Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

ENVIRONMENTAL EXPLOITATION OF POLITICAL ECONOMICS

Project description

Environmental exploitation of domestic political forces

Many policies applied to address climate change and other environmental issues have not achieved full results. How do political-economic institutions explain this failure? What’s the impact of this situation on the implementation of environmental agreements and contracts? The EU-funded EXPLOIT project will develop dynamic political economics models combined with models of climate change and other environmental problems to understand what political economics forces or constraints explain the observed inadequacies in environmental policies. EXPLOIT will also investigate how international environmental policies can exploit domestic political forces. Relying on contract theory and organisational economics to explore how international policies can utilise time-inconsistent incumbents’ demands for commitment, how status-quo biases offer credibility and how inattention permits persuasion.

Objective

We need a theory to explain why society has so far failed to address climate change and other environmental problems. After all, it has been able to deal with other challenges, ranging from wars to trade barriers and, most recently, Covid-19. In this project, we seek to shed light on two important questions:
I. What political economics forces explain the failure to deal with environmental problems?
II. How can environmental agreements and contracts exploit domestic political forces?
The first, positive, part seeks to develop dynamic political economics models that can be combined with models of climate change and other environmental problems. The goal is to learn more about what political economics forces or constraints are best able to explain the observed inefficiencies in environmental policies. This knowledge is necessary before we can analyse which policies are best – subject to the relevant constraints.
The second, normative, part is more groundbreaking because it investigates how international environmental policies can exploit the political forces that are important at the domestic level.
Intuitively, when desirable policies are hindered by political forces, such as present bias and time inconsistency, an incumbent may value a treaty that offers pre-commitments or credibility. This value implies that the incumbent can be persuaded to contribute more (to emission cuts, for example) if the agreement is designed so that it helps the incumbent overcome domestic political constraints. By drawing on contract theory and organizational economics, we will investigate how international policies can exploit time-inconsistent incumbents’ demands for commitment, how status-quo biases offer credibility, and how inattention permits persuasion.
The project will contribute methodologically to political economics and contract theory. The lessons for policymakers may be invaluable.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2021-ADG

See all projects funded under this call

Host institution

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 904 046,00
Address
PROBLEMVEIEN 5-7
0313 Oslo
Norway

See on map

Region
Norge Oslo og Viken Oslo
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 904 046,00

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0