Environmental Pressure Group Strength and Air Pollution: An Empirical Analysis

31 Pages Posted: 2 Jan 2004 Last revised: 28 Oct 2013

See all articles by Eric Neumayer

Eric Neumayer

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Seth Binder

Saint Olaf College - Department of Economics

Date Written: October 1, 2004

Abstract

There is an established theoretical and empirical case-study literature arguing that environmental pressure groups have a real impact on pollution levels. Our original contribution to this literature is to provide the first systematic quantitative test of the strength of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) on air pollution levels. We find that ENGO strength exerts a statistically significant impact on sulfur dioxide, smoke and heavy particulates concentration levels in a cross-country time-series regression analysis. This result holds true both for ordinary least squares and random-effects estimation. It is robust to controlling for the potential endogeneity of ENGO strength with the help of instrumental variables. The effect is also substantively important. Strengthening ENGOs represents an important strategy by which aid donors, foundations, international organizations and other stakeholders can try to achieve lower pollution levels around the world.

Keywords: Civil society, non-governmental organizations, environmental groups, lobbying

Suggested Citation

Neumayer, Eric and Binder, Seth, Environmental Pressure Group Strength and Air Pollution: An Empirical Analysis (October 1, 2004). Ecological Economics, Vol. 55, No. 4, 2005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=482650 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.482650

Eric Neumayer (Contact Author)

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://https://ericneumayer.wordpress.com/

Seth Binder

Saint Olaf College - Department of Economics ( email )

Northfield, MN 55057
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
231
Abstract Views
4,264
Rank
240,351
PlumX Metrics