The tragedy of the political commons: Evidence from U.S. Senate roll call votes on environmental legislation

Anwar Hussain and David Laband ()

Public Choice, 2005, vol. 124, issue 3, 353-364

Abstract: When the costs of regulation are borne by individuals outside of their political jurisdiction, an elected politician arguably will vote in favor of socially costly regulations because from his/her narrow perspective even small marginal benefits outweigh zero marginal costs. Our empirical analysis of the environmental voting records of U.S. Senators from 1991 to 2002 reveals a pronounced tendency for Senators to vote against (in favor of) environmental bills that impose costs in their (other) states. The straightforward implication is that elected politicians overgraze the regulatory pasture. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005

Keywords: environmental legislation; majority voting; political commons; roll call (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-005-2052-4

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