In this volume we collected some of the papers that were presented at the RIEB (The Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration) International Conference at Kobe University on March 25 and 26, 2000. The contributions invited for presentation all dealt with specific aspects of the conference topic "Trade Policy: Political Economy and Dynamic Issues." In the meantime the papers collected in this volume have been revised, and some of them have been published in professional journals. This volume thus contains published as well as hitherto unpublished contributions. We are grateful to all the authors and the conference participants, espe cially to those who cheerfully served as discussants and chairpersons. Our thanks also go to our colleagues at the RIEB for their encouragement, and especially to the RIEB's Director, Professor Shoji Nishijima for his support of the project. We are also grateful to Professor Arye Hillman at Bar-Han University, who kindly read parts of the manuscript and supplied useful com ments and suggestions. In the editorial process we were fortunate to be able to rely on an excellent and able team: we are extremely grateful to Minako Okuno, Yuji Fujinaka, Tetsuya Saito for their outstanding work and to Shinya Horie who undertook the pains taking job and completed the camera-ready copy for publication. We are also grateful to Professor Charles Noussair of Emory University who kindly supplied suggestions."

This volume provides an up-to-the-minute review of the open economy approach to analysing environmental problems and policies, which has produced a wealth of research over the past decade. It contains non-technical, issue-oriented, and comprehensive surveys written by specialists in international and environmental economics. The volume will appeal to scholars and students of economics and political science.

In this volume we collected some of the papers that were presented at the RIEB (The Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration) International Conference at Kobe University on March 25 and 26, 2000. The contributions invited for presentation all dealt with specific aspects of the conference topic "Trade Policy: Political Economy and Dynamic Issues." In the meantime the papers collected in this volume have been revised, and some of them have been published in professional journals. This volume thus contains published as well as hitherto unpublished contributions. We are grateful to all the authors and the conference participants, espe cially to those who cheerfully served as discussants and chairpersons. Our thanks also go to our colleagues at the RIEB for their encouragement, and especially to the RIEB's Director, Professor Shoji Nishijima for his support of the project. We are also grateful to Professor Arye Hillman at Bar-Han University, who kindly read parts of the manuscript and supplied useful com ments and suggestions. In the editorial process we were fortunate to be able to rely on an excellent and able team: we are extremely grateful to Minako Okuno, Yuji Fujinaka, Tetsuya Saito for their outstanding work and to Shinya Horie who undertook the pains taking job and completed the camera-ready copy for publication. We are also grateful to Professor Charles Noussair of Emory University who kindly supplied suggestions."

Environmental economics has traditionally been conducted in a closed economy mode. Most textbooks on the subject still reflect this restriction: international aspects of environmental problems are often not covered at all or dealt with as an afterthought. In a world in which many environmental pollutants spill over national borders, and national economies have become increasingly integrated, this state of affairs is clearly unsatisfactory; rational environmental policies undertaken in a globalizing world need to take the international economic and environmental relationships into consideration. This perception has given rise to much literature employing an open economy approach to analysing environmental problems and policies. After a decade of intensive research, the time has come to take stock of the state-of-the-art knowledge. It is the objective of this volume to provide a review which will be of interest to scholars and graduate students of economics and political science who wish to familiarize themselves with the main issues and actors in the field of international environmental economics. This collection of non-technical, issue-oriented, and comprehensive surveys is written by leading specialists in international and environmental economics.