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The politics of pollution: party regimes and air quality in Canada
Author(s) -
McKitrick Ross
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
canadian journal of economics/revue canadienne d'économique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1540-5982
pISSN - 0008-4085
DOI - 10.1111/j.0008-4085.2006.00362.x
Subject(s) - politics , air pollution , government (linguistics) , air quality index , pollution , affect (linguistics) , political science , power (physics) , environmental quality , political economy , public administration , public economics , economics , geography , law , sociology , meteorology , ecology , linguistics , chemistry , philosophy , physics , organic chemistry , communication , quantum mechanics , biology
. Environmental concerns often figure prominently in opinion polls. But do election outcomes actually affect the environment? I test the influence of the party in power on urban air pollution in 13 Canadian cities. The government's political stripe is not reliably associated with positive or negative effects on air pollution. Provincial parties on both the right and the left are associated with elevated levels of some air contaminants. Federal effects also go in contrasting directions. Overall it appears a change in government is unlikely to be a reliable predictor of changes in air pollution. JEL classification: Q51, Q58, D78