Natural disasters have been linked to both violent conflict and, in some settings, poor economic growth, but do they also drive government parties out of office? We study gov- ernment turnover in a global sample of more than 200 elections to the executive. Natural disasters are associated with...

We examine the impact of the 2004 Indian tsunami on international remittance transfers using aggregate country data and synthetic control methodology. This procedure implies identifying the causal impact of the disaster by comparing the share of remittances to GDP in Indonesia, the country most...

Natural disasters plague the populations of many countries, and the international community often seeks to alleviate the human suffering by means of humanitarian aid. Do natural disasters also have negative effects on aggregate economic growth? This paper shows that natural disasters on average...

A range of alternatives to the Global Warming Potential (GWP) have been suggested in the scientific literature. One of these alternative metrics that has received significant attention is the cost-effective relative valuation of greenhouse gases. However, this metric is based on complex...

Prior to the launch of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in 2005, the electricity sector was widely proclaimed to have more low-cost emission abatement opportunities than other sectors. If this were true, effects of the EU ETS on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would likely be visible in...

Climate change mitigation is urgent, and adaptation to climate change is crucial, particularly in agriculture, where food security is at stake. Agriculture, currently responsible for 20-30% of global greenhouse gas emissions (counting direct and indirect agricultural emissions), can however...

The idea of Personal Carbon Allowances (PCAs) was presented by the British Environment Secretary David Miliband in 2006. Although no state is seriously developing proposals for them, they have been heavily debated within academia, NGOs and policy making circles. PCAs can be seen as a logical...

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) should foster sustainable development and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The design of the CDM and first experience suggest that it may not achieve these goals. Developing countries hosting CDM projects may loose cheap emissions reduction possibilities...

Unique survey data from a contingent valuation study conducted in three different countries (China, Sweden, and the United States) were used to investigate the ordinary citizen’s willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing CO2 emissions. We find that a large majority of the respondents in all three...

Improvement in soil carbon through conservation agriculture in developing countries may generate some private benefits to farmers as well as sequester carbon emissions, which is a positive externality to society. Leaving crop residue on the farm has become an important option in conservation...