| Summary: | The objective of this thesis is to identify key factors that influence a country to ratify the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Treaty. The POPs treaty seeks to eliminate or reduce the emissions of 12 POPs. I will examine the links between the countries that have ratified the POPs treaty in an effort to identify variables that may have influenced a country's decision to ratify the treaty. For each of the 165 nations in my dataset, I will examine economic, social, geographic, health, and political indicators and history of malaria and determine if a relationship exists between these variables and treaty ratification.
Results indicate that a history of malaria, political, economic, and geographic indicators are significantly related to a nation's decision to ratify the treaty. Specifically, level of democracy, history of malaria, and location in Asia are deemed to be significantly correlated with treaty ratification, while location in Oceania and GDP per capita are regarded as extremely significantly correlated to treaty ratification. Of these five variables, only a history of malaria is inversely related to treaty ratification. This finding suggests that countries with a history of malaria are less likely to ratify the POPs treaty than countries that do not have a history of malaria. The remaining four variables are positively related to treaty ratification which suggests that as GDP per capita or level of democracy increases, the tendency of a nation to ratify the treaty also increases. Location in Oceania and Asia also tend to influences a nation's decision to ratify the treaty.
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