IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v8y2016i3p285-d66148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Paradise Islands? Island States and Environmental Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Sverker C. Jagers

    (Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg 40530, Sweden)

  • Marina Povitkina

    (Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg 40530, Sweden)

  • Martin Sjöstedt

    (Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg 40530, Sweden)

  • Aksel Sundström

    (Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg 40530, Sweden)

Abstract

Island states have been shown to outperform continental states on a number of large-scale coordination-related outcomes, such as levels of democracy and institutional quality. The argument developed and tested in this article contends that the same kind of logic may apply to islands’ environmental performance, too. However, the empirical analysis shows mixed results. Among the 105 environmental outcomes that we analyzed, being an island only has a positive impact on 20 of them. For example, island states tend to outcompete continental states with respect to several indicators related to water quality but not in aspects related to biodiversity, protected areas, or environmental regulations. In addition, the causal factors previously suggested to make islands outperform continental states in terms of coordination have weak explanatory power in predicting islands’ environmental performance. We conclude the paper by discussing how these interesting findings can be further explored.

Suggested Citation

  • Sverker C. Jagers & Marina Povitkina & Martin Sjöstedt & Aksel Sundström, 2016. "Paradise Islands? Island States and Environmental Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-24, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:3:p:285-:d:66148
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/3/285/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/3/285/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Duit, 2011. "Patterns of Environmental Collective Action: Some Cross‐National Findings," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 59(4), pages 900-920, December.
    2. Harvey W. Armstrong & Robert Read, 1998. "Trade and Growth in Small States: The Impact of Global Trade Liberalisation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 563-585, June.
    3. Easterly, William & Kraay, Aart, 2000. "Small States, Small Problems? Income, Growth, and Volatility in Small States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2013-2027, November.
    4. S. Kuznets, 1960. "Economic Growth Of Small Nations," International Economic Association Series, in: E. A. G. Robinson (ed.), Economic Consequences of the Size of Nations, chapter 0, pages 14-32, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Oecd, 2003. "Broadband Driving Growth: Policy Responses," OECD Digital Economy Papers 75, OECD Publishing.
    6. repec:lan:wpaper:898 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Naidu, Sirisha C., 2009. "Heterogeneity and Collective Management: Evidence from Common Forests in Himachal Pradesh, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 676-686, March.
    8. repec:lan:wpaper:899 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Srebrnik, Henry, 2004. "Small Island Nations and Democratic Values," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 329-341, February.
    10. Congdon Fors, Heather, 2014. "Do island states have better institutions?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 34-60.
    11. Federico Etro, 2006. "Political geography," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 321-343, June.
    12. Steven P. Lanza, 2003. "Sectoral Sources of Connecticut Job Growth," The Connecticut Economy, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, issue Winter.
    13. Agrawal, Arun & Gibson, Clark C., 1999. "Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 629-649, April.
    14. Anckar, Dag, 2004. "Direct Democracy in Microstates and Small Island States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 379-390, February.
    15. Firmin-Sellers, Kathryn, 1995. "The Politics of Property Rights," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(4), pages 867-881, December.
    16. Cole, Matthew A., 2007. "Corruption, income and the environment: An empirical analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3-4), pages 637-647, May.
    17. Hadenius,Axel, 1992. "Democracy and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521416856.
    18. Erdlenbruch, Katrin & Tidball, Mabel & van Soest, Daan, 2008. "Renewable resource management, user heterogeneity, and the scope for cooperation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 597-602, January.
    19. Barrett, Scott, 2010. "Why Cooperate?: The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199585212.
    20. Cuneyt Koyuncu & Rasim Yilmaz, 2009. "The impact of corruption on deforestation: a cross-country evidence," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 42(2), pages 213-222, January-M.
    21. Briguglio, Lino, 1995. "Small island developing states and their economic vulnerabilities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(9), pages 1615-1632, September.
    22. Srinivasan, T N, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Being a Small, Remote, Island, Landlocked, or Ministate Economy," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 1(2), pages 205-218, July.
    23. Clague, Christopher & Gleason, Suzanne & Knack, Stephen, 2001. "Determinants of lasting democracy in poor countries," MPRA Paper 28048, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Congdon Fors, Heather, 2014. "Do island states have better institutions?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 34-60.
    2. Harvey W. Armstrong & Robert Read, 2020. "Size And Sectoral Specialisation: The Asymmetric Cross‐Country Impacts Of The 2008 Crisis And Its Aftermath," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 891-921, August.
    3. Boräng, Frida & Jagers, Sverker C. & Povitkina, Marina, 2016. "Political determinants of electricity provision in small island developing states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 725-734.
    4. Congdon Fors, Heather, 2007. "Island Status, Country Size and Institutional Quality in Former Colonies," Working Papers in Economics 257, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    5. Read, Robert, 2004. "The Implications of Increasing Globalization and Regionalism for the Economic Growth of Small Island States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 365-378, February.
    6. Vinokurov, Evgeny, 2009. "EDB Eurasian Integration Yearbook 2009," MPRA Paper 20917, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Easterly, William & Kraay, Aart, 2000. "Small States, Small Problems? Income, Growth, and Volatility in Small States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2013-2027, November.
    8. Brau, Rinaldo & Lanza, Alessandro & Pigliaru, Francesco, 2007. "How Fast are Small Tourism Countries Growing? Evidence from the Data for 1980–2003," MPRA Paper 82776, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. International Monetary Fund, 2015. "Republic of Estonia: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2015/337, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Liou, F. M. & Ding, C. G., 2002. "Subgrouping Small States Based on Socioeconomic Characteristics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1289-1306, July.
    11. Sebastian Garmann, 2018. "God save the queen, god save us all? Monarchies and institutional quality," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 65(2), pages 186-204, May.
    12. Rinaldo Brau & Alessandro Lanza & Francesco Pigliaru, 2007. "How Fast are Small Tourism Countries Growing? Evidence from the Data for 1980–2003," Tourism Economics, , vol. 13(4), pages 603-613, December.
    13. Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan & Jacob Assa, 2021. "Poverty in “Transition”: 30 Years After and in the Pandemic," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(4), pages 1233-1258, September.
    14. Harvey W. Armstrong & Robert Read, 2002. "The phantom of liberty?: economic growth and the vulnerability of small states," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 435-458.
    15. Rinaldo Brau & Adriana Di Liberto & Francesco Pigliaru, 2011. "Tourism and Development: A Recent Phenomenon Built on Old (Institutional) Roots?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 444-472, March.
    16. Fabien Santini & Fatmir Guri & Audrey Aubard & Demetrios Psaltopoulos & Robert Read & Sergio Gomez y Paloma, 2014. "EU Island Farming and the Labelling of its Products," JRC Research Reports JRC84949, Joint Research Centre.
    17. Rinaldo Brau & A. Lanza & F. Pigliaru, 2006. "How fast are small tourist countries growing? The 1980-2003 evidence," Working Paper CRENoS 200614, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    18. Rahman, Muhammad Habibur & Anbarci, Nejat & Ulubaşoğlu, Mehmet A., 2022. "“Storm autocracies”: Islands as natural experiments," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    19. Patrick Guillaumont & Catherine Korachais & Julie Subervie, 2008. "Growth Oriented Macroeconomic Policies for Small Islands Economies: Lessons from Singapore," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-47, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Anna Maria Pinna & Vania Licio, 2013. "Measuring insularity as a state of nature. Is there a case of bad geography," ERSA conference papers ersa13p706, European Regional Science Association.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:3:p:285-:d:66148. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.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.