The Effects of Economic and Political Inequality on Quality of Environment in Selected Countries: GMM Panel Analysis

Authors
javad harati 1
ali dehghani 2
hojat taghizadeh 3
toktam amini 1
1 bojnord university
2 shahrod university
3 sistan and baluchestan university
10.18869/acadpub.jemr.6.23.197
Abstract
Environmental quality is affected by many factors such as economic and political inequality. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the effects of income and political inequality on the environment quality in the selected countries. Using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), the effects of gini coefficient, democracy index and income per capita, energy consumption and human development index on environmental quality are estimated for 57 countries during the period 2000 to 2012. The results show that income inequality and Political inequality significantly had a negative effect on environment quality. While the energy consumption has the negative effect on the quality of environment, improvement in human development index and the income per capita have a positive effect on the quality of environment. This finding might has important policy implication for policymakers and authorities to achieve sustainable development in different countries.
Keywords
Quality of Environment
Economic Inequality
Political Inequality
GMM Panel