Coherence, Causality, and Effectiveness of the EU Environmental Policy System: Results of Complementary Statistical and Econometric Analyses

Fabio Zagonari ()
Additional contact information
Fabio Zagonari: Università di Bologna

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2018, vol. 70, issue 1, No 1, 29 pages

Abstract: Abstract This paper presents the first empirical test of coherence (i.e., consistency of policies within a framework), causality (i.e., logical priority of objectives over policies), and effectiveness (i.e., ability of policies to tackle challenges as defined by objectives) of the overall EU environmental policy system. To do so, I applied complementary statistical (cross-sectional and time series) and econometric (dynamic tri-probit) analyses to an original panel dataset, based on addressed issues (i.e., pollution vs. resource, trans-boundary vs. domestic; flow vs. stock) rather than on implemented policies (i.e., EU legislation aiming at optimal pollution production, optimal resource use, and market competition). It would be impossible to perform similar analyses by referring to realized policies rather than tackled issues due to the unbalanced sample characterizing the former with respect to the latter, as well as due to overlapping objectives, interrelated policies, and non-univocal relationships between objectives and policies. In contrast with previous studies of single EU environmental policies, characteristics of the EU environmental policy, or EU environmental objectives, I found that the overall EU environmental policy system is internally coherent, dynamically causal, and ex ante effective. Moreover, the evidence suggests that many issues are correlated: trans-boundary issues became more relevant in 2012, pollution production was more significant than resource use, and flow issues were more important than stock issues from 1995 to 2010. Finally, I show that few objectives overlapped: a “safe environment” objective (1987–1997) was preferred to a “greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction” objective (2003–2012, but pursued with a 2-year lag), although the latter has recently become preferred to the former. In addition, a “GHG reduction” objective was preferred to “a sustainable development” objective (1998–2002).

Keywords: European Union; Environmental policy; Statistical analyses; Cross-sections; Time-series; Dynamic panel tri-probit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10640-016-0108-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:enreec:v:70:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s10640-016-0108-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... al/journal/10640/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10640-016-0108-1

Access Statistics for this article

Environmental & Resource Economics is currently edited by Ian J. Bateman

More articles in Environmental & Resource Economics from Springer, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().