| By: |
Marbuah, George (Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences);
Gren, Ing-Marie (Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) |
| Abstract: |
This paper addresses the issue of whether or not social capital explains per
capita CO2 emissions dynamics in Swedish counties in an augmented
environmental Kuznets curve framework. By accounting for issues of endogeneity
in the presence of dynamic and spatial effects using geo-referenced emissions
data, we show that per capita carbon emissions in a county matters for other
counties and that net of economic, demographic and environmental factors,
social capital has the potential to reduce carbon emissions in Sweden albeit
less robustly. We test two different social capital constructs; trust in
government and environmental engagement. Specifically, trust in the government
inures to the reduction in CO2 emissions. Membership and engagement in
environmental organisations reduces CO2 emissions only through its interaction
with per capita income or trust. The implication of our estimates suggest that
investment geared toward increasing the stock of social capital could inure to
reductions in CO2 emissions in addition to climate policy instruments in Sweden |
| Keywords: |
Social capital; environmental Kuznets curve; co2 emissions; spatial analyses; Sweden |
| JEL: |
C23 Q53 Q56 Z13 |
| Date: |
2015–04–30 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slueko:2015_005&r=res |