Is There a Natural Resource Curse on Environmental Inequality? The Evidence of Political Concentration in Developing Countries

Mondjeli Mwa Ndjokou, Université de Yaoundé II
Valentine Soumtang Bime , Université de Yaoundé II
AGATHE CASSANDRA KOUMIS NGAGNI, University of Douala

Environmental inequalities have been the focus of attention for a number of years. However, the effects that natural resources can have on these inequalities remain little explored. Also, little is known about the mediating effects in this relationship. With this in mind, the aim of this article is to examine the effect of political concentration in the relationship between natural resources and environmental inequality in DCs. To achieve this objective, the article uses a large panel of 81 DCs from 1995 to 2020 using the generalised method of moments. The estimations lead to several results: Natural resources reduce environmental inequality in our sample. Taking into account the effect of political concentration, results show that political concentration increases the perverse effect of natural resources on environmental inequality. An analysis of the heterogeneity of our results shows that the negative effect of natural resources on environmental inequality, as well as the increasing effect of political concentration, are only true for low-income countries. The results remain stable when additional variables are added, when the level of political concentration and democracy are taken into account, when the measure of environmental inequality and natural resources is changed, and when a different data structure is used.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Population, Environment, and Climate Change

See paper.