kapdata

[kapdata]

Assignment 1

Data set: Gapminder

Variables: CO2 emissions and Polity score

Codebook

co2emissions 2006 cumulative CO2 emission (metric tons), Total amount of CO2 emission in metric tons since 1751. CDIAC (Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center)

polityscore 2009 Democracy score (Polity) Overall polity score from the Polity IV dataset, calculated by subtracting an autocracy score from a democracy score. The summary measure of a country's democratic and free nature. -10 is the lowest value, 10 the highest. Polity IV Project

 Second topic variables: CO2 emissions and income

Codebook

incomeperperson 2010 Gross Domestic Product per capita in constant 2000 US$. The inflation but not the differences in the cost of living between countries has been taken into account. World Bank Work Development Indicators

 Research questions: What is the relation between democracy and CO2 emissions? Does the relationship change when accounting for personal wealth in a country as measure in income per person?

 Hypothesis: Across all countries, polity and CO2 emissions will not correlate.

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X14002514

 Literature review:

Povitkina, Marina (2018) The limits of democracy in tackling climate change, Environmental Politics, 27:3, 411-432, DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2018.1444723

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2018.1444723

This article supports the hypothesis, except when the variable of corruption is added.  

 Prathibha, J & Beck, K. 2018 ‘Democracy and carbon dioxide emissions: Assessing the interactions of political and economic freedom and the environmental Kuznets curve’ Energy Research & Social Science. Vol. 39 pp 46-54

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214629617303481

This article supports the hypothesis: “…mixed results for the impact of political and economic freedom, depending on region”

 Adams, S & Acheampong, A 2019 ‘Reducing carbon emissions: The role of renewable energy and democracy’ Journal of Cleaner Production. Vol 240

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652619331154

This article does not support the hypothesis as applied to a subset of the data, sub-saharan Africa.

 Burnell, P 2012 ‘Democracy, democratization and climate change: complex relationships’  Democratization, 19:5, 813-842, DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2012.709684

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2012.709684?src=recsys

This article supports the hypothesis.