Can trust in politicians explain individuals' support for climate policy?: The case of CO2 tax
Can trust in politicians explain individuals' support for climate policy?: The case of CO2 tax
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DOI：
10.1080/14693062.2006.9685582
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发表时间：
2006-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
7.1
通讯作者：
Jagers, Sverker C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hammar, Henrik;Jagers, Sverker C.
本文从信任的角度对公共政策支持进行了分析。实证研究的重点是二氧化碳税的使用，这是一种旨在协调瑞典国家排放目标的政策工具。在气候政策领域的经济学家和专家中，二氧化碳税被视为一项具有成本效益的政策。政策问题在于，公众对二氧化碳税的支持度非常低，这使得政策制定者只能选择高成本的方案。除了传统的解释变量，如人口因素、教育水平、意识形态和自身利益，什么可以解释这种公众反对？使用个人层面的数据，我们分析了对汽油二氧化碳税增加的支持是否可以用公民对其他个人（他们不一定认识的人）的普遍信任或他们对政治家的信任来解释。我们发现在回归分析中，只有后一种度量获得支持。此外，当将样本分成高信任和低信任的个体时，我们发现，在统计上，有车的高信任个体（与没有车的个体相比）并不比没有车的个体更有可能抵制二氧化碳税的增加。更确切地说，可能抵制二氧化碳税的是那些拥有汽车且不信任政客的个人。
This article provides an analysis of the support for public policies from a trust perspective. The empirical focus is on the use of a tax on carbon dioxide (CO2), a policy tool aimed at coordinating national emissions targets in Sweden. Among economists and experts in the field of climate policy, a CO2 tax is viewed as a cost-effective policy. The policy problem is that public support for CO2 taxes is very low, leaving policy makers with high-cost options. Apart from traditional explanatory variables such as demographic factors, level of education, ideology and self-interest, what can explain this public opposition? Using individual level data, we analyse whether support for increases in the CO2 tax on gasoline can be explained by citizens' generalized trust in other individuals (who they do not necessarily know) or by their trust in politicians. We find that only the latter measure gains support in a regression analysis. Moreover, when splitting the sample into high-trusting and low-trusting individuals, we find that high-trusting individuals who have access to a car (compared with those without access) are statistically no more likely to resist increases in CO2 taxes than people without access to a car. Rather, it is individuals with access to a car and who do not trust their politicians who are likely to resist CO2 taxes.