Banking Research Institute, Vietnam Banking Academy, No.12 Chua Boc Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi City, Viet Nam.
Faculty of International Business, Vietnam Banking Academy, No.12 Chua Boc Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi City, Viet Nam.
J Environ Manage. 2021 Apr 15;284:112007. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112007. Epub 2021 Feb 4.
This study examines the effects of income inequality and innovation on environmental quality, conditional on the level of each factor. We apply system generalized method of moments to a panel dataset of 91 countries from 1971 to 2015. The estimation results consistently reveal that although income inequality and innovation significantly contribute to better environmental quality, the effect of one factor largely depends on the evolution of the other. Specifically, the beneficial impact of income equality on environmental quality can only be achieved at a high level of innovation. In the same way, innovation is only an effective tool for a nation to reduce environmental degradation when income is fairly distributed among its citizens. This means that more equitable income distribution and higher innovative capacities are two interrelated prerequisites that must both be in place for a country to actualize their beneficial environmental impacts. Overall, our findings shed new light on the relationship between income inequality, innovation, and environmental quality, and they provide relevant implications for policymakers with regard to tackling the dual tasks of reducing inequality and pollution.
本研究考察了收入不平等和创新对环境质量的影响，条件是考虑到每个因素的水平。我们采用系统广义矩方法对 1971 年至 2015 年期间 91 个国家的面板数据集进行了估计。估计结果一致表明，尽管收入不平等和创新对改善环境质量有显著贡献，但一个因素的影响在很大程度上取决于另一个因素的演变。具体来说，收入平等对环境质量的有利影响只有在创新水平较高的情况下才能实现。同样，只有在公民之间收入分配公平的情况下，创新才是一个国家减少环境退化的有效手段。这意味着，更公平的收入分配和更高的创新能力是一个国家实现其有利的环境影响的两个相互关联的先决条件。总的来说，我们的研究结果为收入不平等、创新和环境质量之间的关系提供了新的见解，并为政策制定者在解决减少不平等和污染的双重任务方面提供了相关启示。
