Andrew Jorgenson | Boston College (original) (raw)

Papers by Andrew Jorgenson

Environmental Research Letters

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

Ekonomika

We assess the relationship between national-level income inequality and carbon dioxide emissions ... more We assess the relationship between national-level income inequality and carbon dioxide emissions for a sample of eleven post-Soviet nations during the 1992 to 2009 period. Our findings suggest that both total and per capita emissions are positively associated with income inequality, measured as a Gini coefficient. These results are consistent with analytical perspectives that highlight how income inequality could lead to increases in carbon emissions as well as recent sociological research on income inequality and emissions for samples of nations in other structural and geographical contexts.

Environmental Research Letters

Social Science Research, 2017

This study advances scholarship on environment and development by examining whether nations more ... more This study advances scholarship on environment and development by examining whether nations more embedded in the pro-environmental world society are more or less likely to experience a relative decoupling between economic development and carbon emissions over time. The authors calculate a network centrality measure using national-level membership data on environmental international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), and then employ the measure to create four subsamples of nations that are relatively more or less integrated in the environmental world society. The authors use interactions between measures of economic development and time in two-way fixed effects models to estimate the potentially changing effects of development on carbon emissions for the four subsamples of nations from 1970 to 2009. Results indicate that nations that are the most embedded in the environmental world society experienced a moderate decrease through time in the effect of development on carbon emissions, while the effect of development on emissions increased through time in the most peripheral nations.

The Institute For Research on World Systems, Feb 3, 2001

Nature Climate Change, 2012

International Sociology, 2009

ABSTRACT

Journal of Poverty, Oct 27, 2010

Int Sociol, 2010

This article explores the impact of foreign investment on development from an organizational pers... more This article explores the impact of foreign investment on development from an organizational perspective, by examining the role of foreign subsidiaries in the economic growth of less developed countries between 1970 and 2000. Two aspects of foreign subsidiaries are considered. The first is the total number of foreign subsidiaries located in a given country. The second dimension is ‘foreign subsidiary

Sustainability Science, Feb 25, 2015

ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between national-level militarism and consumption-b... more ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between national-level militarism and consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions. We analyze panel data from 1990 to 2010 for 81 nations to determine whether the magnitude of the effects of (1) military expenditures as percent of total Gross Domestic Product and (2) military personnel as percent of total labor force on carbon emissions change over time. Results of two-way fixed effects models highlight the temporal stability of the environmental impacts of both national-level military characteristics. The findings also reveal that the effect of military expenditures on emissions is larger in the more-developed OECD nations than in the developing non-OECD nations. Overall, the results support the treadmill of destruction perspective, which suggests that the nations’ militaries are an important social institution to consider in sustainability science research on the human drivers of global environmental change.

Organization Environment, 2010

... DOI: 10.1177/1086026610368376 2010 23: 189 Organization Environment Andrew K. Jorgenson, Jame... more ... DOI: 10.1177/1086026610368376 2010 23: 189 Organization Environment Andrew K. Jorgenson, James Rice and Brett Clark Cities, Slums, and Energy Consumption in Less Developed Countries, 1990 to 2005 Published by: ... Cities, Slums, and Energy Consumption in Less ...

Urban Studies, 2012

Drawing from various bodies of social scientific literature and research, the authors assess the ... more Drawing from various bodies of social scientific literature and research, the authors assess the extent to which infant and child mortality rates in less developed countries are impacted by the percentage of domestic populations living in urban slum conditions. Results of two-way fixed effects panel model estimates of 80 less developed countries from 1990 to 2005 indicate that growth in the percentage of populations living in urban slum conditions positively affects both forms of mortality rate. The effects, moreover, are much more pronounced for African countries than for less developed countries in Latin America and Asia and moderately larger for the Asian nations than those in Latin America. Additional findings suggest that the magnitude of the effect of urban slum prevalence on infant and child mortality increased through time for the African countries, but not for the Latin American and Asian countries in the study.

Sociological Inquiry, Jul 31, 2007

Environmental Research Letters

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

Ekonomika

Environmental Research Letters

Social Science Research, 2017

The Institute For Research on World Systems, Feb 3, 2001

Nature Climate Change, 2012

International Sociology, 2009

ABSTRACT

Journal of Poverty, Oct 27, 2010

Int Sociol, 2010

Sustainability Science, Feb 25, 2015

Organization Environment, 2010

Urban Studies, 2012

Sociological Inquiry, Jul 31, 2007

Sociological Theory, 2019

For years, sociologists who study the society-environment relationship have focused their attenti... more For years, sociologists who study the society-environment relationship have focused their attention on resolving the debate regarding the relationship between economic development and environmental degradation. Research coming from a family of critical perspectives tends to find that economic development is antithetical to environmental protection, while a suite of more optimistic perspectives has more hopeful findings. We attempt to resolve these differences by situating this debate within the larger framework of the Anthro-Shift. The Anthro-Shift explains how the society-environment relationship changes over time. The theory assumes that this relationship is the product of the interrelations among the state, market, and civil society sectors. We focus on two distinctive qualities of the Anthro-Shift: the role that risk plays as a pivot for reorienting how society interacts with the natural environment and the multidirectionality of the theory, highlighting how it combines elements of many of the dominant critical and optimistic perspectives into a broader framework.

This article provides a review of recent anthropological, archaeological, geographical, and socio... more This article provides a review of recent anthropological, archaeological, geographical, and sociological research on anthropogenic drivers of climate change, with a particular focus on drivers of carbon emissions, mitigation and adaptation. The four disciplines emphasize cultural, economic, geographic, historical, political, and social-structural factors to be important drivers of and responses to climate change. Each of these disciplines has unique perspectives and makes noteworthy contributions to our shared understanding of anthropogenic drivers, but they also complement one another and contribute to integrated, multidisciplinary frameworks. The article begins with discussions of research on temporal dimensions of human drivers of carbon emissions, highlighting interactions between long-term and near-term drivers. Next, descriptions of the disciplines' contributions to the understanding of mitigation and adaptation are provided. It concludes with a summary of key lessons offered by the four disciplines as well as suggestions for future research.

Sociological Science, 2018

Climate change is arguably the greatest threat to society as power plants, the single largest hum... more Climate change is arguably the greatest threat to society as power plants, the single largest human source of heat-trapping pollution, continue to emit massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Sociologists have identified several possible structural determinants of electricity-based CO 2 emissions, including international trade and global normative regimes, national political–legal systems, and organizational size and age. But because they treat these factors as competing predictors, scholars have yet to examine how they might work together to explain why some power plants emit vastly more pollutants than others. Using a worldwide data set of utility facilities and fuzzy-set methods, we analyze the conjoint effects of global, political, and organizational conditions on fossil-fueled plants' CO 2 emissions. Findings reveal that hyperpolluters' emission rates are a function of four distinct causal recipes, which we label coercive, quiescent, expropriative, and inertial configurations, and these same sets of conditions also increase plants' emission levels.

Health & Place, 2018

We test whether income inequality undermines female and male life expectancy in the United States... more We test whether income inequality undermines female and male life expectancy in the United States. We employ data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia and two-way fixed effects to model state-level average life expectancy as a function of multiple income inequality measures and time-varying characteristics. We find that state-level income inequality is inversely associated with female and male life expectancy. We observe this general pattern across four measures of income inequality and under the rigorous conditions of state-specific and year-specific fixed effects. If income inequality undermines life expectancy, redistribution policies could actually improve the health of states.

Environmental Research Letters, 2017

The combustion of fossil fuels for electricity generation, which accounts for a significant share... more The combustion of fossil fuels for electricity generation, which accounts for a significant share of the world's CO 2 emissions, varies by macro-regional context. Here we use multilevel regression modeling techniques to analyze CO 2 emissions levels in the year 2009 for 1360 fossil-fuel power plants in the 25 post-Soviet transition nations in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. We find that various facility-level factors are positively associated with plant-level emissions, including plant size, age, heat rate, capacity utilization rate, and coal as the primary fuel source. Results further indicate that plant-level emissions are lower, on average, in the transition nations that joined the European Union (EU), whose market reforms and environmental directives are relevant for emissions reductions. These negative associations between plant-level emissions and EU accession are larger for the nations that joined the EU in 2004 relative to those that joined in 2007. The findings also suggest that export-oriented development is positively associated with plant-level CO 2 emissions in the transition nations. Our results highlight the importance in macro-regional assessments of the conjoint effects of political and economic integration for facility-level emissions.

Social Science Research, 2017

Ecological Economics , 2017

This study investigates the relationship between U.S. state-level CO 2 emissions and two measures... more This study investigates the relationship between U.S. state-level CO 2 emissions and two measures of income inequality: the income share of the top 10% and the Gini coefficient. Each of the inequality measures, which focus on unique characteristics of income distributions, is used to evaluate the arguments of different analytical approaches. Results of the longitudinal analysis for the 1997 to 2012 period indicate that state-level emissions are positively associated with the income share of the top 10%, while the effect of the Gini coefficient on emissions is non-significant. The statistically significant relationship between CO 2 emissions and the concentration of income among the top 10% is consistent with analytical approaches that focus on political economy dynamics and Veblen effects, which highlight the potential political and economic power and emulative influence of the wealthy. The null effect of the Gini coefficient is generally inconsistent with the marginal propensity to emit approach , which posits that when incomes become more equally distributed, the poor will increase their consumption of energy and other carbon-intensive products as they move into the middle class.

The article begins by summarizing sociological approaches to (1) ecologically unequal exchange, a... more The article begins by summarizing sociological approaches to (1) ecologically unequal exchange, and (2) foreign investment dependence and environmental load displacement. These areas of sociological inquiry consist of structural theories and cross-national statistical analyses that test hypotheses derived from both approaches. It concludes by briefly describing sociological research on global civil society and the environment, with a focus on the world society approach to environmental change. This area of theory and research provides some insights on ways in which global and transnational civil society groups, such as environmental international nongovernmental organizations, can partially mitigate the environmental harms caused by ecologically unequal exchanges and environmental load displacements.

L'article commence par résumer les approches sociologiques portant sur (1) l'échange écologiquement inégal, et (2) la dépendance à l'investissement étranger et le déplacement de la charge environnementale. Ces domaines d'enquête sociologique consistent en des théories structurelles et des analyses statistiques transnationales que les hypothèses de test dérivées des deux approches. Il conclut en décrivant brièvement la recherche sociologique sur la société civile mondiale et de l'environnement, en mettant l'accent sur l'approche de la société mondiale aux changements environnementaux. Ce domaine de la théorie et de la recherche donne un aperçu sur la manière dont les groupes de la société civile mondiale et transnationales, telles que les organisations non gouvernementales internationales sur l'environnement, peuvent partiellement atténuer les dommages environnementaux causés par des échanges écologiquement inégaux et les déplacements de charge de l'environnement.

Este artículo resume para empezar los enfoques sociológicos sobre el comercio ecológicamente desigual, la dependencia de la inversión extranjera y el desplazamiento de las cargas ambientales. Combinamos, en estas áreas de análisis sociológico, la teorías estructurales con los análsis estadísticos internacionales para así comprobar hipótesis que se derivan de ambos enfoques. El artículo concluye con una breve descripción de la investigación sociológica sobre la sociedad civil global y el ambiente, poniendo atención en las relaciones entre la sociedad mundial y el cambio ambiental: ésta es un área teórica y de investigación que arroja luz sobre las maneras con que los grupos de la sociedad civil globales y transnacionales, como las ONG ambientalistas internacionales, pueden mitigar en parte los daños causados por los intercambios ecológicamente desiguales y los desplazamiento de las cargas ambientales.

Scientific Reports, 2016

Past research on the disproportionality of pollution suggests a small subset of a sector's facili... more Past research on the disproportionality of pollution suggests a small subset of a sector's facilities often produces the lion's share of toxic emissions. Here we extend this idea to the world's electricity sectors by calculating national-level disproportionality Gini coefficients for plant-level carbon emissions in 161 nations based on data from 19,941 fossil-fuel burning power plants. We also evaluate if disproportionalities in plant-level emissions are associated with increased national carbon emissions from fossil-fuel based electricity production, while accounting for other well-established human drivers of greenhouse gas emissions. Results suggest that one potential pathway to decreasing nations' greenhouse gas emissions could involve reducing disproportionality among fossil-fuel power plants by targeting those plants in the upper end of the distribution that burn fuels more inefficiently to produce electricity.

Sustainability Science, 2016

This study examines the relationship between national-level militarism and consumption-based carb... more This study examines the relationship between
national-level militarism and consumption-based carbon
dioxide emissions. We analyze panel data from 1990 to
2010 for 81 nations to determine whether the magnitude of
the effects of (1) military expenditures as percent of total
gross domestic product and (2) military personnel as percent
of total labor force on carbon emissions change over
time. Results of two-way fixed effects models highlight the
temporal stability of the environmental impacts of both
national-level military characteristics. The findings also
reveal that the effect of military expenditures on emissions
is larger in the more developed OECD nations than in the
developing non-OECD nations. Overall, the results support
the treadmill of destruction perspective, which suggests
that the nations’ militaries are an important social institution
to consider in sustainability science research on the
human drivers of global environmental change.

Energy Policy, 2016

Skeptics charge that energy efficiency may actually cause CO 2 emissions to rise. Few have examin... more Skeptics charge that energy efficiency may actually cause CO 2 emissions to rise. Few have examined whether such rebound effects occur among power plants. Little also known about whether plants' organizational and global characteristics condition rebounds. Conduct first analysis of rebound effects among the world's power plants. Rebounds found to depend on plants' age, size, and location in international economic and normative systems. a b s t r a c t The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and several nations suggest that energy efficiency is an effective strategy for reducing energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Skeptics contend that because efficiency lowers the price of energy and energy services, it may actually increase demand for them, causing total emissions to rise. While both sides of this debate have researched the magnitude of these so-called rebound effects among end-use consumers, researchers have paid less attention to the conditions under which direct rebounds cause CO 2 emissions to rise among industrial producers. In particular, researchers have yet to explore how organizational and global factors might condition the effects of efficiency on emissions among power plants, the world's most concentrated sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Here we use a unique dataset containing nearly every fossil-fuel power plant in the world to determine whether the impact of efficiency on emissions varies by plants' age, size, and location in global economic and normative systems. Findings reveal that each of these factors has a significant interaction with efficiency and thus shapes environmentally destructive rebound effects.

Structural human ecology is a vibrant area of theoretically grounded research that examines the i... more Structural human ecology is a vibrant area of theoretically grounded research that examines the interplay between structure and agency in human– environment interactions. This special issue consists of papers that highlight recent advances in the tradition. Here, the guest co-editors provide a short background discussion of structural human ecology, and offer brief summaries of the papers included in the collection.

Human Ecology Review

The authors investigate the relationship between U.S. state-level residential carbon emissions an... more The authors investigate the relationship between U.S. state-level residential carbon emissions and income inequality for the 1990–2012 period. Results of the analysis indicate a positive association between emissions and income inequality—measured as the Theil index—and these findings hold across a variety of model estimation techniques and net of the effects of other established human drivers of emissions. The authors conclude by underscoring the need for more research on the effects of income inequality on carbon emissions and other related environmental outcomes.

Drawing from multiple bodies of literature, the authors investigate the relationship between cons... more Drawing from multiple bodies of literature, the authors investigate the relationship between consumption-based carbon emissions and domestic income inequality for 67 nations from 1991 to 2008. Results of two-way fixed effects longitudinal models indicate that the relationship between national-level emissions and inequality changes through time and varies for nations in different macro-economic contexts. For High Income Nations, the relationship shifts from negative to positive, suggesting that in recent years, income inequality in such nations increases carbon emissions. For Middle Income Nations, the association is negative, and becomes increasingly negative in the later years of the study. For Low Income Nations, the relationship between carbon emissions and domestic income inequality is null for the entire 1991 to 2008 period. These diverse results hold, net of the effects of other well-established human drivers of emissions, including population size, level of economic development, and urbanization. The authors conclude by emphasizing the need for future research on greenhouse gas emissions and domestic inequality, and the central role that sociology should play in this emerging area of inquiry.

Social Science Research, 2007

The authors employ multiple theories within a political economy framework to examine the structur... more The authors employ multiple theories within a political economy framework to examine the structural predictors of the per capita ecological footprints of nations. Engaged theories include ecological modernization, treadmill of production, treadmill of destruction, and ecologically unequal exchange. Results of cross-national panel regression models indicate that the treadmill of production in the context of economic development increases per capita footprints, which contradicts general claims of ecological modernization theory. Similarly, the tread-mill of destruction in the mode of military expenditures per soldier positively affects per capita footprints. Those with relatively higher levels of exports sent to economically developed and militarily powerful nations experience suppressed consumption levels, and these effects are especially pronounced and increasingly so for less-developed countries, many of which consume resources well below globally sustainable thresholds. The latter sets of findings support key elements of ecologically unequal exchange theory. Ultimately, this research suggests that a political economy framework that considers domestic attributes and structural relationships in particular contexts is quite useful for understanding the consumption-based environmental harms of nations.

Sociologists have long debated the impacts of foreign investment for less developed countries. Ho... more Sociologists have long debated the impacts of foreign investment for less developed countries. However, the-orization fails to articulate the potential environmental consequences of foreign investment dependence. Here, an ecostructural theory of investment dependence is proposed and a derived hypothesis is tested. The hypothesis states that less developed countries dependent on foreign investment in manufacturing exhibit higher levels of per capita noxious gas emissions. These anthropogenic emissions contribute to global warming, climate change, and a variety of human health problems. To test the hypothesis, newly available panel data for the emission of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide gas as well as measures of foreign investment in manufacturing are analyzed in random effects generalized least squares (GLS) panel regression models for 39 less developed countries. Findings confirm the hypothesis, even when controlling for domestic investment, the relative size of the manufacturing sector, level of development, and other factors. Overall, the analyses support the ecostructural theory of foreign investment dependence, and underscore the sociological relevance in considering the environmental impacts of the transnational organization of production as well as the overall scale of production.