University of Southern California

Recent research has suggested that reducing disparities in income may promote economic growth. A parallel set of research suggests that reducing environmental inequality related to race and income can improve environmental quality overall. Researchers at USC and UC Berkeley used Foundation funding in 2013 to gather the data for empirically testing this theory. In 2014, the team would complete this empirical work and produce a report for advocates and decision makers linking environmental inequality and environmental quality, particularly with respect to issues of climate change.

USC’s Equity Research Institute (ERI) provides data and analysis to power social change. ERI produces research and facilitates discussions on issues of the economic, environmental, and social conditions facing low-income communities and immigrant populations — and the social movements that are working to change those conditions. ERI, in partnership with the Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz, is working on a theory, narrative, and policy platform of “solidarity economics,” which address widening income inequality, rising economic insecurities, and growing social and racial fragmentation, while also promoting innovation and economic growth. It approaches this work in collaboration with social movement organizers and change-makers seeking to make “solidarity economics” a reality.

New economic research shows that inequality tends to slow the economic growth of nations. Professors Manuel Pastor (USC) and Rachel Morello-Frosch (UC Berkeley) would empirically test if this also holds true in the environmental realm. The researchers would spend a year gathering evidence and writing a report examining whether and how environmental equity is connected to long-term environmental sustainability. The work would be disseminated widely through public speaking, social, media, and an aggressive press agenda during the second year of the project.