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Date of Award
2-2009
Access Type
Campus Access
Document type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Economics
First Advisor
James K. Boyce
Second Advisor
Michael Ash
Third Advisor
Bernard Morzuch
Subject Categories
Economics | Environmental Sciences | Geography
Abstract
This dissertation is an attempt to contribute to the literature that seeks to move beyond income-centered approaches to environmental degradation by examining the other socio-economic factors that influence environmental quality. The first part of the dissertation utilizes the Russian Statistical Agency's data on air pollution and deforestation in Russia to answer the question of what relationship, if any, exists between the quality of governance, income and power inequalities and environmental degradation. The major finding here is that, holding income constant, greater inequalities in income and in the provision of public goods are associated with more environmental degradation. The second part of this dissertation addresses the question of what impact, if any, inequalities among Russia's regions have on environmental degradation at the regional level. By developing two methods for distinguishing be- tween changes in the absolute level of income and changes in the relative level of income, and controlling for the former, this dissertation finds that regions with lower relative incomes have more uncontrolled pollution and more net deforestation than regions whose incomes are high in relative terms. Moreover, these differences cannot be attributed simply to differences in spending on environmental protection; they appear to reflect differences in the location of environmentally degrading activities.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/5642258
Recommended Citation
Vornovytskyy, Marina S, "Linkages Between Inequality And Environmental Degradation: An Interregional Perspective" (2009). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 26.
https://doi.org/10.7275/5642258
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/26