Effects of Green Entrepreneurial Innovation, Energy Diversification and Sustainable Development on Income Inequality: Evidence From Emerging Asian Countries

This study investigates the impact of green entrepreneurial innovations, energy diversification, economic complexity, economic growth, energy intensity, and government spending on income inequality in seven emerging Asian economies from 1998 to 2022. Using advanced methods such as the quantile-on-quantile, cross quantilogram, and wavelet-quantile regression, we reveal that eco-innovation and energy diversification play crucial roles in reducing inequality. Results show that process eco-innovations and climate change mitigation patents significantly reduce inequality, particularly at higher Gini quantiles. Likewise, GDP growth lowers inequality in high-inequality contexts, with negative coefficients reaching −0.24. Energy diversification is found to decrease inequality at low and medium quantiles. Policy implications suggest integrating diverse energy sources, expanding access to affordable energy, and subsidizing renewable adoption for low-income households and businesses to mitigate inequality and promote inclusive, sustainable growth.