The political economics of green transitions

Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson

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

Abstract: Reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases may be almost impossible without a green transition - a substantial transformation of consumption and production patterns. To study such transitions, we propose a dynamic model, which differs from the common approach in economics in two ways. First, consumption patterns reflect not just changing prices and taxes, but changing values. Transitions of values and technologies create a dynamic complementarity that can help or hinder a green transition. Second, and unlike fictitious social planners, policy makers in democratic societies cannot commit to future policy paths, as they are subject to regular elections. We show that market failures and government failures can interact to prevent a welfare-increasing green transition from materializing or make an ongoing green transition too slow.

Keywords: 693402; 2015-00253 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D71 D72 D91 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2023-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Published in Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1, August, 2023, 138(3), pp. 1863 - 1906. ISSN: 0033-5533

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/117946/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Political Economics of Green Transitions (2023)
Working Paper: The Political Economics of Green Transitions (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:117946

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