Voting Green

Abstract

Policies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions are crucial in the fight against climate change. We explore whether political parties that implement environmental regulations face electoral backlash, which could hinder or even obstruct the adoption of climate policies. In particular, using detailed data from the European Union Emissions Trading System, we construct a new index for the stringency of environmental regulation at the regional level (NUTS2) for the European Union. This index is used to assess the economic impact of heightened environmental regulation on regions and to analyze voter reactions to these policies at the polls. Our findings reveal that green parties benefit from stricter environmental regulations in national elections, while this effect is absent in European Parliament elections. The increased vote share for green parties seems to result directly from the regulation rather than being mediated by improvements in regional economic performance.

Keywords: climate change, carbon dioxide emissions, index for environmental regulation, voter behavior

JEL Classification: D72, Q52, Q58