Exploring the Nature of Strategic Interactions in the Ratification Process of the Kyoto Protocol

Alexandre Sauquet (1)

1 CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International

Do countries interact when they decide to ratify the Kyoto protocol? What is the nature of these possible interactions? To answer these questions we provide a theoretical analysis based on the notions of strategic substitutability and strategic complementarity. Firstly, we analyze the nature of interactions between countries when they merely seek to provide a global public good. Secondly, we argue that countries are interlinked in several dimensions in the real world and we try to shed light on the nature of strategic interactions generated by geographic proximity, trade flows, and green investment flows. The empirical investigation is realized via the estimation of a parametric survival model and our data sample covers the period from 1998 to 2009 for 164 countries. We find evidence that while countries' decision are basically strategic substitutes, they became strategic complements when we focus on the decision of specific peers.

Mots clés: Survival model; Strategic Substitutes/complements; Ratification; Kyoto Protocol; International Environmental Agreements

Domaines: Economies et finances

Alexandre Sauquet. Exploring the Nature of Strategic Interactions in the Ratification Process of the Kyoto Protocol. 2011. ⟨halshs-00607785v2⟩