  We examine how Green governments influence macroeconomic, education, and
environmental outcomes. Our empirical strategy exploits that the Fukushima
nuclear disaster in Japan gave rise to an unanticipated change in government in
the German state Baden-Wuerttemberg in 2011. The incumbent rightwing government
was replaced by a leftwing government led by the Green party. We use the
synthetic control method to select control states against which
Baden-Wuerttemberg's outcomes can be compared. The results do not suggest that
the Green government influenced macroeconomic outcomes. The Green government
implemented education policies that caused comprehensive schools to become
larger. We find no evidence that the Green government influenced CO2 emissions,
particulate matter emissions, or increased energy usage from renewable energies
overall. An intriguing result is that the share of wind power usage decreased
relative to the estimated counterfactual. Intra-ecological conflicts and
realities in public office are likely to have prevented the Green government
from implementing drastic policy changes.
