Individualism and Climate Change Policies: International Evidence

Trung V Vu

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3547076

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which the cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism matters for the stringency of climate change policies across the world. I postulate that individualistic societies are endowed with a better capacity to implement stringent climate change regulations compared with their collectivistic counterparts. This notion is tested using data for a world sample of up to 92 countries. To achieve causal inference, I isolate exogenous sources of variation in individualistic cultures, based on blood distance to the UK and historical pathogen prevalence. The results lend strong empirical support to my propositions. I also find evidence that individualism exerts a positive influence on the stringency of climate change policies through enhancing the quality of governance and female political presentation. To account for unobserved country-specific factors, I perform subnational analyses using data from the World Values Survey. The results indicate that survey participants with an orientation towards individualistic cultures tend to self-report positive attitudes to pro-environmental policies, which is consistent with the international evidence.

Highlights

It is widely perceived that climate change is one of the most serious impediments to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
The magnitude of the estimated coefficients of individualism suggests that a one-unit increase in the IDV is associated with approximately a 0.033-unit increase in the change cooperation (CCPI)
If Iran were to experience the IDV values of Belgium, the predicted increase in the CCPI of Iran would be 1.12, approximately 0.7 of a standard deviation of CCPI.16. This result implies that individualism exerts a reasonably sizeable impact on the stringency of climate change policies

Summary

Introduction

It is widely perceived that climate change is one of the most serious impediments to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing this global concern requires drastic reductions of greenhouse gas emissions across the world (IPCC, 2014). In this regard, the objective of limiting global warming is reflected in the Paris Climate Agreement that calls for international commitments to keep the global temperature increase in this century below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It is of importance to explore the drivers of the stringency of climate change regulations before we can formulate relevant policies to mitigate global warming

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Conclusion