JEEA-FBBVA lecture 2017: The dynamics of environmental politics and values

Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper develops a framework to study environmentalism as a cultural phenomenon, namely as reflecting a process of social identification with certain values. The model is used to explain how the shares of environmentalists and materialists in society can coevolve with taxes on emissions to protect society against damages caused by environmental degradation. These policies are determined by electoral competition. However, even though politicians internalize the welfare of those currently alive and pick Utilitarian optimal policies, the dynamic equilibrium paths of policies and evolving values may not converge to the steady state with the highest level of long-run welfare.

JEL-codes: H11 H23 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2019-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published in Journal of the European Economic Association, August, 2019, 17(4), pp. 993 - 1024. ISSN: 1542-4766

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/101008/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: JEEA-FBBVA LECTURE 2017: The Dynamics of Environmental Politics and Values (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:101008

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