Political-economic correlates of environmental policy

Arbeitspapier

Does globalization lead to environmental degradation? What is the role of democracy for environmental performance and do left-wing governments really care more about the environment? Using a comprehensive measure of environmental performance, we test these three hypotheses for a panel of 134 countries for the period 2007-2016. Our findings show that globalization leads to better environmental performances. Interestingly, this result is predominantly driven by social, not by economic or political globalization. Although we find evidence that left-wing governments perform better than right-wing governments, it is centrist governments that have the highest environmental performance. The political system, i.e. democracy, turns out insignificant in all specifications.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Discussion Paper Series ; No. 39

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic Impacts of Globalization: Environment ; Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products ; Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
• Subject: Environment ; Globalization ; Political Orientation ; Democracy ; Environmental performance index ; KOF globalization index

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kammerlander, Andreas ; Schulze, Günther G.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Freiburg, Department of International Economic Policy (iep)
• (where): Freiburg i. Br.
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/224743
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET