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Market competition, lobbying influence and environmental externalities

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  • Catola, Marco
  • D'Alessandro, Simone

Abstract

In this paper, we contribute to the debate regarding the relationship between lobbying and environmental regulation by explicitly taking into account the role of market competition. We analyse how the number of firms affects both the effectiveness of lobbying in fighting environmental regulation and the individual incentive for firms to switch to green technology. To explore this issue, we present a Cournot oligopoly where firms can choose between abating the environmental externality or lobbying the government to hold a loose regulation. We investigate two alternative government's political objectives. In the first, government aims to only minimise the externality, while in the second, it also cares about the consumers surplus. We find that, in both cases, the higher the number of firms, the higher the incentive to abate. However, while in the first case, either both types of firms coexist or all firms switch to be green, in the other case, there exists a minimum the number of firms below which all firms remain polluting.

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  • Catola, Marco & D'Alessandro, Simone, 2020. "Market competition, lobbying influence and environmental externalities," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:63:y:2020:i:c:s0176268020300343
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2020.101886
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    2. Xuan Chen & Liang Zhang, 2022. "Do negative environmental media reports increase environmental information disclosures? A comparative analysis based on political connections and market competition," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2480-2500, September.
    3. Hirose, Kosuke & Ishihara, Akifumi & Matsumura, Toshihiro, 2024. "Tax versus regulations: Polluters’ incentives for loosening industry emission targets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
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    6. Liu, Yongzheng & Zhang, Xiaoge, 2023. "Environmental regulation, political incentives, and mortality in China," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Marco Catola & Silvia Leoni, 2023. "Pollution Abatement and Lobbying in a Cournot Game. An Agent-Based Modelling approach," Discussion Papers 2023/294, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Lobbying; Interest group; Regulation; Pollution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

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