SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Afsah, Shakeb; Blackman, Allen; Ratunanda, Damayanti.

Although a growing body of evidence suggests that publicly disclosing information about plants' environmental performance can motivate emissions reductions, this phenomenon remains poorly understood. To help fill this gap, this paper presents original data from a survey of plants participating in the Program for Pollution Control, Evaluation and Rating (PROPER), Indonesia's widely-acclaimed public disclosure program. These data suggest that a key means by which PROPER spurs abatement is improving factory managers' information about their own plants' emissions and abatement opportunities. This finding contrasts with the prevailing view in the literature that public disclosure enhances pressures to abate placed on firms by external agents such as community...

Colombia's Discharge Fee Program: Incentives for Polluters of Regulators?

Palavras-chave: Public disclosure; Environment; Voluntary regulation; Informal regulation; Indonesia; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q28; Q25; O13.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10515

Colombia's discharge fee system for water effluents is often held up as a model of a well-functioning, economic-incentive pollution control program in a developing country. Yet few objective, up-to-date evaluations of the program have appeared. Based on a variety of primary and secondary evaluative data, this paper finds that that the program has been beset by a number of serious problems including limited implementation in many regions, widespread noncompliance by municipal sewage authorities, and a confused relationship between discharge fees and discharge standards. Nevertheless, in several watersheds, pollution loads dropped significantly after the program was introduced. While proponents claim the incentives that discharge fees created for polluters...

Cross-Border Environmental Management and the Informal Sector: The Ciudad Juarez Brickmakers' Project

Palavras-chave: Environment; Economic incentive; Market based instrument; Discharge fees; Water pollution; Latin America; Colombia; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q53; Q56; Q58; O13; O54.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10869

Blackman, Allen; Bannister, Geoffrey J..

The considerable difficulties associated with cross-border environmental management are compounded when polluters are unlicensed micro-enterprises such as auto repair shops and traditional brick kilns; such "informal sector" firms are virtually impossible to regulate in the conventional manner. This paper describes an example of an innovative and promising approach to the problem: the Cd. Juarez Brickmakers' Project, a private-sector-led, binational initiative aimed at abating highly polluting emissions from Cd. Juarez's approximately 350 informal brick kilns. We draw three lessons from the Project's history. First, private-sector-led cross-border initiatives can work -- indeed they may be more effective than public sector initiatives -- but they require...

Location Efficient Mortgages: Is the Rationale Sound?

Palavras-chave: US-Mexican border; Informal sector; Environment; Brickmaking; Environmental Economics and Policy; O17; O54; L61; Q25; Q28.

Ano: 1996

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10600

Blackman, Allen; Krupnick, Alan J..

Location efficient mortgages (LEM) programs are an increasingly popular approach to combating urban sprawl. LEMs allow families who want to live in densely-populated, transit-rich communities to obtain larger mortgages with smaller downpayments than traditional underwriting guidelines allow. LEMs are premised on the proposition that homeowners in such "location efficient" areas can safely be allowed to breach underwriting guidelines designed to prevent mortgage default because they have lower than average automobile-related transportation expenses and more income available for mortgage payments. This paper employs records of over 8,000 FHA-insured mortgages matched with data on various measures of location efficiency to test this proposition. Our results...

Why Don't Lenders Finance High-Return Technological Change in Developing-Country Agriculture?

Palavras-chave: Urban sprawl; Location efficiency; Mortgage; Default; Land Economics/Use.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10658

Most of the literature attributes credit constraints in small-farm developing-country agriculture to the variability of returns to investment in this sector. But the literature does not fully explain lenders. reluctance to finance investments in technologies that provide both higher average and less variable returns. To fill this gap, this article develops an information-theoretic credit market model with endogenous technology choice. The model demonstrates that lenders may refuse to finance any investment in a riskless high-return technology--regardless of the interest rate they are offered--when they are imperfectly informed about loan applicants, time preferences and, therefore, about their propensities to default intentionally in order to finance...

Pollution Control in the Informal Sector: The Ciudad Juarez Brickmakers' Project

Palavras-chave: Agriculture; Asymmetric information; Credit; Developing country; Technology adoption; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; O12; O16; O33; Q14; D82.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10886

Blackman, Allen; Bannister, Geoffrey J..

Low-technology unlicensed micro-enterprises known as "informal" firms are a significant source of pollution in developing countries that are virtually impossible to regulate in the conventional manner. This paper describes an example of an innovative and promising approach to the problem: the Ciudad Juarez Brickmakers' Project, a private-sector-led initiative aimed at abating highly polluting emissions from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's approximately 300 informal brick kilns. We draw four lessons from the Project's history. First, private-sector-led initiatives can work -- indeed they may be more effective than public-sector-initiatives -- but they require strong public sector support. Second, necessary conditions for effective environmental management in the...

The Benefits and Costs of Informal Sector Pollution Control: Mexican Brick Kilns

Palavras-chave: Informal sector; Air pollution; Mexico; Brickmaking; Community pressure; Environmental Economics and Policy; O17; O22; O33; O54; Q25; L61.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10478

Blackman, Allen; Newbold, Stephen C.; Shih, Jhih-Shyang; Cook, Joseph H..

In developing countries, urban clusters of manufacturers which are "informal"-small-scale, unlicensed and virtually unregulated-can have severe environmental impacts. Yet pollution control efforts have traditionally focused on large industrial sources, in part because the problem is not well understood. This paper presents a benefit-cost analysis of four practical strategies for reducing emissions from traditional brick kilns in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. To our knowledge, it is the first such analysis of informal sources. We find very significant net benefits for three of the four control strategies. These results suggest that informal polluters should be a high priority for environmental regulators.

Using Alternative Regulatory Instruments to Control Fixed Point Air Pollution in Developing Countries: Lessons from International Experience

Palavras-chave: Benefit-cost analysis; Informal sector; Air pollution; US-Mexico Border; Brick kiln; Environmental Economics and Policy; O13; O17; O54; Q25; Q28.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10532

Blackman, Allen; Harrington, Winston.

Should developing countries eschew conventional command and control regulatory instruments that are increasingly seen as inefficient and rely instead on 'alternative' instruments based on economic incentives and community pressure? This paper addresses this question as it pertains to fixed point air pollution. The paper discusses the theoretical advantages and disadvantages of alternative instruments, reviews both industrialized country and developing country experiences with them, and proposes a number of policy guidelines. We argue that regulators in developing countries typically operate under severe financial and institutional constraints. Given these constraints, pure economic incentive instruments are generally not practical since they involve...

Adoption of Clean Leather-Tanning Technologies in Mexico

Palavras-chave: Market based instruments; Economic incentives; Informal regulation; Developing country; Industrial air pollution; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q25; Q28; O13.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10689

In many developing countries, a host of financial, institutional, and political factors hamstring conventional environmental regulation. Given these constraints, a promising strategy for controlling pollution is to promote the voluntary adoption of clean technologies. Although this strategy has received considerable attention in policy circles, empirical research on the adoption of clean technologies in developing countries is limited. This paper presents historical background and original survey data on the adoption of five clean tanning technologies by a sample of 137 leather tanneries in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, a city where tanneries have serious environmental impacts and conventional environmental regulation has repeatedly failed to mitigate the...

Informal Sector Pollution Control: What Policy Options Do We Have?

Palavras-chave: Clean technology; Leather tanning; Developing country; Mexico; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q53; Q55; Q56; 013; 033.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10881

In developing countries, urban clusters of informal firms such as brick kilns and leather tanneries can create severe pollution problems. However, these firms are quite difficult to regulate for a variety of technical and political reasons. Drawing on the literature, this paper first develops a list of feasible environmental management policies. It then examines how these policies have fared in four independent efforts to control emissions from informal brick kilns in northern Mexico. The case studies suggest that: (i) conventional command and control process standards are generally only enforceable when buttressed by peer monitoring, (ii) surprisingly, clean technologies can be successfully diffused even when they raise variable costs, in part because...

The Cost of Developing Site-Specific Environmental Regulations: Evidence from EPA's Project XL

Palavras-chave: Informal sector; Environmental policy; Latin America; Mexico; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10634

Blackman, Allen; Mazurek, Janice V..

The flagship of the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory reinvention initiative, Project XL has been touted as a "regulatory blueprint" for a site-specific, performance-based pollution control system. But widespread complaints about the costs of the program beg the question of whether the costs of tailoring regulations to individual facilities are manageable. To address this question, this paper presents original survey data on a sample of 11 XL projects. We find that the fixed costs of putting in place XL agreements are substantial, averaging over $450,000 per firm. While stakeholder negotiations are widely cited as the principal source for these costs, we find that they actually arise mainly from interaction between participating facilities and...

Scrap Tires in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso: Ranking the Risks

Palavras-chave: Project XL; Site-specific regulation; Tailored regulation; Voluntary regulation; Transactions costs; Regulatory reform and reinvention; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10844

Blackman, Allen; Palma, Alejandra.

According to conventional wisdom, rapidly growing stocks of scrap tires on the U.S.-Mexico border pose a variety of health and environmental risks. This article assesses these risks in Paso del Norte, the border's second-largest metropolis comprised principally of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, and El Paso, Texas. We find that air pollution from tire pile fires poses the greatest threat. Scrap tires in Paso del Norte do not contribute significantly to the propagation of mosquito-borne diseases or to shortages of space in solid waste disposal sites. The burning of scrap tires at industrial facilities is minimal and might not have significant adverse environmental impacts even if it were more common.

The Economics of Technology Diffusion: Implications for Climate Policy in Developing Countries

Palavras-chave: Scrap tires; U.S.-Mexico border; Environment; Health; Risk assessment; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q2; O54.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10583

Recent efforts to forge a consensus on the role developing countries should play in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions have focused attention on climate friendly technologies (CFTs), most notably those that enhance energy efficiency. In the medium term, the effectiveness of technology-based climate strategies will depend critically on the rates at which CFTs diffuse in developing countries. This paper reviews some of the key findings of the economics research on technology diffusion and assesses the implications for climate policy. The most obvious lessons from this research are that widespread diffusion of CFTs may take decades, and that diffusion rates in developing and industrialized countries are likely to be quite different. In addition, the...

Community Pressure and Clean Technology in the Informal Sector: An Econometric Analysis of the Adoption of Propane by Traditional Mexican Brickmakers

Palavras-chave: Technology diffusion; Climate change; Developing countries; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; O33; O38; Q25; Q28; O48.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10574

Blackman, Allen; Bannister, Geoffrey J..

In many developing countries the informal sector, comprised of low-technology unlicensed micro-enterprises, is a major source of pollution. Environmental management in this sector is exceptionally challenging. Though clean technologies offer a means of mitigating the problem, to our knowledge there has been no rigorous empirical research on why informal (or even small-scale) firms do and do not adopt them. As a first step towards filling this gap, this paper presents the results of an econometric analysis of the diffusion of propane among informal 'traditional' brickmakers in Cd. Juárez, Mexico--a leading source of air pollution owing to their reliance on cheap, highly polluting fuels such as used tires and scrap wood. The two key policy implications of...

Environmental Decentralization in the United States: Seeking the Proper Balance between National and State Authority

Palavras-chave: Environment; Community pressure; Clean technology; Informal sector; Technology adoption; Brickmaking; Mexico; Environmental Economics and Policy; O17; O22; O33; Q25; C25; L61.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10529

Laskowski, Stanley; Morgenstern, Richard D.; Blackman, Allen.

This paper examines the United States' experience with environmental decentralization, focusing on the relationship between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the states. It outlines the factors that are considered in determining the appropriate degree of decentralization, the advantages and disadvantages of decentralization, how the EPA-state relationship has evolved over the years, and the structural mechanisms used to ensure that there is a high degree of performance by EPA and the states in administering the programs. Program-specific examples of the EPA-state relationship are also provided.

The Greening of Development Economics: A Survey

Palavras-chave: Environmental decentralization; Environmental administration; Environmental Economics and Policy; H11; H59.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10779

Blackman, Allen; Mathis, Mitchell; Nelson, Peter.

Although ignored for decades, environmental issues now attract considerable attention in the literature on economic development. This paper describes research on environmental issues in seven topic areas that historically have been at the heart of development economics: the role of the state, economic growth, trade and industrialization, relations between rich and poor countries, structural adjustment and stabilization, population change, and the objectives and strategies of development.

Foreign Direct Investment in China's Power Sector: Trends, Benefits and Barriers

Palavras-chave: Environment; Development; Economics; Literature review; International Development; B20; N01; O1; O13; Q20.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10662

Blackman, Allen; Wu, Xun.

In the early 1990s, hoping to reduce chronic electricity shortages and enhance the efficiency of Chinese power plants, China opened its doors to foreign direct investment (FDI) in electricity generation. Using data from an original survey of US private investors, official Chinese statistics, and other sources, we assess the volume and characteristics of FDI in China's power sector, its impact on energy efficiency, and the factors that limit this impact. Our five principal findings are as follows. First, the volume FDI in China's power sector will likely fall short of the government's 1995 - 2000 capacity expansion target by a substantial margin, most likely because of persistent institutional barriers to FDI. Second, to avoid the lengthy central government...

The Use of Economic Incentives in Developing Countries: Lessons from International Experience with Industrial Air Pollution

Palavras-chave: Foreign direct investment; China; Electricity; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10606

Blackman, Allen; Harrington, Winston.

To what extent should developing countries eschew conventional command and control environmental regulation that is increasingly seen as inefficient and rely instead on economic incentives? This paper addresses this question as it pertains to industrial air pollution. The paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of various economic incentive instruments, presents in-depth case studies of their application in Sweden, the United States, China, and Poland, and proposes a number of policy guidelines. We argue that both design deficiencies and pervasive constraints on monitoring and enforcement impede the effectiveness of economic instruments in developing countries. The latter are difficult to rectify, at least in the medium term. As a result, tradable...

Obstacles to a Doubly Green Revolution

Palavras-chave: Environmental policy; Economic incentives; Market-based instruments; Developing countries; Air pollution; Sweden; China; Poland; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q25; Q28.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10601

Increasingly, conventional wisdom dictates that agrarian policy in developing countries should foster a "doubly green revolution" that both protects the environment and boosts output. Like the first green revolution, such a transformation will entail convincing millions of farmers to adopt new practices and, as a result, will confront well-documented barriers to technological change in developing-country agriculture. It will also face a number of new obstacles, including a divergence between the interests of policymakers and farmers, a policy environment biased in favor of input-intensive agriculture, and the fact that many environmentally friendly technologies entail relatively high set-up costs. At least in the short run, institutional constraints will...

Land Cover in a Managed Forest Ecosystem: Mexican Shade Coffee

Palavras-chave: Agriculture; Developing country; Green revolution; Environment; Environmental Economics and Policy; O13; O33; Q2; Q16; Q18.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10476

Blackman, Allen; Albers, Heidi J.; Sartorio, Beatriz Avalos; Crooks, Lisa.

Managed forest ecosystems-agroforestry systems in which crops such as coffee and bananas are planted side-by-side with woody perennials-are being touted as a means of safeguarding forests along with the ecological services they provide. Yet we know little about the determinants of land cover in such systems, information needed to design effective forest conservation policies. This paper presents a first-ever spatial regression analysis of land cover in a managed forest ecosystem-a shade coffee region of coastal Mexico. Using high-resolution land cover data derived from aerial photographs, along with data on the institutional, geophysical, socioeconomic, and agronomic characteristics of the study area, we find that plots in close proximity to urban centers...