Hurricanes, Climate Change and Ele ctoral Accountability (with M. Daniele Paserman, Eleonora Patacchi ni)
Abstract:
This paper a
ttempts to understand how elected politicians and voters respond to new inf
ormation on the threats of climate change. In particular, we study how memb
ers of the U.S. House of Representatives change their support for bills aim
ed at contrasting climate change in the aftermath of a hurricane. Exploitin
g the quasi-random trajectory of hurricanes within states for identificatio
n, we document that Congress members from districts hit by a hurricane are
substantially more likely to support green bills in the year after the disa
ster.