Determinants of environmental quality

This chapter provides a brief survey of core determinants of environmental quality identified by previous research. The first part of the presentation focuses on the role of per capita income levels, since the latter received a lot of attention in the 1990s. The analysis shows that the level of economic development as captured by per capita income levels for numerous reasons cannot provide a basis for governance strategies to improve environmental stewardship and quality. The chapter then offers a short discussion of the potential influence of some of the institutional, cultural, and social factors examined as potential detenuiinants of environmental quality by scholars and the frequent lack of agreement on the impact of these factors, before the following chapter turns to the role of property rights as the central focus of this book.