We analyze two mechanism designs for refunding emission payments to polluting firms; Output Based (OB) and Expenditure Based (EB) refunding. In both instruments, emissions fees are returned to the polluting industry, possibly making the policy more easily accepted by policymakers than a standard...

In Eastern Africa, the experience of Machakos has been heavily debated between Malthusians and the more optimistic Boserupians. Machakos was the epitome of overpopulation and resource degradation in the 1950s, but has since thrived. The Boserupians view Machakos as an illustration of how...

This paper integrates traditional economic variables, soil properties, and variables on soil conservation technologies in order to estimate agricultural output among small-scale farmers in Kenya’s central highlands. The study has methodological and empirical, as well as policy, implications....

This paper analyzes differences in firms’ responsiveness to PROPER, Indonesia’s public disclosure program for industrial pollution control. The overall effectiveness of this program at achieving emissions reductions and its low regulatory costs earned it a good reputation around the world....

Whether tradable permits are appropriate for transition and developing economies—given their special social and cultural circumstances, such as the lack of institutions and lack of expertise with market-based policies—is much debated. We conducted interviews and surveyed a sample of firms...

Santiago was one of the first cities outside the OECD to implement a tradable permit program to control air pollution. This paper looks closely at the program’s performance over the past ten years, stressing its similarities and discrepancies with trading programs implemented in developed...

This paper analyses the effects of the invasion of water hyacinths on fishing in Lake Victoria. We built two fairly standard Schaefer-type models that have one innovation: they allow the water hyacinth abundance to affect catchability. We estimated static and dynamic CPUE (catch per unit of...

This paper analyzes how fossil fuel-producing countries can counteract climate policy. We analyze the exhaustion of oil resources and the subsequent transition to a backstop technology as a strategic game between the consumers and producers of oil, which we refer to simply as “OECD” and...

This paper analyzes optimal social discount rates where people derive utility from relative consumption. We identify and compare three separate discount rates -- the social rate (taking positional externalities into account), the private rate, and the conventional Ramsey rate. Two main findings...

In September 2011, the US Environmental Protection Agency asked 12 economists how the benefits and costs of regulations should be discounted for projects that affect future generations. This paper summarizes the views of the panel on three topics -- the use of the Ramsey formula as an organizing...