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

Sarfo-Mensah, Paul; Oduro, William; Antoh Fredua, Ernestina; Amisah, Stephen.

Local cosmologies and traditional perceptions of the natural environment, especially forests, have been a major influence in the management of the natural resources and biodiversity amongst rural communities in the transitional zone of Ghana. Sacred groves, which are typical outputs of traditional conservation practices, derive from indigenous religious beliefs and perceptions of forest. Sacred groves are believed to be the abode of local gods, ancestral spirits and other super natural beings. These beliefs and perceptions have in the past strongly supported the conservation of biodiversity. However, changes in local cosmologies threaten the protection of rare species, habitats and ecological processes. Data from the study confirm evidence from several...

Input Price Risk and the Adoption of Conservation Technology

Palavras-chave: Sacred Grove; Cultural Artefact; Communal Resource; Degradation; Sustainability and Biodiversity; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Q5.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/92787

Schoengold, Karina; Sunding, David L..

Replaced with revised version of poster 07/12/11.

Impactos econômicos e ambientais decorrentes do estado de conservação das rodovias brasileiras: um estudo de caso

Palavras-chave: Price risk; Technology adoption; Matching; Propensity score; Environmental Economics and Policy; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; Risk and Uncertainty; Q1; Q5.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103857

Bartholomeu, Daniela Bacchi; Caixeta Filho, Jose Vicente.

This article evaluates economic and environmental impacts of Brazilian highway conditions. The economic benefits evaluated were: diesel consumption, travel time and vehicle maintenance; the environmental benefits evaluated were the reduction on negative externalities related to decrease on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Primary computer collected data related to the trucks performances on highways with different infrastructure conditions. The data were derived from 20 trips over 2 routes, each route representative of one of two highway conditions: better or worse (Campo Grande to Santos, and Rondonópolis to Campo Grande). The results had confirmed economics and environmental benefits resulting from travel over the better routes.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Transporte rodoviário de cargas; Benefícios econômicos; Benefícios ambientais; Emissões de CO2; Agribusiness; Q5.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61232

Environmental Policy, Education and Growth with Finite Lifetime: the Role of Abatement Technology

Pautrel, Xavier.

This note shows that the assumptions about the abatement technology modify the impact of the environmental taxation (both the size and the “direction”) on the long-run growth driven by human capital accumulation à la Lucas (1988), when the source of pollution is private consumption and lifetime is finite. When the human capital’s share in the abatement services production is higher (respectively lower) than in the final output production, a higher environmental tax reduces (resp. increases) the allocation of human capital in production sectors (abatement service and final output) and boostes (resp. decreases) the BGP rate of growth. When abatement services are produced with the final output, the environmental taxation does not influence growth.

Is Posner's Principle of Justice an Adequate Basis for Environmental Law?

Palavras-chave: Growth; Environment; Overlapping Generations; Human capital; Finite Lifetime; Abatement; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q5.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91003

Tisdell, Clement A..

Posner adopted the economic principle of wealth maximization as a guiding principle for the dispensation of justice. This resulted in his endorsing the Kaldor-Hicks principle (also known as the potential Paretian improvement principle) as a basis for just laws. This article explores whether this principle is an adequate basis for environmental law. As can be deduced from Fleming, the legal approach adopted by Posner is by no means new because early British tort law was applied in a manner intended to foster economic growth. Nevertheless, the wealth maximization principle is not adequate as a basis for just environmental laws because for one thing it ignores questions involving changes in income distribution. Consequently, Rawls’ principle of justice is...

The Welfare Effects of Environmental Taxation

Palavras-chave: Coase theorem; Law and economics; Posner’s principle of justice; Principles of justice; Property rights; Rawls’ principle of justice; Tort law; Welfare economics; Environmental Economics and Policy; K; K1. K11. K13; K32; Q5.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/55337

Jaeger, William K..

Recent literature has investigated whether the welfare gains from environmental taxation are larger or smaller in a second-best setting than in a first-best setting. This question has mainly been addressed indirectly, by asking whether the second-best optimal environmental tax is higher or lower than the first-best Pigouvian rate. Even this indirect question, though, has itself been approached indirectly, comparing the second-best optimal environmental tax to a proxy for its first-best value, an expression for marginal social damage (MSD). On closer examination, however, MSD becomes ambiguously defined and variable in a second-best setting, making it an unreliable proxy for the first-best Pigouvian rate. With these concerns in mind, the current analysis...

Civil Liability, Safety and Nuclear Parks: Is Concentrated Management Better?

Palavras-chave: Optimal Environmental Tax; Second-best; Double Dividend; Tax Interaction Effect; Revenue Recycling; Tax Base Effect; Pigouvian Rate; Excess Burden; Environmental Economics and Policy; H21; Q5.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50358

Mondello, Gerard.

Ultra-hazardous risky activities as nuclear industry cannot be considered as “normal industries” i.e. industries without abnormal environmental and health risks. Consequently, the industrial organization of these specific sectors is of the utmost importance. This paper aims at studying this question. We focus on the associated costs of prevention and civil liability. We analyze how civil liability rules may contribute to extend or to discourage the expansion of nuclear parks to new operators. The paper compares the consequences of extending the management of nuclear stations to several independent operators. This question can apply to the unification process of the European electricity market in which several public and private nuclear power operators are...

Canada's Domestic Carbon Emission and Trading Institution: Rules, Workability, and the Role of Offsets

Palavras-chave: Strict Liability; Electric Energy; Nuclear Plants; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; Q5; Q58; Q53; K23; L13; L52; L94.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/102571

Thomassin, Paul J..

When Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol in December 2002, the country committed to decrease its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 6% below its 1990 level. It is estimated that this commitment will require Canada to decrease emissions by 270 megatonnes (Mt) per year during the first commitment period 2008 to 2012. Carbon emission trading institutions have been identified, both internationally and domestically, as being a cost effective mechanism for supplying carbon emission reductions. The paper investigates two alternative mechanisms that can be used to allocate carbon and the potential development of the carbon offset credit market. The offset market could be important for the agriculture and forestry sectors, since these sectors have the potential to...

Effects of Clean Water Act Regulations on Firm-Level Decisions in Agriculture

Palavras-chave: Environmental Economics and Policy; K2; Q13; Q1; Q5; Q58.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25543

Sneeringer, Stacy E.; Key, Nigel D..

U.S. environmental regulations often vary by the size of the operation, with larger operations facing more regulatory stringency. When the size distribution of firms is heavily skewed, regulation size thresholds can reduce transaction costs for regulatory agencies while bringing most production within a regulatory framework. However, size-based regulation may have unintended consequences if operations downsize, slow their growth, or enter at a smaller size in order to avoid regulation. These unintended consequences from regulation may include less pollution abatement and diminished economic efficiency. In this study we examine recently revised Clean Water Act (CWA) regulations targeting large-scale livestock operations to identify and quantify farm...

Community-based Adaptation: Lessons from the Development Marketplace 2009 on Adaptation to Climate Change

Palavras-chave: Livestock; Clean Water Act; Growth; Regulation; Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; Q5.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61461

Heltberg, Rasmus; Prabhu, Radhika; Gitay, Habiba.

The Development Marketplace 2009 focused on adaptation to climate change. This paper identifies lessons from the Marketplace and assesses their implications for adaptation support. Our findings are based on: statistical tabulation of all proposals; in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of the 346 semi-finalists; and interviews with finalists and assessors. Proposals were fuelled by deep concerns that ongoing climate change and its impacts undermine development and exacerbate poverty, migration and food insecurity. Proposals addressed both local poverty and climate change challenges, and offered a wide range of approaches to render local development more resilient to current climate variability. Therefore, support to community-based adaptation...

Health-enhancing Activities and the Environment: How Competition for Resources makes the Environmental Policy Beneficial

Palavras-chave: Community-based Adaptation; Development Marketplace; Adaptation; Climate Change; Environmental Economics and Policy; O1; Q5.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/92711

Pautrel, Xavier.

In a two-period overlapping generations model, this paper demonstrates that the relationship between the environmental taxation and the economic activity (level- and growth-output) becomes inverted-U shaped, when the detrimental impact of pollution on health and the private decision of each working-age agent to improve her health are taken into account. Especially, a tighter environmental tax is more likely to promote (rather than to harm) output-level and –growth when health is very sensitive to pollution, the weight of health in preferences is high, the polluting capacity of the production technology is high and the rate of natural purification of pollutants is low. The inverted-U shaped relationship between the environmental tax and the economic...

NORMS, SELF-SANCTIONING, AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PUBLIC GOOD

Palavras-chave: Growth; Environment; Health; Overlapping Generations; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q5.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/55832

Interis, Matthew G.; Haab, Timothy C..

The relationship between norms, self-sanctioning, and people’s decisions about contributing to public goods is complex and often misunderstood in the public goods literature. We develop a model in which individuals hold an injunctive norm indicating how much they believe one should contribute to the public good. From the model we derive the following testable hypotheses: an increase in one’s perception of the norm level of contribution to the public good (1) induces negative self-sanctioning and (2) will lead one to contribute more to the public good, and (3) that contributing to the public good induces positive self-sanctioning. To test these hypotheses, we elicit stated preferences for contributions to an organization which offsets carbon emissions...

Coastal Zone Management in the Mediterranean: Legal and Economic Perspectives

Palavras-chave: Public goods; Norms; Sanctioning; Image; Environmental Economics and Policy; Public Economics; H4; Q5; D0.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/55964

Markandya, Anil; Arnold, S.; Cassinelli, Mariaester; Taylor, Tim J..

This paper examines existing measures taken to protect the coastal zones of the Mediterranean Sea and assesses their success. A summary of the main pressures facing these zones is given, followed by an analysis of the legislation covering coastal zone development in ten countries: Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, France, Israel, Italy, Malta, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey. We find that not all of these states have legislation specifically covering coastal zones, but there is concern in all areas that the legislation is not working, We also look at the costs and benefits of controlling coastal development. Firstly, a literature review of valuation studies identifies a range of values placed on developed and undeveloped coastline for both users and local property...

Weather Vulnerability, Climate Change, and Food Security in Mt. Kilimanjaro

Palavras-chave: Coastal Zone Management; Legislation; Littoral; Mediterranean; Recreation; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q5.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/54290

Muamba, Francis; Kraybill, David S..

This study estimates the impact of rainfall variation on livelihood in Mt. Kilimanjaro using the Ricardian approach to capture farmers’ adaptation strategies to cope with climate change risks. The data for the analysis were gathered from a random sample of over 200 households in 15 villages and precipitation from rainfall observation posts placed in each of the surveyed villages. The precipitation data provide information on the effect of moisture at critical months in the growing season. Due to prevalence of intercropping among local farmers, the present study develops a multivariate model that assumes endogeneity between crop yields. Doing so allows the study to capture adaptation strategies that smallholders use by diversifying farm portfolio. The...

The Clean Development Mechanism and the International Diffusion of Technologies: An Empirical Study

Palavras-chave: Climate Change; Precipitation Variability; Food Security; Irrigation; Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Food Security and Poverty; International Development; Q1; Q5.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61655

Dechezlepretre, Antoine; Glachant, Matthieu; Meniere, Yann.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is expected to stimulate the North-South transfer of climate-friendly technologies. This paper provides an assessment of the technology transfers that take place through the CDM using a unique data set of 644 registered projects. It provides a detailed description of the transfers (frequency, type, by sector, by host country, etc.). It also includes an econometric analysis of their drivers. We show that transfer likeliness increases with the size of the projects. The transfer probability is 50% higher in projects implemented in a subsidiary of Annex 1 companies while the presence of an official credit buyer has a lower – albeit positive – impact. The analysis also yields interesting results on how technological...

Abatement Technology and the Environment-Growth Nexus with Education

Palavras-chave: Kyoto Protocol; Clean Development Mechanism; International Technology Transfer; Environmental Economics and Policy; International Relations/Trade; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Q5; Q55.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/6920

Pautrel, Xavier.

This article challenges the conventional result that a tighter environmental tax has no long-run effect on human capital accumulation in the presence of pollution arising from final output production. It demonstrates that the technology used in the abatement sector determines the existence and the direction of the growth-effect. A tighter environmental tax rises (respectively reduces) human capital accumulation in the presence of pollution arising from final production, if the abatement sector is relatively more intensive in human (resp. physical) capital than final sector. That result always holds for finite lifetime but for infinite lifetime it only holds when labor supply is endogenous. The transitional impact of a tighter environmental policy is also...

Carbon Emissions, Renewable Electricity and Profits: Comparing Alternative Policies to Promote Anaerobic Digesters on Dairies

Palavras-chave: Growth; Environment; Overlapping Generations; Human Capital; Abatement; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Q5; Q58.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/101379

Key, Nigel D.; Sneeringer, Stacy E..

Biogas recovery systems that use methane from manure to generate electricity have not been widely adopted in U.S. mainly because the costs of constructing and maintaining these systems have exceeded the value of the benefits provided. Climate change mitigation and renewable energy policies could increase profits for the operators of such systems thereby making digester adoption more widespread. For the U.S. Dairy sector, we examine digester adoption rates, emissions reductions, net returns, electricity generation, and program costs under different policy scenarios. We find that 3% or fewer dairies would need to adopt digesters to meet the policy goals of reducing 25% of greenhouse gas emissions from dairy manure or generating one million megawatt hours...

On the Productive Value of Biodiversity

Palavras-chave: Anaerobic digester; Methane; Dairy; Renewable electricity; Subsidy; Carbon offsets; Climate change; Environmental Economics and Policy; Livestock Production/Industries; Q5.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103440

Chavas, Jean-Paul.

The paper investigates the value of biodiversity as it relates to the productive value of services provided by an ecosystem. It analyzes how the value of an ecosystem can be "greater than the sum of its parts." First, it proposes a general measure of the value of biodiversity. Second, this measure is decomposed into four components, reflecting the role of complementarity, scale, convexity, and catalytic effects. This provides new information on the sources and determinants of biodiversity value. Third, the paper examines the role of uncertainty. In this context, the role of risk and of downside-risk exposure and their effects on the value of biodiversity are explored. This provides useful insights on how management and policy decisions can affect the value...