1,721,032 research outputs found
A note on international emissions trading with endogenous allowance choices
No full textIn this note we extend the analysis developed by Helm (2003) and consider an international emissions trading system (ETS) where the initial allocation of tradeable permits may be chosen non cooperatively, as in Helm, or cooperatively. We first derive conditions guaranteeing that polluting firms located in a given country benefit from an increase in the received amount of emission permits; then, we compare the countries' allocation choices under both a non-cooperative (decentralized) and a cooperative (centralized) regime, showing that, both in each country and on aggregate, decentralization leads to a lower environmental quality than the "first best" that would arise under a centralized ETS. As a result, the equilibrium permits price in the latter case is higher than under decentralization. We show that this conclusions do not depend only on the presence of transboundary pollution, but also on the international dimension of emissions trading. Finally, although centralization leads to higher welfare and better environmental quality, we find that some countries might not consent to it and, moreover, we identify cases where consensus on centralization cannot be recovered by simply redistributing permits among countries
Relational Voluntary Environmental Agreements with Unverifiable Emissions
No full textEnvironmental regulation and pollution control may clash against the presence of unverifiable tasks, like source-specific emissions. To tackle this issue, we reshape a voluntary agreement instrument, already available in the existing literature, from a dynamic perspective by means of a relational contracting approach. We define a Relational Voluntary Environmental Agreement (RVEA) in an N firms symmetric context, and show that even if emissions are not contractible across firms, and therefore enforcement cannot be delegated to a third party, if firms are sufficiently patient, a self-enforcing RVEA induces the achievement of the environmental objective. Finally, our welfare analysis reveals a notable result: our RVEA can imply less free riding and be welfare-improving with respect to a Voluntary Environmental Agreement enforced by a third party (along the lines of McEvoy, D. M., and J. K. Stranlund. 2010. "Costly Enforcement of Voluntary Environmental Agreements."Environmental and Resource Economics 47: 45-63)
Environmental policy-making in real life: Illegal waste disposal in the presence of organized crime
No full textThis chapter deals with the role of the public sector in coping with environmental issues, with a specific focus on waste management. The waste sector is a field of particular interest to analyze government intervention in the economy. Of course, we do not aim at analyzing all possible arguments justifying public intervention in this sector. We focus instead on a particular aspect of the waste management system, related to the emergence of possible illegal behaviors and the presence of organized crime. By developing a theoretical model where illegal waste disposal and criminal organizations are explicitly admitted, we analyze the implications of different environmental tax designs in terms of waste management decisions and Mafia entry incentives
Environmental Disasters and Electoral Cycle: An Empirical Analysis on Floods and Landslides in Italy
No full textThe aim of this paper is to analyse potential drivers of land use policy, in the form of building permits issued in Italian provinces. We first derive testable implications on the basis of a standard political agency framework, augmented to account for the impact of past environmental disasters (floods, landslides and earthquakes) and for the relevance of “building permits intensive” sectors in determining voters’ support to an incumbent politician. We then perform an empirical analysis that tests theoretical predictions using a unique dataset covering Italy in the period 2001–2012. Our main conclusions show that the occurrence of floods and earthquakes decreases building permits, implying that a bad history in terms of these phenomena strengthens the importance of voters affected by past disasters. No corresponding evidence seems to emerge with reference to landslides. On the other hand, the relevance of the construction sector increases the number of building permits issued. Finally, when elections approach, the number of building permits issued grows, suggesting that incumbent politicians may distort land use policies in order to favour “brown” voters in periods close to elections
Multitask rank order tournaments
No full textThis work extends Lazear and Rosen's seminal paper to evaluate the performance of rank order tournaments when agents perform multiple tasks and the principal chooses, together with the prize spread, the weights assigned to each task in determining aggregate performance of each agent. All essential results of one-dimensional tournaments generalize to a multi-dimensional setting. However, the relative performance of tournaments and linear piece rates is shown to also depend on the covariance between measurement errors
Resource efficient eco-innovations for a circular economy: Evidence from EU firms
No full textInnovation adoption and diffusion by firms are key pillars for the EU strategy on resource efficiency and the development of a circular economy. This paper presents new EU evidence regarding the role of environmental policy and green demand drivers to sustain the adoption of resource efficiency-oriented eco-innovations. Using a large cross-section dataset of EU firms and accounting for sample selection and endogeneity, the results strongly support the idea that environmental policy and demand-side factors are both significant in driving the adoption of innovations that promote recycling, reduce waste and decrease the use of materials. The paper provides a relevant piece of new, quantitative-based knowledge, which complements the large case study-based evidence on sound management and policy strategies for the circular economy
What forces children away from home? Evidence from Uganda
No full textChild mobility is a significant phenomenon all over the world and is especially prominent in developing countries, where it is made worse by income conditions in rural households. The aim of this paper is to advance a step forward in the quantitative investigation of factors driving rural households’ decisions to send children away from home. Using Ugandan panel data to account for household unobserved heterogeneity, we find that the age of the household head as well as the presence of a female household head, the number of children, marital status, and the circumstance of mother not living in the household affect the likelihood of sending away children. On the other hand, other factors such as education and mobile phone ownership do not seem to play a role
Adoption of waste-reducing technology in manufacturing: Regional factors and policy issues
No full textThe paper provides a joint theoretical-empirical investigation to assess the adoption by manufacturing firms of innovations aimed at improving waste related performance. In line with the recent emphasis on the 'external' factors stimulating innovation, which often are more important than 'traditional' drivers such as R&D, we address the role of local policy environments and regional features. We analyse firms' innovation adoption choices in a simplified technology adoption model, augmented to account for factors relevant to determining environmental innovation (EI). We frame our empirical analysis in an original integration of data from a firm level survey (Italian CIS2008 survey of manufacturing firms) and regional level waste related information. Our econometric analysis shows that firms adopt EI on the basis of some firm specific and relational factors, while usual drivers such as R&D have no impact. The evidence from our study supports the role of regional factors related to waste management and policy, that is, firms located in regions featuring better separated waste collection and stricter waste policy are more likely to adopt EI
Waste and organized crime in regional environments. How waste tariffs and the mafia affect waste management and disposal
No full textWaste management and disposal are influenced by socio-economic, institutional and policy factors that possess idiosyncratic features in regional settings. The role of organized crime is a largely unexplored factor. Crime organizations such as the mafia are known to collude with local institutions to control waste markets. As a result, legal forms of waste disposal and socially preferable management options are often undermined primarily through an influence on policy enforcement. Given its high regional heterogeneity and local ‘waste crises’, Italy provides a compelling case for the study of crime's effects on local waste performance. Panel econometric analyses show that sorted collection of recyclable waste and legal forms of waste disposal are lower when the mafia's effect on the actions of local governments is more intense
Technology choice and environmental regulation under asymmetric information
Full text linkWe focus on the incentives of an industry with a continuum of small firms to invest in a cleaner technology under two environmental policy instruments: tradable emission permits and emission taxation. We assume asymmetric information, in that the firms' abatement costs with the new technology are either high or low. Environmental policy is set either before the firms invest (commitment) or after (time consistency). Under commitment, the welfare comparison follows a modified Weitzman rule, featuring reverse probability weighting for the slope of the marginal abatement cost curve. Both instruments can lead to under- or overinvestment ex post. Tradable permits lead to less than optimal expected new technology adoption. Under time consistency, the regulator infers the cost realization and implements the full-information social optimum
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