Voting for pollution policy: the importance of income inequality and openness to trade

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: McAusland, C
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Santa Barbara
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/S0022-1996(03)00005-9
• 发表日期: 2003
• 页码: 425-451
• 关键词: trade; environment; voting; income inequality

摘要

This paper analyzes how openness and the distribution of factor ownership interact to determine individual and aggregate demand for pollution policy. Analysis of voter preferences in autarky shows that an increased stake in either the dirty or the clean industry can induce an individual voter to prefer stricter environmental policy. Similarly, the paper shows that poorer voters may be the greener voters within an electorate. The model also reveals that the incidence of pollution policy depends upon a country's trade regime, with consequences for the direction in which income inequality influences aggregate demand for pollution policy. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.