Carbon Emissions, Abatement, and Natural Disasters: Politics and Social Institutions

Abstract

This dissertation empirically examines three issues related to renewable energy and international development: 1) The Political Economy of Solar Initiatives in the Sunshine State; 2) Climate Change, Natural disasters, and Institutional Integrity; and 3) Institutional Integrity and Carbon emissions. In Chapter 2, I empirically examine the outcomes of two solar energy amendments that were on the ballot in Florida in 2016. One amendment exempts solar energy devices from ad valorem taxation of real estate property, effectively decreasing the cost of solar energy for those who adopt solar photovoltaic panels. The other amendment reaffirms the right of property owners to install or lease solar photovoltaic panels for their personal use but also allows for the possibility of discontinuing the net metering program. While the former is supportive of solar energy installation, the latter is not due to the negative implications for the net metering program. The results show that depending on the policy, per capita income, and pro-environmental ideology can be associated with voter support. Shares of county employment in construction, agriculture and forestry, retail, transportation, warehousing and utilities have adverse effects on the support of pro-solar policies. Natural disasters can cause significant disruptions to socio-economic systems. In Chapter 3, I empirically investigate the effect of climate-induced natural disasters on the quality of institutions in 92 countries using data from 1984 to 2016. An instrumental variable approach is used to account for the reverse causality from the number of people affected by natural disasters to the quality of institutions. I then employ the Hausman Taylor three-step approach to account for the bias in estimating panels with endogenous variables. Estimation results reveal a negative impact of the occurrence of natural disasters on the quality of national institutions. Furthermore, disasters negatively affect the quality of institutions in low-income, non-developed countries, whereas the effect is non-significant for high-income, developed nations. At the regional level, institutions in East Asia, Pacific, and South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean tend to deteriorate after natural disasters. In contrast, in Middle East and North Africa, natural disasters lead to improved institutions. Of the 12 parameters of the institutional integrity index, metrics mostly affected by disasters include government stability, internal conflicts, law and order, ethnic fragmentation, democratic accountability. Thus, policy advice to countries on disaster preparedness should strongly depend on the political, social and cultural characteristics of those countries. Institutions affect