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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Thomas de Graaff (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Henri L.F. de Groot (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Caroline A. Rodenburg (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Ernst & Young); Erik T. Verhoef (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper reports the results of a stated preference study investigating the Willingness-to-pay (WTP) of employees at the Amsterdam Zuidas for the presence of non-shopping and shopping facilities. The Amsterdam Zuidas area, surrounding the current train-metro-tram station Amsterdam Zuid World-Trade-Centre, is the largest multifunctional land use project currently under development in The Netherlands. For non-shopping facilities, the results show that employees have the highest WTP for the presence of day-care centres and public transport facilities, and the lowest for public and recreation facilities. The average WTP for the presence of non-shopping facilities amounts to approximately € 29 per month per employee. The WTP for the presence of shopping facilities is estimated at € 16 per month per employee on average, and is in absolute value highest for supermarkets and lowest for hairdressers and dry cleaners. |
| Keywords: | Multifunctional Land Use; Roy's Selection Model; Stated Preference Survey; Willingness to Pay |
| JEL: | C42 R14 |
| Date: | 2005–10–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20050090&r=env |
| By: | Hanns Ullrich |
| Abstract: | Since the nineties of the last century two opposite trends have marked the development of international intellectual property protection. On the one hand, world trade negotiations have resulted in the establishment of a globally uniform system of adequate protection of intellectual property by the GATT/WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. It basically enshrines the market-oriented principles of protection of industrially developed countries. On the other, efforts to protect traditional and local knowledge have found specific support in the Convention on Biological Diversity which, in addition to providing, in the interest of environment protection, for mechanisms for the control of access to genetic resources, seeks to promote the condition of developing countries by subjecting such access to principles of prior informed consent and of participation in the benefit enterprises may obtain on the basis of patent protected inventions and innovations embodying or using genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. The paper first examines the various ways in which biodiversity-related traditional knowledge may be passively or actively defended or protected, but concludes that, with the exception of a defence against misuses of the intellectual property system, little is to be expected from either reliance on existing forms of protecting intellectual property or from the development of more or less analogous forms of sui generis protection, the main reason being that intellectual property protection is a market-oriented mechanism, not a measure of knowledge conservation. In a second part the conflicts are analysed which arise when, as under the Biodiversity Convention, the market-oriented system of protection is put at the service of regulatory schemes aiming at non-market goals, in particular when the acquisition of patents is subject to additional and not directly related disclosure requirements, and when the exploitation of patents is conditioned on “equitable benefit sharing”. The main conclusion is that such burdening of patent protected innovation with specific environmental and developmental charges will result in negative synergies. These may have a counterproductive impact first, on the attainment of the regulatory objectives of protecting biodiversity and of promoting development and, second, on the technological neutrality of patent protection as an incentive mechanism for innovation in general. Additional problems of the legitimacy of using intellectual property as a support of objective-specific regulation suggest to implement the Convention on Biodiversity on the basis of a clearer separation between protection of biodiversity, promotion of development and stimulation of innovation, since this would bring it more in accordance with principles of proportionality regarding the selection and the use of regulatory instruments.“ |
| Keywords: | economic law; international trade; pharmaceutical industry; Uruguay round; environmental policy; trade policy; international relations; WTO; knowledge |
| Date: | 2005–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:euilaw:p0023&r=env |
| By: | Tobias N. Rasmussen |
| Abstract: | Each year natural disasters affect about 200 million people and cause about $50 billion in damage. This paper compares the incidence of natural disasters across countries along several dimensions and finds that the relative costs tend to be far higher in developing countries than in advanced economies. The analysis shows that small island states are especially vulnerable, with the countries of the Eastern Caribbean standing out as among the most disaster-prone in the world. Natural disasters are found to have had a discernible macroeconomic impact, including large effects on fiscal and external balances, pointing to an important role for precautionary measures. |
| Keywords: | Emergency assistance , Developing countries , |
| Date: | 2004–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:04/224&r=env |
| By: | Arnim Schwidrowski; Saji Thomas |
| Abstract: | Countries generally tax the forestry sector to achieve the twin objectives of revenue maximization and sustainability of logging levels. In an ideal world of perfect markets and information, auctions would be the best instrument to determine the price of extraction rights. However, a number of factors-including a lack of information on the forest resources under consideration, uncertainties as to the stability of property rights over time, and a lack of access to credit-have limited the use of auctions so far, particularly in low-income countries. To establish transparency of the forestry sector's financial flows, this paper discusses a radical simplification of Liberia's current timber tax structure, including a proposal to reduce the sector's current tax system to two instruments, an area tax and an export tax. |
| Keywords: | Taxation , Liberia , Agriculture , |
| Date: | 2005–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:05/156&r=env |
| By: | Josef Falkinger (University of Zurich, CESifo and IZA Bonn); Volker Grossmann (University of Zurich, CESifo and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a model in which the interaction of entrepreneurial investments and power of the owners of land or other natural resources determines structural change and economic development. A more equal distribution of natural resources promotes structural change and growth through two channels: First, by weakening oligopsony power of owners and thereby easing entrepreneurial investments for credit-constrained individuals whose investment possibilities depend on their income earned in the primary goods sector. Second, by shifting the distribution of political power from resource owners towards the entrepreneurial elite, resulting in economic policy and institutions which are more conducive to entrepreneurship and productivity progress. We argue that these hypotheses are consistent with a large body of historical evidence from the Americas and with evidence on transition economies. |
| Keywords: | credit constraints, distribution, economic development, entrepreneurship, institutions, oligopsony power, political elites |
| JEL: | O10 H50 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1756&r=env |
| By: | Ossama Mikhail (University of Central Florida); J. Walter Milon (University of Central Florida); Richard Hofler (University of Central Florida) |
| Abstract: | Assume that 'green accounting' has been adopted and implemented, does an investment in environmental quality play a role similar to the investment in capital in towing the economy out of a recession? To answer the question, we integrate 'green accounting' into a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model to study the short-run consequences of investment in environmental quality and hereby addressing if there is an incentive-based fiscal environmental solution to recessions. Surprisingly and counter intuitive, we found that reducing the rate at which humans consume the environment renders a fiscal policy - that engage in environmental investment - less effective in providing a thrust out of a recession. Conditional on the proposed model and the calibrated parameters, we conclude that an increase of one percent in environmental investment will crowd out real quarterly consumption in a range from $ 102.74 billions to $ 171.11 billions, on average, in every quarter for seven years following the investment (measured in chained 2000 dollars). Therefore, we argue that investment in environmental quality is not a solution to recessions. This result is a striking contrast to the conclusion reached in Weitzman and Löfgren (1997, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 32 (2), 139-153). |
| Keywords: | Environmental Quality, Green Accounting, Stochastic Dynamic General Equilibrium models |
| JEL: | E32 |
| Date: | 2005–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpot:0510010&r=env |
| By: | Sarbajit Chaudhuri (Dept. of Economics, Calcutta University, India) |
| Abstract: | We present a three-sector general equilibrium model with an informal sector, which produces an intermediary for the formal sector, and analyze the effects of different policies on the environmental standard and welfare of the economy. Since the informal manufacturing sector creates pollution, higher the use of informal sector product, higher is the pollution created and higher the discrepancy between actual and permissible levels of pollution, so that the emission tax payable by the formal sector is also higher. The efficiency of a representative worker is inversely related to the level of pollution. In this setup, we show that even if the permissible level of pollution is reduced, the polluting sector may expand and worsen the environmental standard. However, this policy may be welfare improving. On the other hand, an inflow of foreign capital may reduce the pollution level but affect welfare adversely. The paper finds that there might exist a trade-off between the economy’s twin objectives of lowering the level of pollution and improving national welfare. These results are new in the trade and environment literature. |
| Keywords: | Pollution, informal sector, pollution emission tax, permissible level of pollution, foreign capital |
| JEL: | O17 O22 O33 O54 Q25 |
| Date: | 2005–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpot:0510012&r=env |