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Legal Origins and Climate Change Policies in Former Colonies

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  • Per Fredriksson
  • Jim Wollscheid

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate how former colonies’ legal origins affect environmental policy outcomes. In particular, does it matter for climate change policies whether a country has French civil law or British common law legal heritage? In a cross section of up to 109 countries, we find that civil law countries tend to have stricter climate change policies than common law countries. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Per Fredriksson & Jim Wollscheid, 2015. "Legal Origins and Climate Change Policies in Former Colonies," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(2), pages 309-327, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:62:y:2015:i:2:p:309-327
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-015-9957-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Tarverdi, Yashar, 2019. "Gender and climate change: Do female parliamentarians make difference?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 151-164.
    2. Astghik Mavisakalyan & Vladimir Otrachshenko & Olga Popova, 2023. "Does democracy protect the environment? The role of the Arctic Council," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(5), pages 1-21, May.
    3. David I. Stern, 2017. "The environmental Kuznets curve after 25 years," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 7-28, April.
    4. David I. Stern & Jeremy Dijk, 2017. "Economic growth and global particulate pollution concentrations," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 391-406, June.
    5. Thomas Sterner, 2015. "Beyond IPCC, Research for Paris 2015 and Beyond," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(2), pages 207-215, October.
    6. Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Tarverdi, Yashar & Weber, Clas, 2018. "Talking in the present, caring for the future: Language and environment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 1370-1387.
    7. James B. Ang & Per G. Fredriksson, 2017. "Statehood Experience, Legal Traditions, And Climate Change Policies," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(3), pages 1511-1537, July.
    8. Vu, Trung V., 2020. "Individualism and climate change policies: International evidence," MPRA Paper 98888, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Per G. Fredriksson & Jim R. Wollscheid, 2018. "Legal origins and environmental policies: evidence from OECD and developing countries," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 369-375, October.
    10. Morakinyo O Adetutu & Kayode A Odusanya & Eleni Stathopoulou & Thomas G Weyman-Jones, 2023. "Environmental regulation, taxes, and activism," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 460-489.
    11. Tadadjeu, Sosson & Njangang, Henri & Woldemichael, Andinet, 2023. "Are resource-rich countries less responsive to global warming? Oil wealth and climate change policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    12. Per G. Fredriksson & Aatishya Mohanty, 2022. "COVID-19 Regulations, Political Institutions, and the Environment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 81(2), pages 323-353, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Legal history; Climate change; Environmental policy; Institutions; Colonialism; Political economy; Q58; D72; D78; H23; K23;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • K23 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Regulated Industries and Administrative Law

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