How much does environment pay for politicians?

Mohamed Boly (1) , Jean-Louis Combes (1) , Pascale Combes Motel (1)

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

We empirically explore how elections impact climate change policy and environmental degradation, using a sample of 76 democratic countries over the period 1990‐2014. Three key results emerge from our system‐GMM estimations. First, election years are characterized by an increase in C02 emissions, even though the effect weakens over the recent years. Second, this effect is present only in established democracies, where incumbents engage in fiscal manipulation through the composition of public spending rather than its level. Third, higher freedom of the press and high environmental preferences from citizens reduce the size of this trade‐off between pork barrel spending and the public good, namely environment quality.

Mots clés: CO2 emissions; Elections; Environmental policy; Panel data

Domaines: Economies et finances; Méthodes et statistiques; Etudes de l'environnement

Mohamed Boly, Jean-Louis Combes, Pascale Combes Motel. How much does environment pay for politicians?. 2020. ⟨halshs-01845067v2⟩