Kemp-Benedict, E. orcid.org/0000-0001-5794-7172 (2013) Inequality and Trust: Testing a Mediating Relationship for Environmental Sustainability. Sustainability, 5 (2). pp. 779-788. ISSN 2071-1050
Abstract
Instrumental arguments linking inequality to environmental sustainability often suppose a negative relationship between inequality and social cohesion. While social cohesion is difficult to measure, there are measures of a narrower concept, social trust, and empirical studies have shown that social trust is negatively related to inequality. In this paper we test whether at least part of the observed relationship may be explained by income level, rather than income distribution. We use individual response data from the World Values Survey at the income decile level, and find evidence that income level is indeed important in explaining differences in levels of social trust, but it is insufficient to explain all of the dependence. In the sample used for the study, we find that both income level and income distribution help explain differences in social trust between countries.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2013 by the author. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | trust; inequality; social capital; social cohesion |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Dec 2024 15:23 |
Last Modified: | 05 Dec 2024 15:23 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/su5020779 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:220497 |