XREPP Seminar on climate change and electoral accountability

The Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has invited Professor Stefano Gagliarducci, from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and EIEF researcher, to give the XREPP seminar entitled “Hurricanes, Climate Change and Electoral Accountability” on the forthcoming Tuesday, November 14th, at 3pm.

The seminar will take place in Classroom B3/123A at the Faculty of Business and Economics – Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Access is free and requires no previous registry, but punctuality is advised.

The most recent draft of the paper is in the following link.

Abstract:

This paper attempts to understand how elected politicians and voters respond to new information on the threats of climate change. In particular, we study how members of the U.S. House of Representatives change their support for bills aimed at contrasting climate change in the aftermath of a hurricane. Exploiting the quasi-random trajectory of hurricanes within states for identication, we document that Congress members from districts hit by a hurricane are substantially more likely to support green bills in the year after the disaster. The effect does not seem to persist for more than one year.The effect is weaker for Congress members from districts that specialize in fossil fuel production, with a strong Republican electoral share, and who have a conservative voting record.