Abstract

Even among developed countries, each country has very different circumstances and political institutions regarding environmental issues. Moreover, the differences in individual attitudes about environmental issues within national borders and in the types of environmental behaviors affect the environmental policy of each country. Therefore, in contrast to the Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, the effect of economic growth on environmental degradation differs between high-income countries. Evidences show that economic growth is not the only determinant of environmental change, particularly in high-income countries. In this respect, this paper examines the existence of the EKC as well as the effects of the level of political institution on the relationship between greenhouse gas (GHG) emission per capita and income inequality; it does this by using unbalanced data for 33 OECD countries from 1990 to 2014. The findings of this study show that the level of income inequality differentially affects the GHG emission depending on the level of institution. The EKC hypothesis holds only in countries with a high level of institution, and the threshold of the EKC is positioned at a lower income level in countries with stronger institutional arrangement, and such countries also show lower GHG emission per capita.

摘要

即使在发达国家中，每个国家在环境问题上的情况和政治制度也大不相同。此外，国界内个人对环境问题的态度和环境行为类型的差异会影响每个国家的环境政策。因此，与环境库兹涅茨曲线（EKC）假设相反，经济增长对环境退化的影响因高收入国家而异。有证据表明，经济增长并不是环境变化的唯一决定因素，尤其是在高收入国家。在这方面，本文考察了 EKC 的存在以及政治制度水平对人均温室气体 (GHG) 排放量与收入不平等之间关系的影响；它通过使用 1990 年至 2014 年 33 个经合组织国家的不平衡数据来实现这一点。本研究的结果表明，收入不平等程度对温室气体排放的影响取决于制度水平。EKC假说只在制度水平高的国家成立，EKC的门槛定位在制度安排较强的国家较低的收入水平，这些国家的人均温室气体排放量也较低。