Green Governments

The author examines how Green governments influence economic, education, and environmental outcomes. The empirical strategy exploits that the Fukushima nuclear disaster gave rise to an unanticipated change in government in the German state Baden-Wuerttemberg. The incumbent rightwing government was replaced by a leftwing government led by the Green party. They use the synthetic control method to select control states against which Baden-Wuerttemberg’s outcomes can be compared. The results do not suggest that the Green government influenced macroeconomic outcomes. The Green government implemented education policies that caused comprehensive schools to become larger and high schools to become smaller. Environmental and energy outcomes did not change as one would expect. The authors find no evidence that the Green government influenced CO2 emissions, particulate matter emissions, or increased energy usage from renewable energies. On the contrary, wind power as a share of primary energy usage decreased (relative to the estimated counterfactual) under the Green government.