Effect of transparency on changing views regarding nuclear energy before and after Fukushima accident

Yamamura, Eiji (2011): Effect of transparency on changing views regarding nuclear energy before and after Fukushima accident.

Abstract

Using cross-country data, this paper examines the influence of government transparency on changing views regarding nuclear energy before and after Japan’s natural and nuclear disasters of 2011. It was observed that in the majority of countries the rate of favoring nuclear energy declined after the disaster. However, empirical results have shown that this rate is less likely to decrease in a more transparent country, even after a disaster. This implies that views regarding nuclear energy were less elastic to the news of the Fukushima incident when people were more certain about nuclear energy prior to the Fukushima incident.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Transparency, persuasion, Fukushima accident, nuclear energy
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H1 - Structure and Scope of Government > H10 - General; D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D73 - Bureaucracy ; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations ; Corruption; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D82 - Asymmetric and Private Information ; Mechanism Design; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q54 - Climate ; Natural Disasters and Their Management ; Global Warming

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