A less poor world, but a hotter one?
Carbon emissions, economic growth and income inequality
Martin Ravallion, Mark Heil and Jyotsna Jalan
[1]World Bank
October 15, 1997
Abstract
We find that the distribution of income matters to aggregate carbon dioxide emissions and hence global warming. Higher inequality, both between and within countries, reduces carbon emissions at given average incomes. We also confirm that economic growth raises emissions. Thus our results indicate that trade-offs exist between climate control (on the one hand) and both social equity and economic growth (on the other). However, economic growth improves the trade off with equity, and lower inequality improves the trade off with growth. By combining growth with equity, more pro-poor growth processes yield better longer-term trajectories of carbon emissions.
