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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Economic Inequality And Environmental Quality: Evidence Of Pollution Shifting In Russia, Marina S. Vornovytskyy., James K. Boyce
Economic Inequality And Environmental Quality: Evidence Of Pollution Shifting In Russia, Marina S. Vornovytskyy., James K. Boyce
PERI Working Papers
This paper utilizes the Russian Statistical Agency's data on air pollution in Russia to analyze the impact of economic inequalities among Russia's regions on environmental degradation. Controlling for the absolute level of income, we find that regions with lower incomes relative to those of neighboring regions have more uncontrolled air pollution. Differences in uncontrolled pollution do not appear to be attributable to differences in spending on pollution control, suggesting that facility siting provides the dominant explanation. In addition, we find that greater within-region inequalities in income and in the provision of public goods are associated with greater uncontrolled air pollution.