This literature review provides an overview of the relationship between institutions and climate policies and concludes with potential avenues for future research.
This paper reviews research across economics, political economy, political science, and public
policy to investigate how institutions shape the adoption, implementation, and durability of
climate policies. We examine how formal institutions (i) coordinate implementation capacity,
(ii) anchor long-term commitments, and (iii) mediate distributional conflict. We also discuss
how informal institutions, such as social norms and trust, further condition whether formal
mechanisms translate into durable action. We distinguish quasi-experimental evidence from
correlational and case-based findings, identifying where economic methods could further sharpen
evidence, and conclude with a research agenda focused on institutional interdependencies and
the conditions under which institutions can facilitate the adoption of effective and irreversible
climate policies.
