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Time-varying causality between income inequality and ecological footprint in Turkey

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Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between income inequality and environmental degradation for the case of Turkey between 1987 and 2017 through the bootstrap causality method that changes over time. The study used the GINI coefficient to denote income inequality and ecological footprint (EFP) to represent environmental degradation. According to the analysis results, a causal relationship has been determined for Turkey from GINI to EFP between 2002 and 2015 and from EFP to GINI between 2002 and 2008. Thanks to the method used in the analysis, it was concluded that GINI-affected EFP positively between 2002 and 2005 and negatively between 2006 and 2015. Between 2002 and 2005, Turkey endured a difficult period of restructuring after two major banking crises in 1999 and 2001. The rapid development, especially in industry and urbanization, caused environmental degradation in this period. Between 2006 and 2015, the central dynamic of Turkey's growth trend was the finance sector, and rapid privatizations were realized. Nevertheless, the income justice improvement in this period negatively impacted the environment due to consumption and production habits. Policymakers should evaluate Turkey in its economic reality and produce policies accordingly. Environmental awareness should be increased in the production and consumption activities of all segments of society, benefiting from the developments in income distribution. The ecological impact of the income redistribution policy, along with its market and social consequences, needs to be evaluated.

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Data availability

All of the data used in the study were collected from publicly available data from the websites of the institutions listed below.

* Global Footprint Network (https://www.footprintnetwork.org).

* The Standardized World Income Inequality Database (https://fsolt.org).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Economics, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey

    Nurullah Altıntaş & Samet Acar

  2. Ünye Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Economics, Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey

    Mustafa Kırca

  3. Department of Public Administration, Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, Niğde, Turkey

    Abdullah Aydın

  4. Department of Banking and Insurance, Isparta University of Applied Sciences, Isparta, Turkey

    Musa Öztürk

Authors
  1. Nurullah Altıntaş
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  2. Mustafa Kırca
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  3. Samet Acar
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  4. Abdullah Aydın
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  5. Musa Öztürk
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Contributions

Nurullah Altıntaş: supervision and conceptualization. Mustafa Kırca: data curation and methodology writing—original draft. Samet Acar: writing—reviewing and editing. Abdullah Aydın: investigation. Musa Öztürk: writing—original draft.

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Correspondence to Samet Acar.

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Reponsible editor: Eyup Dogan

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Altıntaş, N., Kırca, M., Acar, S. et al. Time-varying causality between income inequality and ecological footprint in Turkey. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 11785–11797 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22910-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22910-3

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