Hurricanes, Climate Change and Electoral Accountability (with M. Daniele Paserman, Eleonora Patacchini)

Abstract:
This paper attempts to understand how elected politicians and voters respond to new information on the threats of climate change. In particular, we study how members of the U.S. House of Representatives change their support for bills aimed at contrasting climate change in the aftermath of a hurricane. Exploiting the quasi-random trajectory of hurricanes within states for identification, we document that Congress members from districts hit by a hurricane are substantially more likely to support green bills in the year after the disaster.