Political-Economic Aspects of Renewable Energy: Voting on the Level of Renewable Energy Support

Vladimir Udalov ()
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Vladimir Udalov: Europäisches Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen (EIIW)

No disbei202, EIIW Discussion paper from Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library

Abstract: This paper investigates an intergenerational conflict arising from renewable energy support (RES). Using a simple polito-economic overlapping generations (OLG) model, it can be shown that old individuals unambiguously lose from renewable energy support and therefore vote for its minimum level. In contrast, young individuals benefit from positive environmental and consumption effects and, therefore, vote for a higher level of renewable energy support. The voting outcome is determined through a political process, whereby political parties converge to platforms that maximize the aggregate welfare of the electorate. Depending on the size of the exogenous parameters, the level of RES varies between the voting preferences of younger and older individuals. As a result, this model offers a good starting point for possible medium to long-term policy recommendations in order to increase the accepted level of RES.

Keywords: overlapping generations; generational conflict; environmental policy; renewable energy; voting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D60 D72 D90 H23 Q29 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 Pages
Date: 2014-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-pol and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bwu:eiiwdp:disbei202

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