1,721,015 research outputs found
Essays on international environmental policy
Full text linkWith the growing talk about the need to establish a new framework to deal with international environmental governance, it becomes relevant to shed some light on the interconnected landscape that characterizes environmental policy making. This three-essay dissertation deals with the impact of issue linkage among other factors on the outcome of international environmental policies. In what follows is a brief summary of my dissertation. My first essay, which is entitled "Regulating Man-Made Sedimentation in Riverways", deals with the problem of river bed sedimentation. Such sedimentation negatively affects downstream water delivery and related ecosystem services, and is often the outcome of land erosion caused by agricultural activities along waterways. My essay, investigates one possible market-based remedy to this problem, namely a "spatial" tax on farming activities which decreases as such activities take place farther upstream away from the population center. Also, this tax highlights important `eco-conditionality' aspects and the trade-off that exists between land productivity and soil erosion as farming activities are moved away from the riverbank. My second essay, which is entitled "A Trade-Environment Coalition Came", deals with interconnections between international environmental problems and trade blocks in a multilateral context. I identify several interconnections between international environmental problems and trade issues. Inspired by the work of Barrett (1997), I propose a model that links the problem of forming International Environmental Agreements (IEAs) with International Trade Agreements. I broaden Barrett's model by considering a more general form of trade coalition with trade sanctions in the form of differential tarif treatment instead of complete trade-bans. Such scenario is currently under discussion as a potential post-Kyoto framework after the year 2012. I introduce a linked-game with two stages. The first one is an environmental coalition formation game. The second one is a trade-production game. I compute the stability function of the IEA, and I find that the existence of positive spillovers (public good effect) when IEAs are formed exacerbates free riding incentives and leads to less cooperation. However, since countries are linked via trade, tying-in environmental and trade agreements generates negative spillovers over defectors. I find that these negative spillovers can potentially neutralize the perverse free riding incentives and as such sustain larger environmental coalitions. Finally, my third essay, which is entitled "2 x 2 Axiomatic Bargaining in Trade-Environment Negotiations", deals with issue linkages in the context of bilateral bargaining among nations. I develop a two-issue-two-players axiomatic bargaining model to explore and formalize the concepts of cross-issue concessions and gains. Unlike what has been done so far in the literature, I consider normalized bargaining sets with non-normalized disagreement points. I propose two cornplementary solutions. My first solution describes the case where linked bargaining results in gains on both issues, while the second one describes the case where gains entail partial concessions over the other. I find that the relative size of disagreement points (e.g. trade versus environment) plays an important role in determining under which issue it pays more to have an improvement in negotiation power. I discuss my results in the light of international trade and environmental negotiations, which are often put on the bargaining table in a linked fashion. My results capture important features in international trade-environment negotiations, and help clarify some of the mechanisms behind the outcome of those negotiations.N/Axi, 83 p: illIncludes bibliographical reference
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
evidence from Lebanon
No full textForeign domestic workers’ activities provide important market and non-market services in a large number of middle-income countries as these activities have an impact on the labor force participation and time allocation decisions of household members. This paper provides new evidence on the determinants of foreign domestic workers’ employment using a socio-economic dataset from Lebanon. Controlling for household, household head, dwelling and regional characteristics, contrary to popular beliefs we find that the size of the household and the presence of elderly persons are not important determinants of the hiring decision of foreign domestic workers, while the probability of hiring a domestic worker is significantly higher for households with children and disabled persons. Interestingly, we find that the number of rooms in the residence rather than its total surface area or type to be the only relevant dwelling characteristic. The paper offers insights about the demand for foreign domestic workers that may be useful to policy makers in developing nations.PublishedN/
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Who uses solar water heaters? Evidence from the Palestinian Territories
No full textIn many developing countries, households' adoption of renewable energy systems constitutes an off-grid solution and an autonomous response to energy constraints. Within this context, it is important for policymakers to consider household-related characteristics when promoting the adoption of residential solar energy systems. In this paper, we focus on the water heating aspect of energy poverty and tackle the case of Palestinian households who are impacted by this issue. Specifically, using 2020 survey data from 3122 households and Probit regression analysis, we examine the determinants of domestic solar water heater (SWH) adoption. Our main findings on socioeconomic characteristics are that families with more females are more likely to adopt SWHs, whereas families with more children of all genders are less likely to do so. The installation of SWHs is also positively correlated with the households' main income and their heads' educational attainment and age. We also control for dwelling characteristics and find that households in urban areas and those living in a house, owning the dwelling, and having a bathroom are more likely to adopt SWHs. These findings help policymakers design and implement more tailored measures in regions characterized by both energy poverty and high potential for solar energy, such as the Palestinian Territories.Publishe
Hedonic housing prices and environmental quality in Lebanon
Full text linkThe authors apply a hedonic pricing approach using a unique data set from Lebanon. To account for non-linearities in pricing, the authors use three different functional regression forms for the hedonic model approach. The authors also deal with potential omitted variable bias by estimating a hedonic frontier specification.
Findings
The authors find that, in all specifications, air pollution negatively and significantly affects housing prices. The estimated marginal willingness to pay for a one microgram per cubic meter change in particulate matter (PM10) concentration ranges between 2.88% and 3.18% of mean housing prices. The authors also provide evidence of a negative pricing gradient away from the city center, landing support for the monocentric urban development hypothesis.
Research limitations/implications
Given the lack of a data set linking household socioeconomic characteristics with housing data, the authors only consider the first-stage hedonic model.
Practical implications
The proposed hedonic pricing regression approximates a housing pricing equation that can be used by policymakers.
Social implications
The findings suggest that pollution is a significant factor in household behavior in Lebanon.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the scant literature studying the effects of air pollution on housing prices in developing countries. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to study the impact of pollution on housing prices in a country in the Middle East and North Africa Region.Publishe
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Evidence from Lebanese Household Survey Data
Full text linkThis paper provides new evidence on the determinants of domestic workers’ employment using a unique micro-level dataset on Lebanese households drawn from the National Household Budget Survey (2005) conducted by Central Administration of Statistics (CAS). Controlling for household, household head, dwelling, and regional characteristics, we find that the probability of hiring a domestic worker is significantly higher for larger households, female headed households, larger dwellings, and increases with aggregate household consumption. Furthermore, regional differences are found to be highly significant where households located outside the capital city are less likely to retain a domestic worker. These insights can be potentially useful for policymakers in their effort to regulate the industry revolving around domestic workN/A18 p
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