Working Paper

The Interactions of Social Norms about Climate Change: Science, Institutions and Economics

Antonio Cabrales, Manu García, David Ramos Muñoz, Angel Sánchez
CESifo, Munich, 2022

CESifo Working Paper No. 9905

We study the evolution of interest about climate change between different actors of the population, and how the interest of those actors affect one another. We first document the evolution individually, and then provide a model of cross influences between them, that we then estimate with a VAR. We find large swings over time of said interest for the general public by creating a Climate Change Index for Europe and the US (CCI) using news media mentions, and little interest among economists (measured by publications in top journals of the discipline). The general interest science journals and policymakers have a more steady interest, although policymakers get interested much later.

Keywords: climate change, social norms, text analysis, social networks
JEL Classification: Q540, Q580, D850, A130