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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmental economics > General
Global warming is widely considered to be one of the most serious environmental problems for current and future generations. Moreover, the apparent failure of the Kyoto Protocol to effect a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions has increased the importance of economic research into new ways to control global warming. In this exhaustive study, the authors break new ground by integrating cutting edge insights on global warming from three different perspectives: game theory, cost-effectiveness analysis and public choice. For each perspective the authors provide an overview of important results, discuss the theoretical consistency of the models and assumptions, highlight the practical problems which are not yet captured by theory and explore the different applications to the various problems encountered in global warming. They demonstrate how each perspective has its own merits and weaknesses, and advocate an integrated approach as the best way forward. They also propose a research agenda for the future which encompasses the three methods to create a powerful tool for the analysis and resolution of global pollution problems. Surveying a large amount of literature and providing plentiful examples of potential applications, this extensive book combines three branches of economic research on global warming into one accessible volume. It will be widely read by students and scholars in environmental courses, environmental and resource economists, and those working in governmental and non-governmental organisations concerned with international environmental problems.
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.
This major annual publication is an authoritative state-of-the-art survey of current issues in environmental and resource economics written by the leading academics in the field.The discipline of environmental and resource economics has undergone a rapid evolution over the past three decades with the early literature focusing mainly on valuation and the design of policy instruments to correct externalities and encourage optimal resource exploitation. In the past few years, the field has broadened its scope by making numerous links with other disciplines in economics as well as the natural and physical sciences. As a result there has been an explosion in the literature which has made it increasingly difficult to keep up with developments in the field. The Yearbook cuts through this by focusing on the principal issues of current interest. In this edition, experts in their specific field consider the problems of the monitoring and enforcement of environmental policy and examine possible voluntary approaches to environmental protection. Topics examined include policies to counter tropical deforestation, the analysis of transportation and environmental policy, models of climate change control, environmental labelling and the use of cost-benefit analysis. The Yearbook will provide economists, scholars and practitioners working in environmental and resource economics with a comprehensive overview of the up-to-date issues written by the leading international scholars.
To deal effectively with transboundary environmental problems such as climate change, it is important to have an idea of the model for an 'efficient' and 'fair' policy. An understanding of the strategic interactions involved in the international decision-making process is also essential. Carsten Helm uses rigorous theoretical reasoning and applications to address these issues. * The first part of the book contains a normative analysis based on fair division theory and welfare theory. The empirical focus is on burden sharing in the climate change regime, for which a concrete proposal is derived. * The book then extends the perspective by taking into account the self-interest of sovereign states. Using cooperative game theory the potential for Pareto efficient cooperation is analysed. * Finally, Carsten Helm applies non-cooperative game theory to analyse issues such as environmental and welfare effects of emissions trading, the misuse of scientific uncertainties as a bargaining tool and the effects of discontinuities in environmental systems on cooperation. This highly topical book will be of great interest to economists and political and environmental scientists, as well as all those involved in the policy and decision making of international environmental agreements.
Space plays a central role in environmental and resource economics and yet spatial economics has received surprisingly little attention in the literature. This collection of Charles Kolstad's writings on spatial environmental and resource economics from the past two decades aims to fill this gap. The book includes the author's most important work on a variety of topics, including the Hotelling model of spatial competition, as applied to resource economics, jurisdictional tax competition, particularly in the context of resource taxes, and environmental regulation, both theoretical and empirical. This unique collection from one of the world's leading authorities in environmental economics will be welcomed by scholars and students of natural resource economics, environmental management, agricultural and energy economics.
In this controversial book Herman Daly, a leading commentator on the environment, offers lively criticism of existing work on ecological economics and the economics of ecology. The theme throughout the book is about changes in perspective, attitudes and policies required to avoid uneconomic growth - that is, the impoverishment that results when the environmental and social costs of growth exceed the benefits. Key issues addressed include: * growth economics * misunderstandings of thermodynamics * economic development and population * globalization * money * humans in the ecosystem. This major new book will be of interest to economists, ecologists, environmentalists, public policy scholars and activists as well as social philosophers.
Greening the Budget regards the fundamental cause of environmental degradation as government and market failure and proposes the use of budgets as an instrument of environmental policy to rectify this problem. The book focuses on the elements of the public budget which currently affect the environment and explores the scope for greening both revenue and expenditure through specific measures. The authors begin by considering the effects of removing environmentally damaging subsidies and the potential for correcting market failure by way of appropriate pricing. They go on to examine the introduction of new taxes following the 'polluter pays' principle and, in contrast, the allocation of incentives for those who take the environmentally preferred course of action. They also explore the environmental and budgetary implications of European Union financial transfers by looking at a case study of the agricultural sector. The book concludes by addressing public purchasing and administration. This book will be of particular interest and value to scholars of environmental economics, researchers involved in environmental policy, and environmental consultants, practitioners and policymakers.
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.
This book comprehensively examines the performance of Bangladeshi agriculture in light of the most recent thinking on economic development and the environment. It both analyses the experience during the last five decades and discusses the major issues and challenges with special emphasis on the prospects for sustainable agricultural development in the future. The authors emphasise the importance of distributional aspects of environmental change and development in relation to employment and poverty and also focus on gender issues - often ignored in traditional theory. Many of the issues that arise in Bangladesh in connection with the agricultural-development nexus are not unique to the country. Parallels exist elsewhere in the developing world and as such Bangladesh is useful as an example from which to draw conclusions about much of the developing world. Environment and Agriculture in a Developing Economy will therefore be of particular interest to developmental and environmental economists as well as international organisations and NGOs committed to environment and development issues.
The assessment and management of risks to human health and the environment has become a topic of increasing importance and presents one of the major challenges to modern society. This comprehensive volume draws together key papers from a range of different perspectives and offers the reader an important insight into the basic principles of environmental risk management.Topics include the background to environmental risk, human health and ecological risk assessment, risk perception and communication, strategic issues in corporate environmental risk and environmental risk and siting hazardous facilities.
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.
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.
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.
What happens when a radically-new fuel or technology transforms the energy system? How does the energy system evolve at different stages of economic development? What are the implications for people's lives and their environment? Building on an award-winning article, in this exciting book Roger Fouquet investigates the impacts of technological innovations and economic development over the last seven hundred years on our ability to provide heat, power, transport and light. Using a unique data set, collected over a decade, the analysis identifies the forces driving revolutions in energy services. It highlights the tendency of markets to produce ever-cheaper energy services, which in turn incite greater energy consumption. It also examines how these revolutions affect people's well-being and the environment. The framework, analysis and insights in this book offer an original perspective on future energy markets, transitions to low-carbon economies and strategies for addressing climate change. Heat, Power and Light is an invaluable and unique contribution to this profoundly important topic. As such it will appeal to a wide audience of energy economists, climate change analysts, policymakers, economic and technology historians and economists more broadly.
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.
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.
Paying the Carbon Price analyzes the practice of freely allocating permits in Emissions Trading Schemes (ETSs) and demonstrates how many heavy polluters participating in ETSs are not yet paying the full price of carbon. This innovative book provides a framework to assist policymakers in the design of transitional assistance measures that are both legally robust and will support the effectiveness of the ETSs whilst limiting negative impacts on international trade. Within the realm of international and comparative law, this book closes the gap between the legal frameworks of ETSs in practice, the economic research data and the doctrinal analysis of WTO law. These interesting insights and fresh ideas explore the connection between ETSs, the problems with free allocation of emission permits and the analysis of complex legal instruments. This accessible resource will be invaluable for those researching and teaching climate change law and policy, international trade law and environmental economics. It will also be a useful tool for policymakers, lawyers and economists.
Emissions trading has become a central feature of global efforts to control climate change. Its inclusion in the Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on Climate Change represents a victory for advocates of market-based instruments and builds upon twenty years of experience with trading schemes in the United States. However, the concept is controversial and attempts to introduce similar trading schemes in Europe have met with mixed results. This timely book provides a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of emissions trading including the lessons learnt, the problems faced and the prospects for its extended use. It includes case studies of trading schemes in the US and Europe, and studies of international trading under the European acid rain regime. Problems of practical implementation, especially institutional feasibility and political acceptability, are given particular attention. The prospects for the international trading of greenhouse gases following the Kyoto Protocol are assessed, together with the potential conflict between emissions trading and established regulatory traditions. Pollution for Sale will be of great interest to policymakers, practitioners, researchers and students of environmental policy.
Robert N. Stavins has emerged as one of the most influential voices in environmental economics over the last decade and a half. These 23 essays on environmental economics and policy, written by Professor Stavins and his co-authors over the period 1988-1999, originally appeared in a diverse set of leading, scholarly periodicals and are here collected for the first time. The book is divided into seven parts: overview; benefits and costs of environmental regulation; normative analysis of policy instruments; positive analysis of policy instruments; environmental technology innovation and diffusion; causes and consequences of land-use changes; and global climate policy. The book begins with an introductory essay in which Stavins reflects on the professional path that led to his research and writing and identifies common themes that emerge from this period of research. Students, scholars, practitioners and policymakers will find this volume a valuable and very useful addition to their collection.
There is widespread agreement that climate change is a serious problem. If we fail to regulate greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, or use alternative strategies for addressing the problem, the damages could be significant, and perhaps catastrophic. After several international meetings in which nation-states have tried unsuccessfully to address the climate change problem, there is a sense of frustration and urgency: frustration at the slow pace at which countries are moving toward an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; urgency because of the growing evidence that climate change is a serious problem that should be addressed globally and quickly. This book takes a close look at the fundamental political and economic processes driving climate change policy. It identifies institutional arrangements and policies that are needed to design more effective climate change policy. It also examines ethical and distributional arguments that are critical in understanding and framing the climate debate. The book is built around a conference honouring Tom Schelling that took place at the Sustainable Consumption Institute at The University of Manchester. Each chapter represents a significant contribution to the literature on the political economy of climate change.
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.
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.
Tomasz Zylicz's book is an important contribution to the debate on how to finance sustainable development in transitional economies. Using Poland as an example, the author shows how sustainable development may be possible if the economic value of natural capital is accounted for.The book studies examples of natural capital in Poland, identifies the beneficiaries of these natural assets, and discusses ways to reimburse those who own, steward or live within these assets (such as the national parks). With its focus firmly on environmental assets, rather than disruption and crises in the Central and Eastern environment, the author reports on a number of nature protection studies including economic valuation surveys, species reintroduction projects, and the financing of national park services. Regional and international contexts of the local natural heritage are highlighted. Tomasz Zylicz uses the example of Poland to frame wider theories and conclusions on how to preserve and enhance the natural capital in transition economies. Political, environmental and natural resource economists and environmental scientists, as well as NGOs and policymakers will find this book illuminating reading.
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.
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