Spending for the Environment: General Government Expenditure Trends in Europe

Abstract

Are European Union countries converging towards a similar model of public spending for environmental protection? National spending policies for environmental protection might be the result of country specific circumstances and priorities, but also of a shared vision towards the achievement of environmental goals as member of the European Union, in compliance with European Directives. This paper aims to empirically investigate models of environmental expenditures at European level, looking at the composition of public expenditure for environmental protection. It also contributes to the debate on the efficacy of public spending in the environmental domain. Results reject the existence of a homogeneous model of expenditure for environmental protection at European level. Furthermore, higher level of environmental performance seem to be positively correlated with the public expenditures in the environmental domain and partially with the different composition of the expenditure.