Polluting politics

Abstract

This paper estimates the causal impact of Democratic vs Republican governors on pollution. Using a regression discontinuity design, gubernatorial election data, and air quality data from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we find that air pollution is lower under Democratic governors.JEL Classification: Q53, Q58, D72

Party Affiliation and Public Spending: Evidence From U.S. Governors

“…. Other studies at the U.S. gubernatorial level study the impact of political parties on tax code reform(Ash 2015), on unionized workers(Beland and Unel 2015b), and on pollution(Beland and Boucher 2015).…”