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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Ostrom, Elinor |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an alternative approach to addressing the complex problems of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The author, who won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, argues that single policies adopted only at a global scale are unlikely to generate sufficient trust among citizens and firms so that collective action can take place in a comprehensive and transparent manner that will effectively reduce global warming. Furthermore, simply recommending a single governmental unit to solve global collective action problems is inherently weak because of free-rider problems. For example, the Carbon Development Mechanism (CDM) can be ‘gamed’ in ways that hike up prices of natural resources and in some cases can lead to further natural resource exploitation. Some flaws are also noticeable in the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) program. Both the CDM and REDD are vulnerable to the free-rider problem. As an alternative, the paper proposes a polycentric approach at various levels with active oversight of local, regional, and national stakeholders. Efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions are a classic collective action problem that is best addressed at multiple scales and levels. Given the slowness and conflict involved in achieving a global solution to climate change, recognizing the potential for building a more effective way of reducing green house gas emissions at multiple levels is an important step forward. A polycentric approach has the main advantage of encouraging experimental efforts at multiple levels, leading to the development of methods for assessing the benefits and costs of particular strategies adopted in one type of ecosystem and compared to results obtained in other ecosystems. Building a strong commitment to find ways of reducing individual emissions is an important element for coping with this problem, and having others also take responsibility can be more effectively undertaken in small- to medium-scale governance units that are linked together through information networks and monitoring at all levels. This paper was prepared as a background paper for the 2010 World Development Report on Climate Change. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Environmental Economics&Policies,Climate Change Economics,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Environment and Energy Efficiency |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5095&r=env |
| By: | Kuosmanen, Timo; Laukkanen, Marita |
| Abstract: | Many environmental problems involve the transformation of multiple harmful substances into one or more damage agents much in the same way as a firm transforms inputs into outputs. Yet environmental management differs from a firmâs production in one important respect: while a firm seeks efficient input allocation to maximize profit, an environmental planner allocates abatement efforts to render the production of damage agents as inefficient as possible. We characterize a solution to the hmultiple pollutants problem and show that the optimal policy is often a corner solution, in which abatement is focused on a single pollutant. Corner solutions may arise even in well-behaved problems with concave production functions and convex damage and cost functions. Furthermore, even concentrating on a wrong pollutant may yield greater net benefits than setting uniform abatement targets for all harmful substances. Our general theoretical results on the management of flow and stock pollutants are complemented by two numerical examples illustrating the abatement of eutrophying nutrients and greenhouse gases. |
| Keywords: | climate change, cost-benefit analysis, eutrophication, multiple pollutants, optimal environmental policy, pollution control, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:mttfdp:54287&r=env |
| By: | Timilsina, Govinda R.; Shrestha, Ashish |
| Abstract: | Rapidly increasing emissions of carbon dioxide from the transport sector, particularly in urban areas, is a major challenge to sustainable development in developing countries. This study analyzes the factors responsible for transport sector CO2 emissions growth in selected developing Asian countries during 1980-2005. The analysis splits the annual emissions growth into components representing economic development; population growth; shifts in transportation modes; and changes in fuel mix, emission coefficients, and transportation energy intensity. The study also reviews existing government policies to limit CO2 emissions growth, particularly various fiscal and regulatory policy instruments. The study finds that of the six factors considered, three - economic development, population growth, and transportation energy intensity - are responsible for driving up transport sector CO2 emissions in Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In contrast, only economic development and population growth are responsible in the case of China, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. CO2 emissions exhibit a downward trend in Mongolia due to decreasing transportation energy intensity. The study also finds that some existing policy instruments help reduce transport sector CO2 emissions, although they were not necessarily targeted for this purpose when introduced. |
| Keywords: | Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Energy Production and Transportation,Climate Change Economics,Transport and Environment |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5098&r=env |
| By: | Frey, Bruno S. (University of Zurich); Luechinger, Simon (University of Zurich); Stutzer, Alois (University of Basel) |
| Abstract: | In many countries environmental policies and regulations are implemented to improve environmental quality and thus individuals' well-being. However, how do individuals value the environment? In this paper, we review the Life Satisfaction Approach (LSA) representing a new non-market valuation technique. The LSA builds on the recent development of subjective well-being research in economics and takes measures of reported life satisfaction as an empirical approximation to individual welfare. Micro-econometric life satisfaction functions are estimated taking into account environmental conditions along with income and other covariates. The estimated coefficients for the environmental good and income can then be used to calculate the implicit willingness-to-pay for the environmental good. |
| Keywords: | life satisfaction approach, subjective well-being, non-market valuation, cost-benefit analysis, air pollution |
| JEL: | Q51 I31 D61 Q53 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4478&r=env |
| By: | Michael Hübler |
| Abstract: | We estimate CO2 implicitly contained in traded commodities based on the GTAP 7 data: While net carbon imports into the industrialized countries amount to 15% of their total emissions, net carbon exports of the developing countries amount to 12% of their total emissions, and net carbon exports of China amount to 24% of China's total emissions. We also analyze policies under a global per capita emissions based contraction and convergence regime with emission trading: When China joins the regime, the developing countries will benefit, while the industrialized countries will be almost unaffected. When China does not join the regime and instead a carbon content based border tax is imposed, the industrialized countries will significantly benefit, while China will be significantly worse off. The effect of the border tax adjustment on the global carbon price and on global emissions seems negligible |
| Keywords: | carbon content of trade, border tax adjustment, climate policy, contraction and convergence, China |
| JEL: | F13 F18 Q54 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1565&r=env |
| By: | G. Cornelis van Kooten |
| Abstract: | Wind is the fastest growing renewable energy source for generating electricity, but economic research lags behind. In this study, therefore, we examine the economics of integrating large-scale wind energy into an existing electrical grid. Using a simple grid management model to investigate the impact of various levels of wind penetration on grid management costs, we show that costs of reducing CO2 emissions by relying more on wind power depend on the generation mix of the existing electricity grid and the degree of wind penetration, with costs ranging from $21 to well over $1000 per tonne of CO2 reduced. Costs are lowest if wind displaces large amounts of fossil fuel production and there is some hydroelectric power to act as a buffer. Hydro capacity has the ability to store wind generated power for use at more opportune times. If wind does nothing more than replace hydro or nuclear power then the environmental benefits (reduced CO2 emissions) of investing in wind power are small. |
| Keywords: | Wind power, carbon costs, electricity grids, mathematical programming |
| JEL: | Q54 Q41 C61 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rep:wpaper:2009-04&r=env |
| By: | Anas, Alex; Timilsina, Govinda R. |
| Abstract: | This study examines impacts on net social benefits or economic welfare of alternative policy instruments for reducing traffic congestion and atmospheric emissions in São Paulo, Brazil. The study shows that expanding road networks, subsidizing public transit, and improving automobile fuel economy may not be as effective as suggested by economic theories because these policies could cause significant rebound effects. Although pricing instruments such as congestion tolls and fuel taxes would certainly reduce congestion and emissions, the optimal level of these instruments would steeply increase the monetary cost of travel per trip and are therefore politically difficult to implement. However, a noticeable finding is that even smaller tolls, which are more likely to be politically acceptable, have substantial benefits in terms of reducing congestion and emissions. Among the various policy instruments examined in the study, the most socially preferable policy option for São Paulo would be to introduce a mix of congestion toll and fuel taxes on automobiles and use the revenues to improve public transit systems. |
| Keywords: | Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Climate Change Economics,Roads&Highways,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Transport and Environment |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5099&r=env |
| By: | Michael Rauscher (University of Rostock) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the spatial patterns of industrial location and environmental pollution in a new-economic-geography model. Factors of production and their owners are mobile, but factor owners are not required to live in the region in which their factors are employed. Under laisser-faire, a chase-and-flee cycle of location is possible: people, who prefer a clean environment, are chased by polluting industries, which want to locate geographically close to the market. Locational patterns under optimal environmental regulation include concentration, separation, dispersion and several intermediate patterns. Moreover, it is shown that marginal changes in environmental policy may induce discrete changes in locational patterns. |
| Keywords: | economic geography, migration, trade, pollution, environmental regulation |
| JEL: | Q52 Q56 Q58 R30 F12 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ros:wpaper:109&r=env |
| By: | Andersen, Lykke E.; Suxo, Addy; Verner, Dorte |
| Abstract: | This paper uses district level data to estimate the general relationship between climate, income and life expectancy in Peru. The analysis finds that both incomes and life expectancy show hump-shaped relationships, with optimal average annual temperatures around 18-20ºC. These estimated relationships were used to simulate the likely effects of both past (1958-2008) and future (2008-2058) climate change. At the aggregate level, future climate change in Peru is estimated to cause a small reduction in average life expectancy of about 0.2 years. This average, however, hides much larger losses in the already hot areas as well as substantial gains in currently cold areas. Similarly, the average impact on incomes is a modest reduction of 2.3 percent, but with some districts experiencing losses of up to 20 percent and others gains of up to 13 percent. Future climate change is estimated to cause an increase in poverty (all other things equal), but to have no significant effect on the distribution of incomes. |
| Keywords: | Science of Climate Change,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Climate Change Economics,Population Policies,Global Environment Facility |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5091&r=env |
| By: | Tiberio Daddi (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa); Francesco Testa (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa); Fabio Iraldo (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa) |
| Abstract: | SMEs can have a considerable impact on the environment. This is not necessarily through individual pressure, but through their combined total impact across environmental sectors. Most SMEs are ‘vulnerably compliant’, especially due to lack of awareness concering the environmental impacts of their own activities, ignorance of environmental legislation, lack of capacity to tackle their environmental impacts. Within this framework, the networking approach known as the “cluster approach” and, especially, its key-instrument: the Environmental Management System, have shown their ability to strengthen the environmental competence and know-how at the local level, as well as the improvement of environmental performances of both individual SMEs and entire productive areas, considered as a whole. The paper aims at presenting the key methodological and operational issues emerging from local experiences, describing them as good practices, and to explain how the “cluster approach” has been further enhanced by way of a EU-funded LIFE project, currently in progress. |
| Date: | 2009–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sse:wpaper:200901&r=env |
| By: | Carmin, JoAnn; Zhang, Yan |
| Abstract: | Many cities across Europe and Central Asia are experiencing the impacts of climate change, but most have not integrated climate adaptation into their agendas. This paper examines the threats faced and measures that can be taken by cities in the region to protect buildings, heritage sites, municipal functions, and vulnerable urban populations. In general, local governments must be proactive in ensuring that existing buildings are climate ready, paying particular attention to emerging technologies for retrofitting the prefabricated, panel style buildings that dominate the landscape while assessing the viability of homes situated in flood plains, coastal areas, and steep slopes. They also must ensure that new developments and buildings are designed in ways that account for climatic fluctuations. Although the resilience of all populations needs to be considered, historical patterns of discrimination require that special provisions are made for the poor and for ethnic minorities such as the Roma because these groups will be most at risk, but are least likely to have access to adequate resources. Urban climate adaptation requires national-level support and local commitment. However, centralized planning and expert-led decision-making under the former regimes may affect the ability of cities to pursue programmatic approaches to adaptation. Therefore, while national governments need to make adaptation a policy priority and ensure that municipalities have adequate resources, local government agencies and departments must be transparent in their actions and introduce participatory and community-based measures that demonstrate respect for diverse stakeholders and perspectives. |
| Keywords: | Wetlands,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Environmental Economics&Policies,Science of Climate Change,Climate Change Economics |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5088&r=env |
| By: | Andersen, Lykke E.; Verner, Dorte |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the direct evidence of climate change in Bolivia during the past 60 years, and estimates how these changes have affected life expectancy and consumption levels for each of the 311 municipalities in Bolivia. Contrary to the predictions of most general circulation models, the evidence shows a consistent cooling trend of about 0.2°C per decade over all highland areas, slight and scattered evidence of warming in the lowlands, and no systematic changes in precipitation. The estimations indicate that the 1°C cooling experienced in the already cold highlands over the past five decades likely has reduced consumption possibilities by about 2-3 percent in these areas. Since the much richer population in the lowlands have benefitted slightly from recent climate change, the simulations suggest that recent climate change has contributed to an increase in inequality and poverty in Bolivia. Poor and indigenous peoples in the highlands are among the most severely affected populations. No statistically significant effect on life expectancy was found. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Science of Climate Change,Climate Change Economics,Global Environment Facility,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5092&r=env |
| By: | Antoci, Angelo; Naimzada, Ahmad; Sodini, Mauro |
| Abstract: | We analyze an overlapping generations model where individuals’ welfare depends on the stock of a free access environmental good E and on the consumption C of a private good. We assume that the production process of the private good depletes the natural resource but that specific investments alleviate these damages. In such context, we show that strategic behaviour and heterogeneity in preferences may be a source of complex dynamics. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneous agents; environmental externalities; overlapping generations models. |
| JEL: | C61 Q20 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18221&r=env |
| By: | Ben Groom; Charles Palmer |
| Abstract: | Payments for environmental services (PES) schemes in developing countries face trade-offs between environmental and development objectives. This tension is inherent in cost effective direct PES since, by their very nature, they limit transfers to recipients. However, where recipients of PES are subject to market constraints (e.g. credit rationing, input constraints etc.), we show that indirect payments which relax constraints can be cost effective and achieve both environmental and poverty alleviation objectives. Contrary to where markets are perfect, cost effectiveness is dependent on the nature of the recipient’s production and the severity of constraints. An empirical example from Madagascar illustrates that it is unlikely these dual objectives will be achieved in the case of forest honey production, despite a severe technology constraint. Yet indirect PES schemes are shown to be cost effective where production is more closely linked to land use, such as in agriculture and forestry. This accords with recent work on agri-environmental schemes, which achieved poverty alleviation and environmental objectives by relaxing household constraints. This highlights the need to understand the market conditions, institutional context and production processes of PES recipients. |
| Keywords: | Payments for environmental services, cost effectiveness, market constraints, poverty alleviation. |
| JEL: | Q56 Q57 Q12 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lnd:wpaper:462009&r=env |
| By: | Iho, Antti; Laukkanen, Marita |
| Abstract: | This paper puts forward a model of the role of phosphorus in crop production, soil phosphorus dynamics and phosphorus loading that integrates the salient economic and ecological features of agricultural phosphorus management. The model accounts for the links between phosphorus fertilization, crop yield, accumulation of soil phosphorus reserves, and phosphorus loading. It can be used to guide precision phosphorus management and erosion control as means to mitigate agricultural loading. Using a parameterization for cereal production in southern Finland, the model is solved numerically to analyze the intertemporally optimal combination of fertilization and erosion control and the associated soil phosphorus development. The optimal fertilizer application rate changes markedly over time in response to changes in the soil phosphorus level. When, for instance, soil phosphorus is initially above the socially optimal steady state level, annually matching phosphorus application to the prevailing soil phosphorus stock produces significantly higher social welfare than using a fixed fertilizer application rate. Erosion control was found to increase welfare only on land that is highly susceptible to erosion. |
| Keywords: | precision nutrient management, agricultural phosphorus loading, cereal production, soil phosphorus reserves, agricultural water pollution, dynamic programming, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:mttfdp:54285&r=env |
| By: | Nicholas Z. Muller; Yan N. Oak |
| Abstract: | This study uses Monte Carlo methods to characterize the uncertainty associated with per-ton damage estimates for 100 power plants in the contiguous United States (U.S.) This analysis focuses on damage estimates produced by an Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) for emissions of two local air pollutants: sulfur dioxide (SO2) and .ne particulate matter (PM2:5). For each power plant, the Monte Carlo procedure yields an empirical distribution for the damage per ton of SO2 and PM2:5:For a power plant in New York, one ton of SO2 produces $5,160 in damages with a 90% percentile interval between $1,000 and $14,090. A ton of PM2:5 emitted from the same facility causes $17,790 worth of damages with a 90% percentile interval of $3,780 and $47,930. Results for the sample of 100 fossil-fuel .red power plants shows a strong spatial pattern in the marginal damage distributions. The degree of variability increases by plant location from east to west. This result highlights the importance of capturing uncertainty in air quality modeling in the empirical marginal damage distributions. Further, by isolating uncertainty at each module in the IAM we .nd that uncertainty associated with the dose-response parameter, which captures the in.uence of exposure to PM2:5 on adult mortality rates, the mortality valuation parameter, and the air quality model exert the greatest in.uence on cumulative uncertainty. The paper also demonstrates how the marginal damage distributions may be used to guide regulators in the design of more efficient market-based air pollution policy in the U.S. |
| Keywords: | Monte Carlo, Air Pollution, Market-based Pollution Policy |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mdl:mdlpap:0918&r=env |
| By: | Jaume Rosselló Nadal (Centre de Recerca Econòmica (UIB · Sa Nostra)) |
| Abstract: | Climatic variability and a substantial fraction of the most recent temperature warming in the Northern Hemisphere can be accounted for by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. The most pronounced anomalies have occurred since the winter of 1989, with significant implications on weather conditions in areas within the index's geographical scope. Because climate is one of the most important factors in explaining world movements by humans, in this paper, variability patterns between quarterly Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK), compiled by the European Airline Association, and the NAO index are investigated as a function of different time lags and diverse economic indicators, with the aim of evaluating the impact of NAO variability and trends that can be associated with the change in RPK since the nineties. Using a traditional international air travel demand model, it has been found that the dissociation of the NAO index into positive and negative fluctuations can be related to changes in different geographical RPK time series, once seasonal effects are removed. The results are consistent with the view that meteorological and climate conditions can act as both a pull and push factor. |
| Keywords: | NAO, tourism, travel, climate change, airline industry |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdm:wpaper:2009/5&r=env |
| By: | Maria Espinosa-Goded; Pierre Dupraz; Jesùs Barreiro-Hurlé |
| Abstract: | Agri-environmental schemes are the main policy instrument currently available in the European Union to promote environmentally friendly farming practices. Nevertheless, the adoption rate of these measures is still limited. This paper develops a profit maximizer theoretical framework to explain the farmer’s sign-up decision and the area to put under an agri-environmental measure characterised by a change in the crop pattern. The application concerns an agri-environmental measure awarding the introduction of alfalfa in cereal farms in Natura 2000 designated areas of Aragon (Spain). The econometric specification accounts for both the upper censoring of the enrolled area, constrained by the available eligible area, and the self-selection of contractors according to the extra-profit of their enrolment. To test the absence of fixed costs of enrolment, a simple tobit with a lower and an upper bound, that corresponds to the non fixed costs situation, is compared to the censored model with selection. Estimated specifications based on the enrolled area do not provided normally distributed residues and are not suitable to carry out the likelihood ratio test. Estimated specifications based on the share of enrolled area in the eligible area provide normally distributed residues. The likelihood ratio test rejects the absence of fixed costs. Technical factors as well as social capital variables are taken into consideration as determinants of technical and transaction costs. Estimation results show that there is an adoption barrier derived from the know-how affecting the fixed compliance costs of introducing the new crop. In addition, there is an adoption barrier derived from transaction costs which are reduced in the presence of social networks. These results suggest that a non linear payment mechanism or auctions might be suitable to ensure a better coverage of Natura 2000 eligible areas by the contracts, with a limited increase in related public expenditures. |
| Keywords: | agri-environmental scheme, land use, fixed costs, transaction costs, qualitative and limited dependent variable model |
| JEL: | Q12 Q15 Q52 Q57 Q58 H23 D23 D24 C24 C34 C51 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rae:wpaper:200915&r=env |
| By: | Nuno Torres (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto); Óscar Afonso (CEF.UP and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto); Isabel Soares (CEF.UP and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto) |
| Abstract: | This study re-evaluates the impact of natural resources on growth using panel data and a factor-efficiency accounting framework. The resource-curse thesis is dismissed as capital efficiency is improved by geographically-concentrated natural resources, which hinder institutional quality in recent cross-section studies. This consensus does not hold in our case even when we use unadjusted resource proxies and the standard institutional approach, as both concentrated and diffuse resources show negative effects in low institutional-quality countries. Adequate fiscal policy seems to prevent the curse in that case, but reduces the positive effect of concentrated resources found with our adjusted proxy. |
| Keywords: | Natural resources, Economic growth, Institutions, Country Studies, Panel data |
| JEL: | C23 N50 O13 O40 O50 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:338&r=env |
| By: | Hallward-Driemeier, Mary |
| Abstract: | Size, age, sector, and productivity are commonly cited as factors determining a firm’s survival. However, there are several dimensions of the investment climate in which the firm operates that affect whether it continues in business or exits. This paper uses new panel data from 27 Eastern European and Central Asian countries to test the importance of five areas of the business climate on firm exit: the efficiency of government services, access to finance, the extent of corruption or cronyism, the strength of property rights, and the degree of competition. The paper finds that weaknesses in these areas do affect the probability of firm exit – largely in ways that undermine the Schumpeterian cleansing role of exit in raising overall productivity. Greater costs and regulatory burdens raise the probability that more productive firms exit, while less developed financial and legal institutions mitigate forces that would otherwise push less productive firms to exit. Thus, the more productive firms stand to gain the most from improvements in the investment climate, whether that is lowering transaction costs or improving market mechanisms. This holds both within countries and across countries. The impact of a particular investment climate measure can also differ significantly by type of firm, with the focus given to firm size. The differential impact on size can be significant at a size cutoff of 10 or more employees. As these are the firms that are near the threshold of many regulatory requirements, the implications are not just with regard to whether a firm remains in operation, but whether it does so in the formal sector. |
| Keywords: | Access to Finance,Debt Markets,Environmental Economics&Policies,Microfinance,Emerging Markets |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5084&r=env |
| By: | Enea Constanta; Enea Constantin (Constantin Brancusi University of Targu Jiu, Romania) |
| Abstract: | Tourism is an industry that benefits from highly optimistic predictions for the future, its importance became increasingly large, both globally and regionally, nationally and locally. Studies in the field already demonstrates that tourism can be considered, the main industry in terms of contribution to gross world product, the number 1 as regards the assimilation of labor employed and the most important investor of capital. According to data published Monday by the Statistical Office of the EU, the spread of financial crisis has affected tourism obvious. According to statistics, last year, spent the night in hotels in the EU was 1.578 billion, registering a decrease of 0.5% over the previous year. The same number saw an increase of 3.4% in 2007 compared with the previous year and an increase of 2.9% in 2006. If an analysis of different periods, you can see the obvious influence of financial crisis on tourism development and its impact on cities. In terms of sustainable development, an issue to be highlighted concerns that tourism, as a phenomenon, but that activity is unique in its way through dependence on a show against the environment, social and cultural values what is found in the areas of interest. Because of this dependency, tourism has an undeniable interest in ensuring the sustainability of these values. |
| Keywords: | worldwide economic crisis, tourism, gross world product, labor employed, investor, sustainable development |
| JEL: | A10 D7 O11 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbu:wpaper:11&r=env |