A number of tools for environmental analysis and decision support have been developed over time, including life-cycle assessment, substance-flow analysis, environmental impact and risk assessment. Many of these tools have different economic systems - a product, a regional substance-flow, a factory or emission pattern etc.- as their object. This book aims to reconcile and unify the many different tools for environmental analysis and decision-support into one meta-tool. The subject of this study revolves around two problems: the attribution problem - which environmental problems are to be attributed to which economic activities; and the position problem - what is the relative position of a number of the various tools for environmental decision-support? Both these problems can be resolved by the construction of a general framework and specific methodological steps within the framework. The main focus of this study is on the methodology. By providing a common framework for topics often treated in isolation this book enables experts from many fields, including scholars of environmental, resource and ecological economics, environmental science as well as researchers and professionals within industrial ecology, to understand the full depth and range of the material.

This outstanding book focuses on how economics can contribute to the design, implementation and appraisal of legal systems that create the 'right' incentives for environmental protection. The sixteen original and specially commissioned contributions - written by some of the leading names in their field - span many of the important areas of contemporary interest and employ case study material combined with theoretical, empirical and experimental research. The book addresses many topical issues including: the fundamental notions of property rights and social norms; the design and implementation of civil liability regimes; the use of criminal law as an instrument of environmental policy; the role that citizen suits, self-monitoring and self-enforcement could and should play in the implementation of law; the international harmonisation of environmental law; and the treatment of environmental damages in courts. Cutting-edge economic technique is motivated by, and articulates with, real and pressing policy debates. The contributors refer to a range of legal cases and policy decisions, and draw out a host of policy implications and prescriptions for settings as diverse as Superfund reform in the US and the harmonisation of landfill regulations in the European Union. By combining incisive overviews of the latest thinking and results, complemented by original analysis, The Law and Economics of the Environment will appeal to researchers and students of the environment, law and economics, policy practitioners and those with an interest in knowing what constitutes 'good' environmental law.

The spatial dimension of international trade theory has been neglected during most of its history. Trade barriers such as tariffs have been deemed more important. However, in an increasingly integrated world economy seeking to abolish tariffs, spatial considerations have gained in stature. On the way to fostering a spatial trade theory this book supplies a comprehensive analysis of all the different impacts of the inclusion of space and transport costs, covering orthodox trade theory, new trade theories, and economic geography. Karl Steininger also expands spatial analysis to cover spatial preferences and spatial discounting and catalogues the result of spatial production structure and environmental quality in a global economy. Finally, an empirical account is given of the trade and macro-implications of full cost pricing in transport.

Choice Modelling is a technique that has recently emerged as a means of estimating the demand for environmental goods and the benefits and costs associated with them. The aims of the book are fourfold: * to introduce the technique in the environmental context * to demonstrate its use in a range of case studies * to provide insights into some methodological issues * to explore the prospects for the technique. The authors contributing to the book show that choice modelling offers considerable potential for the evaluation of environmental goods and services. Its flexibility to cope with a wide range of applications is well demonstrated. The technique also presents numerous challenges to practitioners. A number of these are addressed in the book. Informed and innovative, this book will prove indispensable to all scholars, researchers and practitioners in the areas of environmental studies and environmental economics.

The provision of water and sanitation services (WSS) in developing countries has traditionally been the preserve of the state, but recently there has been a move towards greater private sector participation (PSP). While the potential economic benefits of PSP are well-known, the authors extensively discuss the environmental and social implications unique to the sector. The focus of the book is on the crucial role public authorities must continue to play to guarantee sustainability, levels of service and access to a variety of consumers. The authors show how these objectives are realised in very different ways - and not always successfully - in developing countries. The authors critically review the current literature and include new case studies from Manila, Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Abidjan and Mexico City. Private Firms and Public Water will be of interest to regulatory officials, economists, development professionals and scholars, as well as government, business and NGOs.

This comprehensive and accessible textbook addresses important relationships between economics and environmental policy, especially highlighting the role of taxation. It also connects environmental policy to social accounting by describing how measures of welfare and sustainable development depend on whether policies successfully internalize market failures. The authors discuss how the modern literature on environmental taxation and tradable permits has evolved. Environmental taxation is examined from a purely corrective perspective, and as part of a broader system of optimal taxation that reflects distributional objectives. Cost benefit rules of environmental policy reforms are also examined in various contexts. Key features include: ? Examination of optimal tax policy in static and dynamic general equilibrium models with environmental externalities? Examination of cost benefit rules for environmental policy reforms? Essential historical background to the modern literature on environmental policy? Discussion of measures of welfare and sustainable development? Environmental policy from a fiscal federalism perspective. This textbook will be essential reading for those studying environmental economics and environmental policy, working effectively as both an in-depth supplementary text in general courses on environmental economics and a strong main source for environmental policy courses.

Entrepreneurs and managers are increasingly aware that the environment can be both a threat and an opportunity to their current economic activities. This timely book discusses the question of environmental performance versus corporate practices and finds that environmental considerations can have a positive effect on business. The perception of the environment as a means to achieve competitive advantage for companies is a relatively recent phenomenon. The contributors address how to create institutional environments that stimulate businesses to integrate the environment in strategic decision making and thereby promote eco-efficiency. Together they build a convincing argument that the economy-environment trade-off is a false stalemate: societal and market forces may impact on the environment and on business in positive, neutral or negative ways. The authors use evidence from the United States and Europe to demonstrate that environmental considerations can have a positive effect on the competitive advantage of firms. This book draws together three fields - environmental economics, environmental regulation and strategic management - and will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners working in these areas.

This path-breaking book shows how green accounting can be compatible with ecological economics and how it can contribute to the implementation of sustainability. It explores the history and methodology of green accounting and describes the state-of-the-art construction of green accounts in individual countries.The authors first provide an overview of the history of national accounting and its place in the debate concerning sustainability. In particular they address the social role that accounts play, the relationship of national accounts to economic traditions, and the relationship between green national accounts and ecological economics. They go on to describe issues related to the history of green accounts and the methodologies adopted, and discuss the Dutch experience with the NAMEA system, the use of input-output analysis in national accounting and the conceptual issues raised by green accounting. Finally, the authors show how green accounts are being constructed and used in various countries, by both national governments and corporate businesses. The book features new case studies of green national accounting in Europe, Africa and Canada, the UK experience in establishing green accounts and the process of greening business accounts. Greening the Accounts will be required reading for scholars of ecological economics, environmental studies and business and national accounting.

Biological invasions - the introduction of living organisms beyond their original range - are one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss. They are a major threat to human health and a source of pests and pathogens in the world's farms, forests and fisheries. The growth of international trade and travel means that more species are being introduced to more places than ever before. This book represents the first concerted effort to understand the economic causes and consequences of biological invasions. The volume discusses the theoretical and methodological issues raised by invasion, including control strategies, modelling options, and a study of the economic, institutional and policy conditions that predispose countries to biological invasions. Also included are case studies of fisheries, agricultural systems, tropical forests and protected areas affected by invasive species in locations such as the Black Sea, Australia and Africa, and an evaluation of control programmes. The Economics of Biological Invasions provides an important first step towards codification of the advice needed to develop decision rules, tools and protocols for the effective management of invasive biological species. This volume will be a fascinating read for researchers, academics and students in ecology, economics and environmental science with an interest in the biodiversity problem. The book will also prove to be essential reading for policymakers responsible for health, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and the environment in both developed and developing countries.

The use of dynamic models to address the problem of environmental degradation is central to environmental policy because decisions taken now affect not only the current generation but have a profound impact on the future. In this innovative book, Frank Hettich uses dynamic modelling to study the interactions between economic growth, environmental policy and tax reform. He incorporates pollution and abatement technologies into different endogenous growth models that take into account consumer preferences and physical and human capital accumulation. He focuses on the effects of environmental policy in closed and open economies in the short, medium and long term. He sheds light on the following questions: * what kind of environmental policy can reverse tendencies towards increasing pollution? * will tighter environmental policy inevitably reduce economic growth? * does environmental taxation provide an efficient source of revenue for governments? * how will higher preferences for a clean environment affect optimal growth rates? * what are the effects of international cooperation on growth, welfare and pollution? * does sustainable environmental development necessarily preclude economic growth? This book will interest all students and scholars of environmental economics and particularly those interested in the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality.

This authoritative book presents the results of important new research into the economics of biodiversity conservation in sub-Saharan Africa. The contributors offer case studies of the economic causes of biodiversity loss in a range of ecosystem types - wetlands, montane forests, tropical moist forests, semi-arid savannas and lakes - and discuss the policy options for biodiversity conservation in each case. They also provide an in-depth analysis of the environmental consequences of policy reform at the macro- and micro- levels and offer practical recommendations for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Economics of Biodiversity Conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa will prove invaluable to scholars and policymakers working within the areas of environmental economics, environmental science and sustainable development.

This book analyses and quantifies the environmental impact of two closely related phenomena: economic growth and trade liberalisation. Previous work in this area tends to address only the impact of trade or economic growth on the environment, yet, as Matthew Cole shows, the two are inextricably linked. A theoretical and historical background to the relationship between economic growth and the environment, coupled with the environmental impact of international trade, particularly as it has been applied through the GATT/WTO, provides the contextual framework for a detailed empirical analysis. In examining the environmental effects of economic growth and international trade, use is made of Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKCs) and improvements to traditional EKC methodology are suggested. Global policy implications are discussed and conclusions drawn. An essential supplementary text for any undergraduate or postgraduate studying environmental economics, this book should appeal to researchers and policymakers in the field of international economic development as well as anyone with an interest in the global environment.

Conventional economic analysis of property rights in natural resources is too narrow and restrictive to allow for effective comparisons between alternative institutional structures. In this book, a conceptual framework is developed for the analysis of these structures with illustrative application to the allocation of water resources. Ray Challen introduces and develops a model for the analysis of the problems involved in institutional choice that takes into account constraints in institutional change imposed by history and the value of maintaining options in an uncertain future. The emphasis of institutional analysis shifts from assessing the benefits of particular property rights regimes in isolation to considering the distribution of property rights between levels of governments, communities and individuals in an institutional hierarchy. Conceptual developments in institutional theory are illustrated by using a case study of institutional change in the regulation of water use in irrigated agriculture.

Environmental taxes are considered one of the most attractive environmental policy instruments. However, many problems still prevent their widespread implementation. This impressive book offers a comprehensive, global and innovative treatment of the environmental tax issue. The author provides detailed economic analysis as well as practical policy suggestions and presenting numerous examples that have been successful in addressing complex issues as well as considering questions including: how should the instrument be designed? what to do with the tax revenues? how taxes could be made acceptable for industry, politicians and voters an analysis of the ethical issues of environmental taxation. This comprehensive treatment of environmental taxes will ensure the book's appeal to researchers, academics and students. It will also be of immense value to those working with the environment, as well as providing practical solutions to implementation problems faced by civil servants in central and local government.

Emissions taxes, tradeable emission permits and voluntary compliance policies are becoming the instruments of choice in controlling environmental problems at the national and international level. Careful design of these policies in second-best environments is a very important factor for their success. This book uses cutting-edge research in order to appraise their efficiency in varying market conditions. This book evaluates the impact that market power could have on the implementation of market-based environmental policies within static, dynamic and open economy frameworks. It explores the potential negative impacts that market-based instruments could have on competitiveness and examines the effects that time inconsistency in the implementation of emission taxes and emission permits could have on environmental innovation. Utilizing open economy frameworks, the contributors also analyse the impact of market imperfections on the structure of environmental polices across countries. They advocate co-operation across countries as a means to maximise the benefits from these policies. Environmental Regulation and Market Power will prove invaluable to scholars and policymakers in the area of environmental studies.

This book explores novel research perspectives at the intersection of environmental/natural resource economics and productivity analysis, emphasizing the link between productivity and efficiency measurement, and environmental impacts. The purpose of the book is to present new approaches and methods for measuring environmentally adjusted productivity and efficiency, and for incorporating natural resources in standard national accounting practices. These methods are applicable in many contexts, including air and water pollution, climate change, green accounting, and environmental regulation. The contributions, written by distinguished leaders in the field, provide an up-to-date assessment of the state of the art in environmentally adjusted productivity and efficiency analysis. A review of the rapidly expanding literature is included and complemented by international case studies. The book's forward-looking ideas and new theories and methods trace future directions in this exciting and topical research area. This is an essential tool for researchers and scholars, including postgraduate students, working in the area of international and environmental accounting, and productivity and efficiency analysis. The book will also have a broad appeal for various professionals including statisticians, national accountants and policymakers. Contributors include: M. Akter, T. Ancev, M.A.S. Azad, A. Bellver-Domingo, H.K. Edmonds, M. Eigenraam, R.G. Fare, K.J. Fox, S. Grosskopf, A. Hailu, F. Hernandez-Sancho, V.-N. Hoang, N. Hughes, W. Ingram, H. Jahan, B. Lamizana-Diallo, K. Lawson, L.Y.T. Lee, C.A.K. Lovell, J.E. Lovell, C. Ma, C. Obst, C.A. Pasurka, Jr., C. Wilson

Can waste become a profitable business rather than a costly problem, creating green business opportunities and green jobs while protecting the environment? Might this reduce illegal trade and improper recycling of hazardous wastes by making the legitimate alternatives more attractive? Addressing these questions, this book examines environmentally sound waste management as a driver in the transition to a Green Economy, and discusses how this transition is challenged by technical limitations, weak regulatory environments and lack of financial incentives. This in-depth analysis of the link between waste management and a Green Economy identifies key elements of a solid overarching legal and policy framework that could address these challenges, noting that consistent implementation and enforcement is crucial. It complements its examination of the legal and policy issues with contributions on technical and economic aspects, taking into account the interdisciplinary nature of the problem, and offers a perspective from Asia, where the challenges of waste management as well as the possible opportunities are particularly significant. With interdisciplinary authorship and contributions drawn from academia and practice, this book will be a timely resource for academics and practitioners in the areas of law, policy and economics. It will also provide insights for civil servants engaged in waste policy and related areas, private sector operators engaged in waste management and sustainable development, and non-governmental organizations engaged in environmental protection and poverty reduction efforts. Contributors include: J. Baumgartner, M. Grosz, T. Hardman Reis, K. Kummer Peiry, J. Li, J. North, P. Portas, R. Rayfuse, M. Schluep, X. Sun, J. Voinov Kohler, V. Weick, B. Zhu, A. Ziegler

This book focuses on the impact and design of international environmental regimes which are established to preserve natural resources and reduce environmental degradation. The author addresses such regimes from both a conceptual and theoretical point of view as well as using comparative empirical evidence from issue areas such as marine pollution, acid rain, ozone layer depletion and global climate change. He examines specifically a number of controversial institutional issues in international environmental politics. Should, for instance, access to decision-processes be inclusive or exclusive in terms of non-governmental watchdogs? Similar choices and dilemmas exist with regard to decision-making rules, the role of the secretariat, the structuring of the agenda, the organization of the science-politics interface, and the design of verification and compliance mechanisms. Hence, he addresses real dilemmas faced by negotiators, in order to help formulate policies for achieving the most effective organization of international environmental institutions. This book will be welcomed by students and scholars interested in environmental political economy and institutions, and policymakers and practitioners involved in the negotiation process.

This original book presents a new basis for environmental policymaking: environmental networks. This framework graphically simplifies the analysis of environmental problems and emphasizes the spatial nature of economic activity and pollution dispersion.The book first discusses the foundations of environmental economics before going on to apply the environmental network approach to different firm structures. The authors then extend the analysis to incorporate multiple products and pollutants, the presence of transaction costs, the availability of investment in production technologies, and the issue of noncompliance versus compliance. They also apply the network approach to pollution caused by transportation and assess the success of permits in limiting this. The authors then formulate integrated models, analyzing the use of permits and taxes in firms, producers, and consumers, as well as transportation and trade routes. This book will be of interest to students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in environmental and transport economics.

This impressive volume analyzes revealed preference approaches to modelling the demand for recreational resources. It presents one of the most thorough treatments of methods that rely on observed behavior to estimate the value of environmental amenities. The authors have brought together a collection of papers by top applied environmental economists, providing professional economists and policy analysts with a comprehensive reference on the current state-of-the-art in recreation demand analysis. The papers encompass both the theory of welfare measurement and practical applications. This volume will be essential reading for those interested in 'tooling up' on revealed preference approaches. For long-term practitioners, the papers provide an invaluable reference on recent developments in their field.

Do environmental regulations harm international competitiveness? In answer to this question, this book focuses on the impact of regulatory policies on competitiveness and employment at the firm level. It investigates the trade-off between environmental regulations and competitiveness across countries and regions throughout Europe, using the food processing industry as a case study.The authors compare and contrast the experiences of similar firms across Europe to examine the different costs firms face in applying environmental regulations and the different levels of competitiveness they achieve as a result. The investigation includes a detailed and thorough comparison of the European food processing industries using 67 company case studies. The results show that firms can achieve national or international levels of competitiveness even when they face a relatively unfavourable level of regulatory costs. These important findings will almost certainly have general application to small and medium sized firms in other industries. This book will be welcomed by policymakers, practitioners, researchers and academics interested in industrial economics, environmental management and environmental economics.

The next twenty years will be completely unlike the last twenty years.

The world is in economic crisis, and there are no easy fixes to our predicament. Unsustainable trends in the economy, energy, and the environment have finally caught up with us and are converging on a very narrow window of time--the "Twenty-Teens." "The Crash Course" presents our predicament and illuminates the path ahead, so you can face the coming disruptions and thrive--without fearing the future or retreating into denial. In this book you will find solid facts and grounded reasoning presented in a calm, positive, non-partisan manner.

Our money system places impossible demands upon a finite world. Exponentially rising levels of debt, based on assumptions of future economic growth to fund repayment, will shudder to a halt and then reverse. Unfortunately, our financial system does not operate in reverse. The consequences of massive deleveraging will be severe.

Oil is essential for economic growth. The reality of dwindling oil supplies is now internationally recognized, yet virtually no developed nations have a Plan B. The economic risks to individuals, companies, and countries are varied and enormous. Best-case, living standards will drop steadily worldwide. Worst-case, systemic financial crises will toss the world into jarring chaos.

This book is written for those who are motivated to learn about the root causes of our predicaments, protect themselves and their families, mitigate risks as much as possible, and control what effects they can. With challenge comes opportunity, and "The Crash Course" offers a positive vision for how to reshape our lives to be more balanced, resilient, and sustainable.

Frontiers in Ecological Economics presents some of Robert Costanza's most important work on understanding ecological and economic systems. A signal contribution of Costanza's work is that he transcends disciplinary boundaries by collaborating closely with other specialists and thereby constructs an integrated analysis of the interaction between humans and the rest of the natural world.The book is divided into four parts; part one discusses the creation of an ecological economics, the second part considers material and energy flows in ecological and economic systems, part three surveys dynamic ecological and economic systems modelling and analysis and the final part explores the role of institutions and incentives in environmental protection. Main themes and issues include: environmental sustainability, managing environmental systems, energy and economic valuation in environmental systems and a concern for both the necessity and limitations of modelling ecological economic systems. The book improves access to Robert Costanza's work which has made a fundamental contribution to the development of ecological economics.

One of the basic issues of accounting is to augment, or extend the conventional net national product measure so as to obtain a better indicator of welfare. This book extends the usual analysis of social accounting by including technological change, externalities and uncertainty. This important new book analyses welfare measurement, sustainability and 'green accounting' within general equilibrium models. A large part of the book is devoted to welfare measurement in the presence of technological change and external effects which complicate 'green accounting' to a considerable extent. In addition to environmental externalities, the authors also discuss external effects arising from investments in human capital and their implications for welfare measurement. Other areas examined are welfare measurement under uncertainty and examples of cost-benefit analyses of environmental and other policies. The book will be required reading for graduate students and professional economists interested in macroeconomics, environmental and resource economics.

With forests now enshrined in the Paris climate agreement, REDD+ initiatives and low emission development strategies (LEDS) will need insights like the ones provided in this timely and important volume to make a difference on the ground. The book draws on the perspectives of government officials from multiple sectors and at multiple levels to present a rich analysis of the economics, conditionalities and accountabilities for the design of intergovernmental fiscal transfers aimed at forest conservation - in competition with the income and jobs generated by natural resource exploitation. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking practical ways forward on climate mitigation.' - Anne M. Larson, Center for International Forestry Research, PeruIntergovernmental fiscal transfers (IFTs) are an innovative way to create incentives for local public actors to support conservation. This book contributes to the debate about how to conserve tropical forests by implementing mechanisms for reducing deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). With Indonesia as a case study, the authors adopt an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on political science, economics, and public policy. They consider the theoretical justification, as well as the wider political and administrative context for developing the design of IFTs for conservation. Students and scholars looking at conservation, ecological economics, decentralisation, forest policy and climate change will find this book to be of interest. It will also be of considerable use to policy-makers and practitioners working on forest policy, particularly those implementing REDD+.