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Strategic Delegation of Environmental Policy Making

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Author Info
Hein Roelfsema ()

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Abstract

A common claim is that nations should cooperate in environmental policy making. However, there is little empirical support that noncooperative decision making results in too low environmental standards and taxes. We develop a theoretical model and show that if the median voter cares sufficiently for the environment, she has an incentive to delegate policy making to a politician that cares more for the environment than she does herself. By doing so, she mitigates the`race to the bottom' in environmental taxes. In contrast, if environmental policies are determined cooperatively with other countries, the median voter has an incentive to delegate policy making to a politician that cares less for the environment than she does herself, so as to free ride on international environmental agreements.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Utrecht School of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 04-11.

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Length: 21 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:use:tkiwps:0411

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Related research
Keywords: environmental policy; international policy coordination; strategic delegation.;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies
F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
Q2 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Kennedy Peter W., 1994. "Equilibrium Pollution Taxes in Open Economies with Imperfect Competition," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 49-63, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Robert Dur & Hein Roelfsema, 2005. "Why does centralisation fail to internalise policy externalities?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 395-416, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. John A. List & Shelby Gerking, 2000. "Regulatory Federalism and Environmental Protection in the United States," Journal of Regional Science, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(3), pages 453-471. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Grossman, Gene M & Helpman, Elhanan, 1994. "Protection for Sale," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 833-50, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Aidt, Toke S., 1998. "Political internalization of economic externalities and environmental policy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 1-16, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Besley, Timothy J. & Coate, Stephen, 2000. "Centralized versus Decentralized Provision of Local Public Goods: a Political Economy Analysis," CEPR Discussion Papers 2495, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Murdoch, James C. & Sandler, Todd, 1997. "The voluntary provision of a pure public good: The case of reduced CFC emissions and the Montreal Protocol," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 331-349, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Didier Laussel & Raymond Riezman, 2000. "The Sources of Protectionist Drift in Representative Democracies," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1086, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2003. "Trade, Growth and the Environment," NBER Working Papers 9823, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Werner Antweiler & Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2001. "Is Free Trade Good for the Environment?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 877-908, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. Fredriksson, Per G., 1997. "The Political Economy of Pollution Taxes in a Small Open Economy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 44-58, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Grossman, Gene M & Helpman, Elhanan, 1995. "Trade Wars and Trade Talks," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(4), pages 675-708, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Aidt, Toke & Greiner, Sandra, 2002. "Sharing the Climate Policy Burden in the EU," Discussion Paper Series 26159, Hamburg Institute of International Economics. [Downloadable!]
  14. repec:att:wimass:1920310 is not listed on IDEAS
  15. Schleich, Joachim, 1999. "Environmental quality with endogenous domestic and trade policies1," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 53-71, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Portney, Paul & Oates, Wallace, 2001. "The Political Economy of Environmental Policy," Discussion Papers dp-01-55, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
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  17. Hoel, Michael, 1991. "Global environmental problems: The effects of unilateral actions taken by one country," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 55-70, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Ulph, Alistair, 1996. "Environmental Policy and International Trade when Governments and Producers Act Strategically," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 265-281, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Fredriksson, Per G. & Millimet, Daniel L., 2002. "Strategic Interaction and the Determination of Environmental Policy across U.S. States," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 101-122, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 1997. "An Economic Model of Representative Democracy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(1), pages 85-114, February.
    Other versions:
  21. Daniel C. Esty, 2001. "Bridging the Trade-Environment Divide," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 113-130, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Hattori, Keisuke, 2007. "Strategic Voting for Noncooperative Environmental Policies in Open Economies," MPRA Paper 6333, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Kimiko Terai, 2008. "International Coordination and Domestic Politics," Working Papers 080907, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Grischa Perino, 2008. "How Delegation Improves Commitment," Working Papers 0466, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2008. [Downloadable!]
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