While there is a near global consensus about the need to address climate change, most countries are hesitant to employ sufficiently stringent policies in fear of sacrificing economic growth. The objective of this research is to examine the impact of environmental policy on economic growth, using the OECD’s Environmental Policy Stringency (EPS) index across 21 OECD countries from 1990 to 2014. An augmented Solow Model with the inclusion of variables to represent human capital, trade openness and the EPS index is used to assess whether policy stringency affects growth with empirical analysis comprised of a pooled mean group estimator, dynamic OLS, fixed effects and pooled OLS to estimate the short and long run effects. The results reveal that policy stringency negatively affects economic growth in the short run but pays dividends of positive growth in the long run. There appears to be a threshold level of the EPS, beyond which the dividend is realized in the long run. The results are expected to be of interest to policy makers who strive to address climate change without trading off economic growth.

尽管全球对应对气候变化的必要性几乎达成了共识，但大多数国家都不愿采取足够严格的政策，担心会牺牲经济增长。本研究的目的是使用经合组织 1990 年至 2014 年 21 个经合组织国家的环境政策严格度 (EPS) 指数来检验环境政策对经济增长的影响。贸易开放度和每股收益指数用于评估政策严格性是否影响增长，实证分析包括汇总平均组估计量、动态 OLS、固定效应和汇总 OLS，以估计短期和长期效应。结果表明，政策紧缩在短期内对经济增长产生负面影响，但从长期来看会带来正增长的红利。每股收益似乎存在一个阈值水平，超过该阈值水平将长期实现红利。预计这些结果将引起致力于在不牺牲经济增长的情况下应对气候变化的政策制定者的兴趣。