The economic development of oil importing countries creates an increased demand for oil. This results in higher prices and an increased surplus to producers. A buyers' cartel would be a mechanism by which the US (in association with other importing countries) could retain (all or a part of) this...

The major argument against climate change treaties (like the Kyoto Agreement) is that they would reduce economic activity. On the contrary, in this paper we show that a revenue neutral tax on crude (returned as a lump sum payment to consumers) would achieve a reduction in consumption of oil (to...

When users have <italic>ex-ante</italic> demands over a common resource and when resource size is not sufficient to cover all the individual demands, there is a need to establish a rationing rule. I test whether the choice of the rationing rule impacts the individual decision to self-insure, i.e., to invest in a...

Marine and coastal ecosystems are of high importance owing to the mankind dependence on the goods and services provided. Due to the lack of an official market to valuate non-marketed goods and services, contingent valuation is applied intensively in order to provide the policy makers and the...

The region comprising North Africa and the Middle East is the driest in the world. Thus conflicts over water have been a part of the landscape. These conflicts over water are invariably seen as a zero sum game; such a view does not incorporate the notion that water is an economic good and is...

Arsenic contamination in water supplies continues to increase in many countries, especially in developing nations, thereby creating both environmental and health hazard. Its sources and effects are multiple and diffused in nature and it requires detailed assessment and policy. This paper...

In this paper we provide an overview of recent trends in the availability and quality of land and water resources in rural China, and examine the common presumption that rural resources are rapidly degrading in China. Data based on consistent definitions and measurement methods that have...

Danube Delta has suffered damages of habitat and species loss caused by factors, including: construction of dams upstream have degraded obviously flooding regime; creation of agricultural and fishing enclosures which decreased the natural and original surfaces; extending artificial navigation...

Payments for ecosystem services should be informed by how both the providing-resource and the downstream resource are managed. We develop an integrated model that jointly optimizes conservation investment in a watershed that recharges a downstream aquifer and groundwater extraction from the...

A theory of payment for ecosystem services (PES) pricing consistent with dynamic efficiency and sustainable income requires optimized shadow prices. Since ecosystem services are generally interdependent, this requires joint optimization across multiple resource stocks. We develop such a theory...