Arbeitspapier

Democracy Deficits, Inequality and Pollution. A Politico-Economic Analysis

The article examines conditions, under which the degree of democratization influences environmental policy outcomes, with a given resource endowments' heterogeneity as a crucial feature of a politico-economic process. We develop an OLG model with pollution as an aggregate externality. The decisive voter chooses redistribution contributing to abatement financing. By comparing the optimal taxation under alternative political regimes we analyze their implications for environment, efficiency and growth. We find that left regimes, choosing more progressive redistribution, maintain better environmental quality, which supports empirical research. Inequality does not appear to be harmful for the environment, and it dampens the effect of democracy imperfections on redistribution.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: Diskussionsbeitrag ; No. 323

Classification
Wirtschaft
Environmental Economics: Government Policy
Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
Subject
Pollution
Political Economy
Inequality
Redistribution
Growth

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Drosdowski, Thomas
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
(where)
Hannover
(when)
2005

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Drosdowski, Thomas
  • Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät

Time of origin

  • 2005

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