The Environmental Consequences of Economic Inequalities: A Systematic Empirical Literature Review

The Environmental Consequences of Economic Inequalities: A Systematic Empirical Literature Review | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The Environmental Consequences of Economic Inequalities: A Systematic Empirical Literature Review Luc Elie, Tobias Angel, Alexandre Berthe This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8107928/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Greater economic inequalities increase environmental degradation in most cases. Building on evidence from 136 studies and 406 empirical tests between 1998 and 2022, we construct a database enabling an in-depth analysis of the literature. Our main findings are threefold. First, high levels of inequality lead to high levels of regional and local environmental pressure, whereas they have mixed effects on climate change. Furthermore, greater inequalities weaken environmental responses, including public policies. Second, empirical analyses are increasingly focusing on climate change, employing diverse methods and inequality indicators and broadening the countries studied. However, developing countries are less well investigated. Third, theoretical transmission channels remain fairly untested, while new empirical results are not accounted for in theoretical frameworks. The development of new empirical strategies to identify the dominant channels through which inequalities constitute an obstacle to the ecological transition is now essential. Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Economics Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Environmental economics Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Environmental impact Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files supplementaryinfonaturesub.pdf Supplementary informations Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8107928","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":544670896,"identity":"36fee832-434d-4073-a713-9e558c50aa1f","order_by":0,"name":"Luc Elie","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA1UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACPjBZIMHALwFmScgwMB/Ar4UNTBpIMEjOYGBsAGrhYWBLIEoLEN0Aa2EgQotE8gOGDwYWcsa3m48/ulFjAdTC+4CAljQDxhkGEsZmd44lNuccAzmM3YCAlhwGZh4DicRtN3IMm3PYgFrk2wg5DKjlj4FE/eYZIC3/QLawEaEFGGIJBhJALbltxGjheWZwsMdAwnDGjbTE2bl9EjxshLTwsyc/fPCjok6ef0bygc853+rk+AlpAYEDqPYS1jAKRsEoGAWjgBAAAP3MNLc47mvmAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6556-833X","institution":"Institut polytechnique de Paris","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Luc","middleName":"","lastName":"Elie","suffix":""},{"id":544670897,"identity":"c0ca5817-8534-4156-a29a-51efaea9dc76","order_by":1,"name":"Tobias Angel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Université Paris Cité","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tobias","middleName":"","lastName":"Angel","suffix":""},{"id":544670898,"identity":"f95501d3-de26-426a-9a35-a2b6e3c543ba","order_by":2,"name":"Alexandre Berthe","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Rennes 2","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Alexandre","middleName":"","lastName":"Berthe","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-11-13 16:58:46","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8107928/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8107928/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":97684557,"identity":"8110d197-d7d0-45e0-9c3a-ccc5d2ae2394","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-08 10:07:20","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":560239,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"articlenaturesub.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8107928/v1_covered_71e7cba5-79ea-4d65-bec2-3313c71fc64a.pdf"},{"id":96037319,"identity":"31082f9c-40c6-42c6-8e63-b421e12ddda8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-17 03:13:36","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":1219047,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary informations","description":"","filename":"supplementaryinfonaturesub.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8107928/v1/4cb0c74d73ff747c962e05cf.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"The Environmental Consequences of Economic Inequalities: A Systematic Empirical Literature Review","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8107928/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8107928/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Greater economic inequalities increase environmental degradation in most cases. 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