Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
Working Paper Series,
Trade Union Institute for Economic Research
No 178: Economic Growth, Inequality, Democratization, and the Environment
Clas Eriksson () and Joakim Persson
Additional contact information
Clas Eriksson: Department of Economics, Postal: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7013, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Joakim Persson: Trade Union Institute for Economic Research, Postal: FIEF, Wallingatan 38, SE-111 24 Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract: We augment the Stokey (1998) model by allowing agents to differ with respect to environmental quality and income in order to analyze the impact of income and environmental inequality, and of democratization on aggregate pollution. We find that the impact of a more equal income distribution depends on the degree of democracy. In a complete democracy a more equal income distribution generates, ceteris paribus, less pollution, which is consistent with indirect empirical evidence, whereas the opposite is the case if democratic rights are highly restricted. Further-more, a democratization is argued to typically lower both the income and the environmental quality of the median voter. In this case, if, in utility terms, the fall in environmental quality is worse than the fall in consumption the median voter decides to tighten environmental legislation so that aggregate pollution decreases.
Keywords: Economic growth and the environment; inequality; politics
21 pages, August 16, 2002
Full text files
WP178.pdf
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Sune Karlsson ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().
This page generated on 2024-02-05 17:11:11.