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This study investigates the relationship between U.S. state-level CO 2 emissions and two measures of income inequality: the income share of the top 10% and the Gini coefficient. Each of the inequality measures, which focus on unique characteristics of income distributions, is used to evaluate the arguments of different analytical approaches. Results of the longitudinal analysis for the 1997 to 2012 period indicate that state-level emissions are positively associated with the income share of the top 10%, while the effect of the Gini coefficient on emissions is non-significant. The statistically significant relationship between CO 2 emissions and the concentration of income among the top 10% is consistent with analytical approaches that focus on political economy dynamics and Veblen effects, which highlight the potential political and economic power and emulative influence of the wealthy. The null effect of the Gini coefficient is generally inconsistent with the marginal propensity to emit approach, which posits that when incomes become more equally distributed, the poor will increase their consumption of energy and other carbon-intensive products as they move into the middle class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from multiple bodies of literature, the authors investigate the relationship between consumption-based carbon emissions and domestic income inequality for 67 nations from 1991 to 2008. Results of two-way fixed-effects longitudinal models indicate that the relationship between national-level emissions and inequality changes through time and varies for nations in different macroeconomic contexts. For high-income nations, the relationship shifts from negative to positive, suggesting that in recent years, income inequality in such nations increases carbon emissions. For middle-income nations, the association is negative, and becomes increasingly negative in the later years of the study. For low-income nations, the relationship between carbon emissions and domestic income inequality is null for the entire 1991 to 2008 period. These diverse results hold, net of the effects of other well-established human drivers of emissions, including population size, level of economic development, and urbanization. The authors conclude by emphasizing the need for future research on greenhouse gas emissions and domestic inequality, and the central role that sociology should play in this emerging area of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]