Carbon is Forever: A Climate Change Experiment on Cooperation

Quaderni - Working Paper DSE N° 1065

53 Pages Posted: 6 May 2016

See all articles by Giacomo Calzolari

Giacomo Calzolari

European University Institute - Economics Department (ECO); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); University of Bologna

Marco Casari

University of Bologna - Department of Economics

Riccardo Ghidoni

University of Bologna - Department of Economics; Tilburg University - Department of Economics

Date Written: May 3, 2016

Abstract

Greenhouse gases generate impacts that can last longer than human civilization itself. Such persistence may affect the behavioral ability to cooperate. Here we study mitigation efforts within a framework that reflects key features of climate change and then contrasts a dynamic versus a static setting. In a treatment with persistence, the pollution cumulates and generates damages over time while in another treatment it has only immediate effects and then disappears. We find that cooperation is not hampered, on average, by pollution persistence. Mitigation efforts, though, should not be delayed, because cooperation levels appear to deteriorate for high stocks of pollution.

Keywords: Myopia, Stock externalities, Social dilemma, Inequality

JEL Classification: C70, C90, D03, Q54

Suggested Citation

Calzolari, Giacomo and Casari, Marco and Ghidoni, Riccardo, Carbon is Forever: A Climate Change Experiment on Cooperation (May 3, 2016). Quaderni - Working Paper DSE N° 1065, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2775276 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2775276

Giacomo Calzolari (Contact Author)

European University Institute - Economics Department (ECO) ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

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University of Bologna ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/view/giacomo-calzolari

Marco Casari

University of Bologna - Department of Economics ( email )

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Bologna, 40125
Italy

Riccardo Ghidoni

University of Bologna - Department of Economics ( email )

Piazza Scaravilli 2
Bologna, 40100
Italy

Tilburg University - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands

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