Polluting politics

- We investigate the impact of Democratic vs Republican governors on Pollution.
- We use a regression discontinuity design and air quality data from EPA.
- We focus on the following air pollutants: CO, Ozone, NO2, SO2 and Particulate matter.
- We find lower pollution under Democratic governors.

This paper estimates the causal impact of Democratic vs Republican governors on pollution. Using a regression discontinuity design, gubernatorial election data, and air quality data from US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we find that air pollution is lower under Democratic governors.