Does a free-market economy make mother nature angry? Evidence from Asian economies.

Abstract

The linkage between a free market and the environment has been under debate for a long time. In the traditional view, environmental issues are one of the free market's failures. However, a free market is a solution for environmental problems through the lens of free-market Environmentalism because free markets can be more successful than governments in solving environmental issues. Whether or not a free-market economy leads to environmental degradation and makes Mother Nature angry is a challengeable research gap. This paper fills this gap by examining the impact of a free-market on Mother Nature's anger in 35 Asian economies over the period 2000-2018. Our empirical results show that a free-market economy reduces the Mother Nature's anger (proxied by total number of deaths and total economic losses from natural disasters), and this beneficial impact is intensified with the improvement of property rights and government integrity. Our findings assert the important role of a free-market economy, property rights, and government integrity in mitigating the anger of Mother Nature.