Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Environment Systems and Decisions, cilt.46, sa.2, 2026 (Scopus)
This study re-examines the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis by addressing an important gap in the income-environment literature: the limited attention paid to the role of top income concentration in shaping carbon emissions. While the conventional EKC framework primarily focuses on the relationship between average income and environmental degradation, it largely overlooks how income concentration at the upper end of the distribution may condition the income-emissions nexus. To address this gap, the study investigates whether the income share of the richest 1% affects both the level of carbon emissions and the shape of the EKC relationship across different emission quantiles. The econometric strategy employs a penalized fixed-effects panel quantile regression approach covering 47 high-income and 75 middle-income countries over the period 1980–2024. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity in the EKC relationship across emission regimes. The inverted-U relationship between income and carbon emissions emerges primarily in the upper quantiles of the emissions distribution, while for lower quantiles the estimated turning points lie outside the observable income range. These findings suggest that the environmental transition predicted by the EKC is not a universal outcome of income growth but is conditional on countries’ positions within the emissions distribution. In addition, top income concentration is found to be positively associated with carbon emissions and to condition the income–emissions relationship. The results remain robust when the income share of the top 10% is used as an alternative measure of income concentration. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of incorporating distributional structure into EKC analysis and suggest that inequality plays a significant role in shaping environmental pressures across countries.