IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/7605.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Determining Environmental Quality in a Federal Setting: An Empirical Analysis of Subnational Governments in India

Author

Listed:
  • Chakraborty, Lekha S

Abstract

Against the analytical backdrop of environmental federalism, the paper examines the impact of fiscally decentralized public policy stance on environmental quality in India. Unlike many studies which analysed the fiscally decentralized determination of environmental welfare from tax-side through modeling interjurisdictional competition and ‘race to bottom’, this paper attempts to look at the link from public expenditure side in a Kuznets’ U specification. The paper does not refute the widely explored Kuznets U phenomenon between economic growth and the environmental quality, rather it emphasizes that it does substantially through conscious public policies on reforestation and pollution abatement with adequate public expenditure decisions. Using GSLS and fixed effects model of pooled least squares for the late 1990s, the analysis of the link between decentralized environmental expenditure in per capita terms and the environmental quality indicators for the forestry sector revealed that there is a positive functional relationship between the variables. The models also revealed the effectiveness of economic growth variables in creating the Kuznet’s U effect on environmental quality. However, the panel estimates showed that fiscal policy has a stronger impact on environmental quality than the Kuznets U-impact of economic growth. This result is in confirmation with the trend that fiscal policies on environmental capital formation gets transformed to the end results of better environmental quality indicators, despite the constraints of initial negative impacts of economic growth on ecology.

Suggested Citation

  • Chakraborty, Lekha S, 2006. "Determining Environmental Quality in a Federal Setting: An Empirical Analysis of Subnational Governments in India," MPRA Paper 7605, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:7605
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/7605/1/MPRA_paper_7605.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "A Reconsideration of Environmental Federalism," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 7, pages 125-156, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Oates, Wallace E. & Schwab, Robert M., 1988. "Economic competition among jurisdictions: efficiency enhancing or distortion inducing?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 333-354, April.
    3. Suri, Vivek & Chapman, Duane, 1998. "Economic growth, trade and energy: implications for the environmental Kuznets curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 195-208, May.
    4. Subrata Mandal & M. Govinda Rao, 2007. "Overlapping Fiscal Domains and the Effectiveness of Environmental Policy in India," Chapters, in: Albert Breton & Giorgio Brosio & Silvana Dalmazzone & Giovanna Garrone (ed.), Environmental Governance and Decentralisation, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Daniel L. Millimet, 2003. "Assessing the Empirical Impact of Environmental Federalism," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 711-733, November.
    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. Levinson, Arik, 2003. "Environmental Regulatory Competition: A Status Report and Some New Evidence," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(1), pages 91-106, March.
    2. Zhigao Luo & Xinyun Hu & Mingming Li & Jirui Yang & Chuanhao Wen, 2019. "Centralization or Decentralization of Environmental Governance—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-20, December.
    3. Yinuo Wang & Fengxiu Zhou & Huwei Wen, 2023. "Does Environmental Decentralization Promote Renewable Energy Development? A Local Government Competition Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Divya Datt & Meeta Keswani Mehra, 2016. "Environmental Policy in a Federation with Special Interest Politics and Inter-Governmental Grants," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(4), pages 575-595, August.
    5. Fredriksson, Per G. & Mani, Muthukumara & Wollscheid, Jim R., 2006. "Environmental federalism : a panacea or Pandora's box for developing countries?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3847, The World Bank.
    6. Wallace E. Oates & Paul R. Portney & Wallace E. Oates & Paul R. Portney, 2004. "The Political Economy of Environmental Policy," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 1, pages 3-30, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Ida Ferrara & Paul Missios & Halis Murat Yildiz, 2014. "Inter‐regional competition, comparative advantage and environmental federalism," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(3), pages 905-952, August.
    8. Ando, Amy Whritenour, 2007. "Examples and Principles of State-Level Rural Environmental Initiatives," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 37(1), pages 1-3.
    9. Bert Saveyn, 2013. "On NIMBY and commuting," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(2), pages 293-311, April.
    10. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "A Reconsideration of Environmental Federalism," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 7, pages 125-156, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Fredriksson, Per G. & Matschke, Xenia & Minier, Jenny, 2010. "Environmental policy in majoritarian systems," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 177-191, March.
    12. James Alm & H. Spencer Banzhaf, 2012. "Designing Economic Instruments For The Environment In A Decentralized Fiscal System," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 177-202, April.
    13. Feng, Suling & Sui, Bo & Liu, Huimin & Li, Guoxiang, 2020. "Environmental decentralization and innovation in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 660-674.
    14. Kumar, Surender & Managi, Shunsuke, 2009. "Compensation for environmental services and intergovernmental fiscal transfers: The case of India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 3052-3059, October.
    15. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "Fiscal and Regulatory Competition: Theory and Evidence," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 11, pages 195-208, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. repec:rre:publsh:v:40:y:2010:i:1:p:27-51 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. B. Andrew Chupp, 2011. "Spillovers and Taxes: What Drives Strategic Competition in Environmental Policies?," Working Paper Series 20110402, Illinois State University, Department of Economics.
    18. Katarina Elofsson, 2011. "Delegation of Decision-Rights for Wetlands," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 50(2), pages 285-303, October.
    19. Bert Saveyn, 2006. "Are NIMBY'S commuters?," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces0604, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    20. Fredriksson, Per G. & List, John A. & Millimet, Daniel L., 2004. "Chasing the smokestack: strategic policymaking with multiple instruments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 387-410, July.
    21. Nordström, Håkan & Vaughan, Scott, 1999. "Trade and the environment," WTO Special Studies, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division, volume 4, number 4.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    environmental federalism; fiscally decentralized public policy stance; Kuznets’ U specification;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    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:pra:mprapa:7605. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.