DOI: https://doi.org/10.36347/sjebm.2026.v13i03.010

Pages: 177-185

Worldwide researchers investigate environmental sustainability and its determining factors. Much research has been done on the EKC hypothesis, and unequal income distribution is also a determining factor of environmental sustainability, but very little research has investigated the relationship between unequal income distribution and environmental sustainability. Rich people always follow sustainable consumption, poor people depend more on the natural resources, but middle-income people follow a more energy-intensive and unsustainable consumption pattern. Therefore, unequal income distribution can affect the sustainability of the environment. Our research focused on the effect of unequal income distribution (measured by Gini inequality) on environmental sustainability (measured by the Ecological Footprint), and also focused on whether the EKC hypothesis holds for developed and developing countries. We empirically investigate 24 developed and 28 developing countries for the years 1995 to 2018. We have used a panel regression model (fixed and random effect model), and for comparison, we have used F statistic. We have found that income inequality is significantly negatively correlated with the ecological footprint in developed countries and significantly positively correlated in developing countries. The EKC hypothesis holds for both developed and developing countries. Per capita mean ecological footprint is higher in developed countries than in developing countries, and the mean Gini is higher in developing countries than in developed countries. The government should take a policy that will reduce the ecological footprint in developed countries and reduce income inequality in developing countries.