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John Rawls and compliance to climate change agreements: insights from a laboratory experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Klaudijo Klaser

    (Università degli Studi di Trento)

  • Lorenzo Sacconi

    (Università degli Studi di Milano
    Università Milano Bicocca)

  • Marco Faillo

    (Università degli Studi di Trento)

Abstract

The most evident shortcoming of the international agreements on climate actions is the compliance to their prescriptions. Can John Rawls’s social contract theory help us to solve the problem? We apply the veil of ignorance decision-making setting in a sequential dictator game to study the compliance to climate change agreements and we test the model in a laboratory experiment. The veil of ignorance shows to be very powerful at inducing the subjects to converge on a sustainable intergenerational path. However, the voluntary compliance to the agreement still remains an open issue, because even small incentives to defect can undermine the compliance stability, and therefore break the whole sustainable dynamic.

Suggested Citation

  • Klaudijo Klaser & Lorenzo Sacconi & Marco Faillo, 2021. "John Rawls and compliance to climate change agreements: insights from a laboratory experiment," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 531-551, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:21:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10784-021-09533-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10784-021-09533-8
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    International climate change agreements; Compliance; John Rawls; Social contract theory; Experimental economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • F64 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Environment
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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