The political economy of weak treaties | Bard Harstad

Bard Harstad, University of Oslo, will present his recent paper ‘The political economy of weak treaties’ written with Marco Battaglini, Cornell University and EIEF.

Abstract

In recent decades, democratic countries have signed hundreds of international environmental agreements (IEAs). Most of these are weak and do not include effective enforcement. To study this puzzle, we propose a positive theory of IEAs in which the political incumbents negotiate in the shadow of reelections. We show that incumbents are prone to negotiate treaties that are simultaneously overambitious and weak. The theory also provides a new perspective for understanding investments in green technologies, and predicts that countries are tempted to rely too much on technology instead of sanctions to make compliance credible. Preliminary evidence is consistent with our predictions.