Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Aurelie Slechten
Author-Name-First: Aurelie
Author-Name-Last: Slechten
Author-Name: Vincenzo Verardi
Author-Name-First: Vincenzo
Author-Name-Last: Verardi
Title: Measuring the impact of multiple air-pollution agreements on global CO2 emissions
Abstract: Many countries are part of multiple international air-pollution agreements that interact with each other given that a single source of emissions is typically composed of several pollutants. This paper studies the effect on carbon dioxide emissions of the various agreements that follow the Long-Range Transboundary Air-Pollution (LRTAP) Convention and that are related to acid rain problems. The analysis is based on a panel dataset of 150 countries over the period 1970 - 2008. We show that ratifying each additional treaty has a significant and negative impact on the level of CO2 emissions, even if they are not specifically targeted toward carbon emissions. Our findings can be explained by (1) the more local nature of pollutants covered (2) the relative ease to implement LRTAP treaties. To deal with an eventual reverse causality problem, we instrument the decision to ratify treaties by the status of the death penalty in each country.
Creation-Date: 2014
File-URL: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/lums/economics/working-papers/MultipleAirPollutionAgreements.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Number: 64981588
Classification-JEL: 
Keywords: Air-pollution Agreements, CO2 emissions, Panel data
Handle: RePEc:lan:wpaper:64981588