Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Governance efforts to reduce metropolitan CO₂ emissions pose a collective action problem. In that regard, stakeholder’s inclination towards cooperation though indispensable, does not materialize voluntarily. Independent metropolitan governments also cannot be forced into cooperative arrangements. They therefore weigh various incentives before a cooperative arrangement is reached. Such incentives in metropolitan governance can be seen in efficiency in economic and environmental outcomes. Using cost outcomes, evidence abounds in the aspect of economic efficiency as a basis for local governments to decide whether or not to engage in a cooperative agreement. The same cannot be said for environmental outcomes. Evidence establishing the relationship between cooperation and environmental outcomes remain a gap in the literature. This paper adopts a three-level mixed-effects linear model to establish the impact of inter-local government’s cooperation in transportation, on CO₂ transport emissions in 229 metropolitan areas within 16 OECD countries. The findings indicate that where there is inter-local government cooperation in a metropolitan area, lower CO₂ transport emissions are realized.