This dissertation consists of two theoretical papers on market-based environmental policy. The first paper exploits the correlation between the environmental performance of firms and their economic performance to show that financial markets can be used to help enforce environmental policy and to...

Environmental concerns are becoming increasingly popular and nowadays find their place on the policy-makers agenda. The basic question that arises in these circumstances is whether environmental theses are consistent or not with the economic theory. Environmental issues must go through the...

Abstract We develop an empirical framework for evaluating the profitability of the use of barn owls to control rodent populations by locating nesting boxes in agricultural areas. Barn owls’ behavior is incorporated into the analysis by estimated functions that relate agricultural production to...

Agencies throughout the world are implementing plans to preserve open spaces. The demand to preserve open space is often justified based on the value of the amenities associated with the land. However, many times open space is valued most for what it is not: the absence of negative externalities...

Behavioural economics attracted attention from environmental economists: it should help to understand why people do not respond to environmental policy measures, based on neoclassical assumptions, as predicted by theory. Moreover, understanding motives and driving forces behind pro-social,...

The first conference of the newly-born Italian Association of Environment and Resource Economists (IAERE) took place in Ferrara last February 8-9, 2013. Professor Marzio Galeotti, Chairman of the Association, describes its main goals and gives a brief overview of the event.

This article evaluates the cost-effectiveness of the Catchment Care Australian conservation auction. It provides evidence of auction cost effectiveness, and estimates cost savings from two discrete components: (i) the opportunity cost revelation incentive provided by the auction mechanism, and...

Desde finales de la decada de 1980 la politica ambiental se ha apoyado de forma creciente en las fuerzas del mercado de cara al diseno de sistemas de incentivos economicos para promover el uso sostenible de los ecosistemas y de los ervicios que estos generan. La mercadotecnia en politica...

Free-riding is often associated with self-interested behaviour. However if there is a global mixed pollutant, free-riding will arise if individuals calculate that their emissions are negligible relative to the total, so total emissions and hence any damage that they and others suffer will be...

Many of the main scientific challenges in the fields of development, environment, and resource economics have a microeconomic foundation wherein behavioral elements play a significant role. Preferences with respect to risk, time, societal others, and the environment shape the decision-making...