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Reciprocal Climate Negotiators

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  • Nyborg, Karine

    () (University of Oslo)

Abstract

International climate negotiations have been troubled by mutual mistrust. At the same time, a hope seems to prevail that once enough countries moved forward, others would follow suit. If the abatement game faced by climate negotiators is a Prisoners' Dilemma, and countries are narrowly self-interested, such a hope seems unfounded. However, if countries display reciprocity – a preference to repay meanness by meanness and kindness by kindness – their willingness to abate will be conditional on others' abatement. I show that a full or majority coalition can be stable. This requires, however, that a majority of countries have relatively strong reciprocity preferences. No coalition participation is always stable. In addition, a stable minority coalition may exist; if so, it is weakly larger than the maximum stable coalition with standard preferences, but is characterized by mutually negative sentiments.

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  • Nyborg, Karine, 2015. "Reciprocal Climate Negotiators," IZA Discussion Papers 8866, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8866
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    Cited by:

    1. Doruk Iris & Alessandro Tavoni, 2016. "Tipping Points and Loss Aversion in International Environmental Agreements," Working Papers 1603, Research Institute for Market Economy, Sogang University.
    2. Stefano Carattini & Simon Levin & Alessandro Tavoni, 2019. "Cooperation in the Climate Commons," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 13(2), pages 227-247.
    3. Dufwenberg, Martin & Kirchsteiger, Georg, 2019. "Modelling kindness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 228-234.
    4. Pierpaolo Battigalli & Martin Dufwenberg, 2020. "Belief-Dependent Motivations and Psychological Game Theory," CESifo Working Paper Series 8285, CESifo.
    5. Jang, Dooseok & Patel, Amrish & Dufwenberg, Martin, 2018. "Agreements with reciprocity: Co-financing and MOUs," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 85-99.
    6. David M. McEvoy & Tobias Haller & Esther Blanco, 2019. "The Role of Non-Binding Pledges in Social Dilemmas with Mitigation and Adaptation," Working Papers 2019-04, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck.
    7. Håkon Sælen, 2020. "Under What Conditions Will the Paris Process Produce a Cycle of Increasing Ambition Sufficient to Reach the 2°C Goal?," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(2), pages 83-104, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    international environmental agreements; reciprocity; coalitions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • H87 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - International Fiscal Issues; International Public Goods
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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