Environmental Challenges and Political Regime Transition: The Role of Historical Legacies and the European Union in Eurasia

Figures & data

Table 1. Datasets Used in the Analysis of Quality of Life

Data source name	Years	Variables
World development indicators	1970–2015	CO2 emission per capita, Urbanization rate, GDP per capita
Polity IV project	1970–2015	Polity 2 democracy Index, Institutionalized democracy score
World religion project	1990–2015	Christian majority indicator, Muslim majority indicator, % of Catholics
GeoDist database	1990	Area, Indicator of landlocked, Latitude, Longitude, Indicators of British, French, Russian, Ottoman colonies, Distance to Equator, Distance to Greenwich
Barro-Lee education attainment dataset	1990	Education (in years)
Ethnic fractionalization data	2003	Ethnic fractionalization

Figure 1. Average democracy index and institutionalized democracy score, polity 2, in post-communist states against the rest of the world.

Figure 2. Polity 2 democracy index and institutionalize democracy score by region: 1970–2015 (East Asia (EA), Europe (EU), Latin America & Caribbean (LA), Middle East & North Africa (MENA), North America (NA), South Asia (SA), and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Figure 3. CO2 emission per capita in post-communist and consolidated democracy.

Figure 4. Rankings of CO2 emission per capita among the post-communist states in 2014.

Figure 5. CO2 emission per capita and democracy in post-communist states in 2014.

Figure 6. Differences in CO2 emission between post-communist countries and consolidated democracies at transition and along the transition path (difference-in-differences approach).

Table 2. Regression Results with Democracy Stock (Dependent Variable: CO2 Emissions Per Capita (Post-Communist States – 1990–2015))

	Model (1)	Model (2)	Model (3)	Model (4)	Model (5)
Democracy Stock^a	0.006	−0.027***	−0.020**	−0.016**	−0.013**
	(0.011)	(0.011)	(0.008)	(0.007)	(0.007)
Income		0.641***	0.839***	0.792***	0.295**
		(0.232)	(0.193)	(0.185)	(0.116)
Income Sq.		−0.012	−0.020**	−0.019**	−0.007
		(0.009)	(0.008)	(0.007)	(0.005)
Urban population (% of total)		0.175***	0.188***	0.131***	0.162*
		(0.036)	(0.031)	(0.043)	(0.086)
Population growth, %		0.950***	0.749**	0.653**	0.391*
		(0.303)	(0.275)	(0.293)	(0.201)
Education			0.121	−0.031
			(0.278)	(0.275)
% of Catholics			−1.340	−1.403
			(1.939)	(1.800)
Christian majority			−1.950**	−1.810**
			(0.790)	(0.796)
Ethnic fractalization			2.713	1.457
			(3.576)	(3.160)
Distance from equator				1.078
				(1.053)
Landlocked				0.209
				(0.850)
Area in sq. kms				0.002**
				(0.001)
Constant	7.897***	−3.299*	−5.045	−5.921	−3.784
	(1.039)	(1.745)	(3.178)	(4.304)	(3.995)
Year dummies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Country dummies	No	No	No	No	Yes
General controls	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Institutional controls	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Geographical controls	No	No	No	Yes	No
Observations	663	662	662	662	662
R-squared	0.033	0.539	0.624	0.667	0.937

^aIn hypothesis 3, we test γ₁ < 0, we report the p-value for the one-tailed t-test for the coefficient associated with the democracy stock.

Robust standard errors in parentheses, *** p < .01, **p < .05, *p < .1.

Table 3. Regressions with EU Membership and Democracy Stock (Dependent Variable: CO2 Emissions Per Capita (Post-Communist States – 1990–2015))^b

	Model (1)	Model (2)	Model (3)	Model (4)	Model (5)
Democracy stock^a	−0.003	−0.025**	−0.016**	−0.012*	−0.010
	(0.013)	(0.011)	(0.008)	(0.007)	(0.007)
EU membership^a	2.129*	−0.610	−1.247*	−1.282*	−0.972**
	(1.316)	(0.993)	(0.959)	(0.912)	(0.453)
Year dummies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Country dummies	No	No	No	No	Yes
General controls	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Institutional controls	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Geographical controls	No	No	No	Yes	No
Observations	663	662	662	662	662
R-squared	0.054	0.540	0.629	0.672	0.939

^aIn hypothesis 3, we test whether γ₁ < 0 and γ₂ < 0. As a result, we report the p-values for the one-tailed t-tests for the coefficients associated with the democracy stock and EU membership.

^bThe same sets of controls used in regressions as reported in Table 2 and discussed in Equation (4).

Robust standard errors in parentheses; ***p < .01, **p < .05, *p < .1.