Title: Income inequality and environmental degradation: estimates with panel data in Brazilian states

Authors: André Luiz Marques Serrano; Vinicius Amorim Sobreiro; José Carneiro da Cunha Oliveira Neto

Addresses: Faculty of Economics, Management and Accounting – FACE, Department of Management, University of Brasília – UnB, Campus Darcy Ribeiro, Brasília, Federal District 70910-900, Brazil ' Faculty of Economics, Management and Accounting – FACE, Department of Management, University of Brasília – UnB, Campus Darcy Ribeiro, Brasília, Federal District 70910-900, Brazil ' Faculty of Economics, Management and Accounting – FACE, Department of Management, University of Brasília – UnB, Campus Darcy Ribeiro, Brasília, Federal District 70910-900, Brazil

Abstract: In recent years, income inequality and environmental degradation studies of BRICs members or countries such as Brazil have become a topic of lively debate because of their significant influence on regional and global affairs and fast-growing economies. Taking this into account and extending the line of research of Bhattacharya and Lueck, Chimeli, Vollebergh, Melenberg and Dijkgraaf and Wei, the present paper examines the economic relationship between income inequality and environmental degradation with panel data in the Brazilian states. In order to examine this way, in which subjects are connected, the ordinary least squares - OLS is used, considering the fuzzy set theory. In conclusion, we identified that the relationship between the social and environmental indexes were not significant. Consequently, we believe that the main explanation for this result is the lack of non-specialised workforce and several laws for controlling the environmental degradation in many Brazilian states.

Keywords: income inequality; environmental degradation; panel data; Brazil; ordinary least squares; OLS; fuzzy set theory; fuzzy logic; legislation.

DOI: 10.1504/LAJMSD.2015.067469

Latin American Journal of Management for Sustainable Development, 2015 Vol.2 No.1, pp.36 - 46

Received: 08 Apr 2013
Accepted: 30 Apr 2013
Published online: 14 Feb 2015 *

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