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Environmental Policy with Green Consumerism

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  • Stefan Ambec
  • Philippe De Donder

Abstract

Is green consumerism beneficial to the environment and the economy? To shed light on this question, we study the political economy of environmental regulations in a model with neutral and green consumers where the latter derive some warm glow from buying a good of higher environmental quality produced by a profit-maximizing monopoly, while the good bought by neutral consumers is provided by a competitive fringe. Consumers unanimously vote for a standard set at a lower than first-best level, or for a tax delivering the first-best environmental protection level. Despite its under-provision of environmental protection, the standard dominates the tax from a welfare perspective due to its higher productive efficiency, i.e., a smaller gap between the environmental qualities of the two goods supplied. In stark contrast, voters unanimously prefer a tax to a standard when the willingness to pay for greener goods is small enough.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Ambec & Philippe De Donder, 2020. "Environmental Policy with Green Consumerism," EconPol Working Paper 49, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:econwp:_49
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    Cited by:

    1. Marco A. Marini & Ornella Tarola & Jacques-François Thisse, 2020. "Is Environmentalism the Right Strategy to Decarbonize the World?," Working Papers 2020.31, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    2. Widhayani Puri Setioningtyas & Csaba Bálint Illés & Anna Dunay & Abdul Hadi & Tony Susilo Wibowo, 2022. "Environmental Economics and the SDGs: A Review of Their Relationships and Barriers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-24, June.
    3. Ambec, Stefan & Crampes, Claude, 2021. "Real-time electricity pricing to balance green energy intermittency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Maccarrone, Giovanni & Marini, Marco A. & Tarola, Ornella, 2023. "Shop Until You Drop: the Unexpected Effects of Anticonsumerism and Environmentalism," FEEM Working Papers 330384, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    5. Lesly Cassin & Paolo Melindi-Ghidi & Fabien Prieur, 2021. "The impact of income inequality on public environmental expenditure with green consumerism," Working Papers 2021.08, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    6. Roman Inderst & Eftichios S. Sartzetakis & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2023. "Firm Competition and Cooperation with Norm‐Based Preferences for Sustainability," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(4), pages 1038-1071, December.
    7. Marco A. Marini & Ornella Tarola & Jacques-François Thisse, 2022. "When is Environmentalism Good for the Environment?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(1), pages 1-28, May.
    8. Zhu, Zhanguo & Zhang, Tong & Hu, Wuyang, 2023. "The accumulation and substitution effects of multi-nation certified organic and protected eco-origin food labels in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    9. Hamid Hamoudi & Carmen Avilés-Palacios, 2022. "Awareness Campaigns in a Horizontally Differentiated Market with Environmentally Conscious Consumers, Private Versus Public Duopoly," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-21, October.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

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