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Is Democracy Good for the Environment? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Regime Transitions

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  • Laura Policardo

Abstract

This paper tests the hypothesis that democratisation is conducive to less environmental depletion due to human activity. Using interrupted time series design for a panel of 47 transition countries and two indexes of pollution, CO $$_{2}$$ 2 emissions and PM10 concentrations, I find that democracies and dictatorships have two different targets of environmental quality, with those of democracies higher than those of dictatorships. Income inequality may as well alter this targets, but with opposite effects in the two different regimes.

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  • Laura Policardo, 2016. "Is Democracy Good for the Environment? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Regime Transitions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(2), pages 275-300, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:64:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s10640-014-9870-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-014-9870-0
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    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Qianqian & Wang, Shaojian & Zhang, Wenzhong & Li, Jiaming & Kong, Yunlong, 2019. "Examining the effects of income inequality on CO2 emissions: Evidence from non-spatial and spatial perspectives," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 163-171.
    2. Abid Rashid Gill & Sallahuddin Hassan & K Kuperan Viswanathan, 2019. "Is democracy enough to get early turn of the environmental Kuznets curve in ASEAN countries?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(8), pages 1491-1505, December.
    3. Dong-Hyeon Kim & Yi-Chen Wu & Shu-Chin Lin, 2022. "Carbon dioxide emissions, financial development and political institutions," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 837-874, May.
    4. Acheampong, Alex O. & Opoku, Eric Evans Osei & Dzator, Janet, 2022. "Does democracy really improve environmental quality? Empirical contribution to the environmental politics debate," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Raufhon Salahodjaev, 2022. "Do female parliamentarians improve environmental quality? Cross-country evidence," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 22/001, African Governance and Development Institute..
    6. Mohamed Boly & Pascale Combes Motel & Jean-Louis Combes, 2019. "How much does environment pay for politicians?," Post-Print hal-02314982, HAL.
    7. Garmann, Sebastian, 2014. "Do government ideology and fragmentation matter for reducing CO2-emissions? Empirical evidence from OECD countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 1-10.
    8. Wolde-Rufael, Yemane & Idowu, Samuel, 2017. "Income distribution and CO2 emission: A comparative analysis for China and India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1336-1345.
    9. Kim, Dong-Hyeon & Suen, Yu-Bo & Lin, Shu-Chin, 2019. "Carbon dioxide emissions and trade: Evidence from disaggregate trade data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 13-28.
    10. Katarzyna Iwińska & Athanasios Kampas & Kerry Longhurst, 2019. "Interactions between Democracy and Environmental Quality: Toward a More Nuanced Understanding," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-17, March.
    11. Boly, Mohamed & Combes, Jean-Louis & Combes Motel, Pascale, 2023. "Does environment pay for politicians?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    12. Mihaela Simionescu & Beáta Gavurová, 2023. "Pollution, income inequality and green finance in the new EU member states," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Guesmi, Khaled & Makrychoriti, Panagiota & Spyrou, Spyros, 2023. "The relationship between climate risk, climate policy uncertainty, and CO2 emissions: Empirical evidence from the US," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 610-628.
    14. Bodganand, Dima & Canepa, Alessandra, 2024. "Environmental Performance and Institutions Quality in Europe: A Bayesian Model Averaging Approach," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202421, University of Turin.
    15. Muhammad Ibrahim Shah & Shujaat Abbas & Aminat Olayinka Olohunlana & Avik Sinha, 2023. "The impacts of land use change on biodiversity and ecosystem services: An empirical investigation from highly fragile countries," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 1384-1400, June.
    16. Yulin Liu & Min Zhang & Rujia Liu, 2020. "The Impact of Income Inequality on Carbon Emissions in China: A Household-Level Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, March.
    17. Mohammad Badrul Muttakin & Tarek Rana & Dessalegn Getie Mihret, 2022. "Democracy, national culture and greenhouse gas emissions: An international study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 2978-2991, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Democracy; Environment; Cointegration; Interrupted time series; Segmented regression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

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