Measuring Environmental Policy Stringency: Approaches, Validity, and Impact on Energy Efficiency

Marzio Galeotti, Silvia Salini () and Elena Verdolini

No 412, Development Working Papers from Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano

Abstract: Proponents of the green growth strategy worldwide hold that reductions of harmful greenhouse gas emissions through environmental policy can be pursued together with increased growth and can result in higher competitiveness. Solid tests of this theory are impaired by the lack of appropriate empirical proxies for the commitment to, and stringency of, environmental policy. We contribute to the literature by: (1) computing different indicators of environmental policy stringency, both previously used in the literature and novel, (2) testing to what extent they convey similar insights through a comparison exercise, and (3) showing the implications of using one or the other methodology in an empirical application testing whether countries with more stringent environmental and energy policy have indeed shown historically higher degree of energy efficiency. The application is cast in an Energy Kuznets Curve framework. The analysis quite naturally carries over to the role of, more generally, economic policy.

Keywords: Energy policy; environmental policy; ranking; Energy Kuznets Curve (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 O57 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40
Date: 2017-02-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csl:devewp:412

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