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.

Mountain regions represent about one fourth of the earth's surface area and provide a significant share of goods and services to humanity. In this book, the authors demonstrate how alpine environments throughout the world are particularly vulnerable to global environmental change. Alpine populations will often be affected earliest and most significantly, for example through extreme weather systems, and their scope for adaptation is relatively limited. Drawing on the natural and social sciences, particularly economics, this book supplies a broad picture of the diverse issues involved. The authors show that observed changes in natural phenomena, such as acidity and fish toxicity in high altitude lakes, clearly support the thesis on ongoing global change induced by humans. They then analyse the manifold socio-economic impacts of global environmental change which are likely to be felt in various sectors and industries including tourism, insurance and water cycle management. It is shown that adaptation options though limited can be improved, such as in natural hazard management. Finally the authors evaluate the various mitigation options available for policymakers in agriculture, energy production, transport and land use planning. Global Environmental Change in Alpine Regions demonstrates that although environmental change is a global phenomenon, the impacts are distributed unevenly and vary in severity. This book will be required reading for all students and scholars of environmental and resource economics, public management and policy.

The international community is increasingly confronted with global environmental problems, which lead to distributional conflicts, unresolved equity issues and asymmetric distribution of the costs and benefits of environmental policy. The complexity of such problems requires the development of an international institutional framework, capable of coping with the long-run international aspects of global environmental change. This book analyses some of the difficulties in the construction of such a framework and offers suggestions on how they might be overcome. The contributions in The Economics of Global Environmental Change address international trade, land-use change, biodiversity preservation, the management of water resources and the composition of water-related conflicts, global warming and strategic aspects of international environmental agreements. This book provides an in-depth insight to the current state-of-the-art for both economists and non-economists interested in global environmental change. It will also be of great interest to those wanting an introduction to the economic perspective of an increasingly relevant environmental core problem, as well as to students and researchers in political science.

This volume deals with the multifaceted and interdependent impacts of climate change on society from the perspective of a broad set of disciplines. The main objective of the book is to assess public and private cost of climate change as far as quantifiable, while taking into account the high degree of uncertainty. It offers new insights for the economic assessment of a broad range of climate change impact chains at a national scale. The framework presented in the book allows consistent evaluation including mutual interdependencies and macroeconomic feedback. This book develops a toolbox that can be used across the many areas of climate impact and applies it to one particular country: Austria.

This volume deals with the multifaceted and interdependent impacts of climate change on society from the perspective of a broad set of disciplines. The main objective of the book is to assess public and private cost of climate change as far as quantifiable, while taking into account the high degree of uncertainty. It offers new insights for the economic assessment of a broad range of climate change impact chains at a national scale. The framework presented in the book allows consistent evaluation including mutual interdependencies and macroeconomic feedback. This book develops a toolbox that can be used across the many areas of climate impact and applies it to one particular country: Austria.

Even though the interlinkage between trade and environment is obvious and important, it has been acknowledged as such only recently by the world community. Yet it is far from being truly addressed, as is indicated by the negotiations up to the Uruguay Round Final Act, signed in April 1994, as the most current example. Mankind remains faced with the crucial need of addressing this interlinkage -the objective to which this report is devoted. My own growing interest in this subject and the choice to work on and publish this report, which has been defended as my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Vienna, has had a long personal history. Ultimately it was made possible by important teachers of mine -from primary and high school up to universities -, by colleagues and friends, but certainly also by my family -as each of them answered my questions and communicated their own ideas. Along the path of research it was only the specific support and inspiration of a large number of people in various different ways that made it possible for the report to now be in front of you in the current form.

Die Klimakrise betrifft uns alle - Doch wie kann ein klimafreundliches Leben für alle erreicht werden? Zahlreiche wissenschaftliche Sachstandsberichte bestätigen schon lange den umfassenden Handlungsbedarf, um die Klimaziele zu erreichen. Dieser betrifft alle Lebensbereiche: von Arbeit und Pflege über Wohnen bis zu Mobilität, Ernährung und Freizeit. Doch wie verwirklicht man solch eine Transformation? Der Bericht unterstreicht, dass die Möglichkeiten, klimafreundlich zu leben, wesentlich durch Strukturen vorgegeben ist. Die vorherrschenden Appelle an das verantwortungsbewusste individuelle Verhalten Einzelner und Aufrufe zu nachhaltigem Konsum werden in ihren Wirkungen überschätzt. Entsprechend ist die Kernbotschaft des Berichts, die gemeinsame Gestaltung von Strukturen für ein klimafreundliches Leben ins Zentrum der Klimapolitik zu stellen. Daher gibt das Buch Antworten auf folgende Fragen:     Wie können Rahmenbedingungen so gestaltet werden, dass ein klimafreundliches Leben für jeden selbstverständlich oder zumindest erleichtert wird? Welchen Beitrag können die verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Akteure leisten? Was bedeutet dies für Recht und Governance, die Wirtschaft, Globalisierung und das Finanzsystem? Können Medien einen Beitrag dazu leisten? Welche Rolle haben Ungleichheit, soziale Sicherung und Raumplanung und welche Infrastrukturen sind notwendig? Dieses Open Access Buch ist das Ergebnis eines umfassenden wissenschaftlichen Erstellungsprozesses, der sich an der Arbeitsweise des Weltklimarates IPCC orientierte: mehr als 80 Autor_innen analysierten die aktuelle wissenschaftliche Literatur zur Gestaltung von Strukturen für ein klimafreundliches Leben. Dazu wurden über 2000 Literaturquellen ausgewertet. Zur Absicherung der Qualität wurden die Ergebnisse der Autor_innen von in etwa 180 Expert_innen und circa 100 Stakeholdern in mehreren Runden begutachtet. Der innovative Zugang und die bisher wenig aufgegriffenen Themenfelder machen das Buch zu einem Standardwerk für die Klimaforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum.