estimation and dynamic estimation.The results show that: China's income gap has a significant positive impact on pollutant emissions;China is still located in the left side of Environment Kuznet Curve,that is,China's economic development is still accompanied by a higher level of environmental pollution;the higher the proportion of secondary industry in GDP,the more pollutant emissions;the impact international trade and inflow of FDI are uncertain;the level of education has a significant positive impact on the improvement of environmental pollution in China.Fifthly,on the basis of the analysis of the general equilibrium in Chapter 3,the panel threshold effect of the income gap on environmental pollution is verified from both theoretical and empirical aspects: when the income level is low,the expansion of the income gap can alleviate the pressure of environmental pollution.When the income level crosses the threshold,the expansion of the income gap exacerbates the deterioration of environmental quality.This is supported by the test of panel data from provinces in China from 1997 to 2015.Finally,based on the above research conclusions,this dissertation proposes policy recommendations to reduce income inequality,promote environmentally equitable development,promote high-quality economic development,and strengthen residents' environmental preferences.The main innovations of this dissertation are as follows: FIRST,in the research content,most of the existing research focuses on discussing the effect of income level on environmental pollution,but the impact of income gap on environmental pollution,and how income gap affects environmental quality,especially the mechanisms and channels for its functioning still lack in-depth analysis and discussion.This dissertation introduces the income gap and environmental pollution in the Cobb-Douglas production function,and constructs the theoretical framework of the income gap affecting environmental pollution,making up for the lack of relevant research.SECOND,in terms of research methods,this dissertation constructs an endogenous economic growth function including income gap and environmental quality.By constructing individual utility function,environmental quality function,and how to choose environmental tax rate to achieve maximim utility on intertemporal period under direct democracy,a general equilibrium solution is obtained,that is,the negative impact of income gap on environmental quality.At the same time,this dissertation examines the income threshold effect of income disparity on environmental pollution under the perspective Chinese provincial perspectives,that is,the structural impact of income level on the relationship between income inequality and environmental pollution.