Job losses and the political acceptability of climate policies : an amplified collective action problem
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mai 2018
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Mots-clés
Climate policies Employment impacts Inequality and distributional Impacts Collective action problems Amplification mechanisms Political acceptabilitySujets proches
Science of climate Climate Climate scienceCiter ce document
Francesco Vona, « Job losses and the political acceptability of climate policies : an amplified collective action problem », HALSHS : archive ouverte en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société - notices sans texte intégral, ID : 10670/1.7d942b...
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Résumé
Political acceptability is an essential issue in choosing the appropriate climate policy.Sociologists and behavioral scientists recognize the importance of selecting environmentalpolicies that have broad political support, while economists compare different instrumentsfirst based on their efficiency and then by assessing their distributional impacts and thusthe political acceptability of such policies. I argue that the large economic losses potentiallyascribed to climate policies, especially job losses, can have substantial impacts on thewillingness to vote for these policies. In aggregate, the costs of these losses are significantlysmaller than the benefits; both in terms of health and labor market outcomes, but thelosses are concentrated in specific areas, sectors and social groups that are already exposedto other shocks, such as automation and trade shocks. This setting conjures a collectiveaction problem that is amplified by declining political participation, de-unionization andlocalized contextual effects.Key policy insight:■ Climate policies are perceived as extremely harmful for employment because of theirhigh incidence on communities and sectors that already damaged by other shocks.■ Excessive levels of labour market inequalities are detrimental for the politicalacceptability of climate policies, thus fighting inequality can have beneficial effectsfor climate change.■ Policymakers should be more careful in distinguishing between small and largedistributional effects of climate policies, and their consequences on their politicalacceptability
