Impact of Income Inequality on Carbon Emission Efficiency: Evidence from China

Alleviating income inequality and improving carbon emission efficiency are essential objective functions of China’s economic transformation and development, and there is an internal connection between them that cannot be ignored. This analysis adopts a fixed-effects model consisting of data from 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2013 to 2022, combined with the adjustment effect and threshold effect models, to empirically test the proposed theoretical hypothesis. The study found the following: (1) Rising income inequality significantly inhibits carbon emission efficiency. (2) Increasing population aging will strengthen the negative correlation between income inequality and carbon emission efficiency. (3) An increase in economic growth will weaken the negative correlation between income inequality and carbon emission efficiency. (4) Due to population aging and economic growth, a non-linear threshold exists between income inequality and carbon emission efficiency. The research provides decision-making references for coordinating the high-quality development of the regional economy.