Corporate Lobbying for Environmental Performance

Abstract

This paper focuses on how corporate political strategies at the industry level influence salient political issues. In the context of recent climate change policy debates of the United States, I investigate the impact of lobbying on climate change. The theoretical model develops the claim that lobbying expenditures and activities of the clean industry has a negative impact on CO2 emissions, while that of the polluting industry have a positive impact. I test the hypothesis in the whole industry, which shows that lobbying expenditures and activities have a negative impact on CO2 emissions. I use a panel data regression to analyze CO2 emissions in the U.S. at the state-level from 2006 to 2017. The results are consistent with my hypothesis, suggesting that clean industries have a stronger negative lobbying effects on CO2 emissions than dirty ones.