Does government ideology affect environmental pollutions? New evidence from instrumental variable quantile regression estimations

Abstract

This study examines the effect of government ideology on carbon dioxide emissions along the entire length of the conditional distribution of the dependent variable (i.e., carbon dioxide emissions) using the instrumental variable quantile regression technique with fixed effects in a balanced panel of 65 countries over the period of 1981–2012. The estimation results indicate that government ideology is a significant determinant of carbon dioxide emissions only in the lower quantiles of the distribution. Specifically, the left-wing governments are associated with lower carbon dioxide emissions among the least polluted countries. Contrarily, the effect of government ideology on carbon dioxide emissions is statistically insignificant in the median and upper quantiles of the distribution, suggesting that government ideology does not have significant influences on carbon dioxide emissions among the median and most polluted nations. It was also found that the effects of government ideology on carbon dioxide emissions differ remarkably at different quantiles of the distribution in developed and developing countries.