POLSCI 160 Lecture Notes - Lecture 34: Kyoto Protocol, Montreal Protocol, Externality
5 Jan 2017
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Public Goods
● Protection of the environment is a public good
● The benefits are to everyone, no one can be excluded
● The costs are specific to individuals and larger than an individual’s gain from the good
● Ways to Provide Public Goods (Domestically)
○ A central authority can coerce everyone to contribute
■ Often through taxes
■ Selectorate Theory: leaders provide public good when there is a large
selectorate
■ More important for domestic politics
○ Contributors can be given additional benefits on top of the public good
■ Selective Benefits: providing benefits to donors
● Ex: a coffee mug for donating to NPR
○ A single actor can pay the entire cost of the public good
■ Ex: Andrew Carnegie building libraries on his own
○ Provision by a small group of actors
■ Small groups can monitor each other, use social enforcement
● Internationally, there is no government to coerce countries to contribute or provide
selective benefits, and generally one state does not want to pay the entire cost
Bargaining over Public Goods
● Cooperation on public goods requires deciding how to produce it and enforcing the
agreement
● Environmental issues pose issues of scientific uncertainty - information problem
● The economic costs and benefits are also uncertain - information problem
● Therefore, scientific and economic uncertainty make international environmental
agreements difficult to reach
● International institutions that address the environment focus on the creation of a shared
understanding of the problem
● Externality: when the costs to others are external to the decision of the actor making the
decision
○ Ex: cross-border air and water pollution
The Politics of Global Warming
● The long-run effects of climate change are unclear
○ Some places are clear losers from climate change
■ Ex: low-lying countries (Netherlands), skiing places (Switzerland)
○ Some places could be winners
■ Ex: cold weather places (Canada)
○ However, it is hard to tell who the winners and losers will be
■ Distributional problem: who pays
■ Information problem: what will happen
● Who pays the cost?
○ Developing countries: the developed world has cause the problem through their
use of fossil fuels and industrialization
■ The developed world should bear most of the cost
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Document Summary
Protection of the environment is a public good. The benefits are to everyone, no one can be excluded. The costs are specific to individuals and larger than an individual"s gain from the good. A central authority can coerce everyone to contribute. Selectorate theory: leaders provide public good when there is a large selectorate. Contributors can be given additional benefits on top of the public good. Ex: a coffee mug for donating to npr. A single actor can pay the entire cost of the public good. Ex: andrew carnegie building libraries on his own. Provision by a small group of actors. Small groups can monitor each other, use social enforcement. Internationally, there is no government to coerce countries to contribute or provide selective benefits, and generally one state does not want to pay the entire cost. Cooperation on public goods requires deciding how to produce it and enforcing the agreement. Environmental issues pose issues of scientific uncertainty - information problem.
