Replication Data for: Environmental Pressure Group Strength and Air Pollution: An Empirical Analysis (with Seth Binder), Ecological Economics, 55 (4), 2005, pp. 527-538

There is an established theoretical and empirical case-study literature arguing that environmental pressure groups have a real impact on pollution levels. Our original contribution to this literature is to provide the first systematic quantitative test of the strength of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) on air pollution levels. We find that ENGO strength exerts a statistically significant impact on sulfur dioxide, smoke and heavy particulates concentration levels in a cross-country time-series regression analysis. This result holds true both for ordinary least squares and randomeffects estimation. It is robust to controlling for the potential endogeneity of ENGO strength with the help of instrumental variables. The effect is also substantively important. Strengthening ENGOs represents an important strategy by which aid donors, foundations, international organizations and other stakeholders can try to achieve lower pollution levels around the world.

已有成熟的理论与实证案例研究文献证实，环保压力团体对污染水平具有切实影响。本文对该领域文献的原创性贡献在于，首次系统性定量检验环境非政府组织（environmental non-governmental organizations，ENGOs）的影响力对空气污染水平的作用。通过跨国时间序列回归分析，我们发现ENGOs的影响力对二氧化硫、烟尘与重颗粒物的浓度水平具有统计学意义上的显著影响。该结论在普通最小二乘法与随机效应估计两种模型设定下均成立，且通过工具变量控制ENGOs影响力可能存在的内生性问题后，该结论依然保持稳健。该效应同样具备实质意义上的重要性，壮大ENGOs的力量，是援助捐助方、基金会、国际组织及其他利益相关方在全球范围内降低污染水平的重要策略之一。