IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/ajlecn/v7y2016i3p305-322n4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Economics of Green Constitutions

Author

Listed:
  • Imhof Sina
  • Gutmann Jerg
  • Voigt Stefan

    (University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics, Hamburg, Germany)

Abstract

Over the last decades, more and more countries have integrated environmental protection into their constitution. In this article, we argue that a simple economic model can explain why some countries have adopted the legal innovation of constitutional environmental protection, while others have not. Environmental protection can be thought of as an investment that only pays off over the long term, and may even imply intergenerational redistribution to the advantage of future generations. Moreover, the adoption of constitutional environmental protection leads to the provision of public goods, which redistributes resources among all members of a society. Taken together, these arguments imply that democratic states with a culture that favors future-oriented behavior are more likely to entrench environmental protection in their constitution. We study the adoption of constitutional environmental protection in a panel dataset for 122 countries using semi-parametric survival analysis techniques. Our results suggest that future-oriented preferences are a robust determinant of a country’s propensity to adopt a green constitution. Political institutions are less important and do not exert a statistically significant effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Imhof Sina & Gutmann Jerg & Voigt Stefan, 2016. "The Economics of Green Constitutions," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(3), pages 305-322, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:ajlecn:v:7:y:2016:i:3:p:305-322:n:4
    DOI: 10.1515/ajle-2016-0025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ajle-2016-0025
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ajle-2016-0025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Bernauer & Tobias Böhmelt & Vally Koubi, 2013. "Is There a Democracy–Civil Society Paradox in Global Environmental Governance?," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(1), pages 88-107, February.
    2. Christian Bjørnskov & Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard, 2014. "Economic Growth and Institutional Reform in Modern Monarchies and Republics: A Historical Cross-Country Perspective 1820-2000," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 170(3), pages 453-481, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jeffords, Chris, 2021. "On the relationship between constitutional environmental human rights and sustainable development outcomes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    2. Gutmann, Jerg & Voigt, Stefan, 2020. "Traditional law in times of the nation state: why is it so prevalent?," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 445-461, August.
    3. Schaewitz, Johannes & Wang, Mei & Rieger, Marc Oliver, 2022. "Culture and Institutions: Long-lasting effects of communism on risk and time preferences of individuals in Europe," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 785-829.
    4. Florian Kiesow Cortez & Jerg Gutmann, 2021. "Domestic Institutions and the Ratification of International Agreements in a Panel of Democracies," International Law and Economics, in: Florian Kiesow Cortez (ed.), The Political Economy of International Agreements, pages 37-62, Springer.
    5. Marc Oliver Rieger & Mei Wang & Thorsten Hens, 2021. "Universal time preference," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-15, February.
    6. Marc Oliver Rieger & Mei Wang & Thorsten Hens, 2020. "Universal Time Preference," Working Paper Series 2020-07, University of Trier, Research Group Quantitative Finance and Risk Analysis.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bellelli, Francesco S. & Scarpa, Riccardo & Aftab, Ashar, 2023. "An empirical analysis of participation in international environmental agreements," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    2. Tobias Böhmelt & Jürg Vollenweider, 2015. "Information flows and social capital through linkages: the effectiveness of the CLRTAP network," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 105-123, May.
    3. Alotaish Mohammed Saud M. & Ping Guo & Ihtisham ul Haq & Guoqin Pan & Alam Khan, 2019. "Do government expenditure and financial development impede environmental degradation in Venezuela?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, January.
    4. Oliver Westerwinter, 2021. "Transnational public-private governance initiatives in world politics: Introducing a new dataset," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 137-174, January.
    5. Kauder, Björn & Potrafke, Niklas & Ursprung, Heinrich, 2018. "Behavioral determinants of proclaimed support for environment protection policies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 26-41.
    6. Maggioni, Daniela & Santangelo, Grazia D., 2017. "Local Environmental Non-Profit Organizations and the Green Investment Strategies of Family Firms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 126-138.
    7. George Tridimas, 2014. "Why some democracies are headed by a monarch?," ICER Working Papers 07-2014, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    8. Jan Beyers & Marcel Hanegraaff, 2017. "Balancing friends and foes: Explaining advocacy styles at global diplomatic conferences," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 461-484, September.
    9. Christian Bjørnskov & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2013. "Is trust the missing root of institutions, education, and development?," Post-Print CEB, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 157(3-4), pages 641-669, December.
    10. Tobias Böhmelt & Carola Betzold, 2013. "The impact of environmental interest groups in international negotiations: Do ENGOs induce stronger environmental commitments?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 127-151, May.
    11. Bjørnskov, Christian, 2022. "Coups and Economic Crises," Working Paper Series 1449, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    12. Kana Inata, 2021. "Power-sharing negotiation and commitment in monarchies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 501-518, June.
    13. Mazaheri Nimah, 2013. "The Saudi monarchy and economic familism in an era of business environment reforms," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(3), pages 295-321, October.
    14. Never, Babette & Betz, Joachim, 2014. "Comparing the Climate Policy Performance of Emerging Economies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-15.
    15. Tobias Böhmelt & Edita Butkutė, 2018. "The self-selection of democracies into treaty design: insights from international environmental agreements," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 351-367, June.
    16. Federica Genovese & Endre Tvinnereim, 2019. "Who opposes climate regulation? Business preferences for the European emission trading scheme," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 511-542, September.
    17. Arif, Imran & Hall, Joshua C., 2019. "International flows of people and institutional change," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 276-288.
    18. Wang, Quan-Jing & Peng, Xin-Yu & Wang, Hai-Jie & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2023. "The diversity impact of democracy on forest protection: Global evidence," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    19. (ed.), 0. "Research Handbook on Economic Diplomacy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16053.
    20. Tobias Böhmelt, 2013. "A closer look at the information provision rationale: Civil society participation in states’ delegations at the UNFCCC," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 55-80, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    democracy; endogenous constitutional rights; environmental protection; future orientation; long-term orientation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:ajlecn:v:7:y:2016:i:3:p:305-322:n:4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.