Working Paper

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

Abstract: We study the evolution of interest in climate change among different actors within the population and how the interest of these actors affects one another. First, we document the evolution of interest for each actor individually, and then we provide a model of cross-influences between them. We estimate this model using a Vector Autoregression (VAR). We measure interest among the general public, the European Parliament, central banks, general interest science journals, and economics journals by creating a Climate Change Index (CCI) based on mentions of climate change in these domains. Except for general interest science journals, the index for all other domains has started showing significant values only recently, and it tends to fluctuate considerably. In terms of influence, the European Parliament and the media affect one another, but the trend in science remains relatively independent of the others.

Keywords: climate change; social norms; text analysis; social networks;

JEL Classification: Q54; Q58; D85; A13;

https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2024.036

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Part of Series: Working Papers

Publication Date: 2024-11-08

Number: 2024-036