This paper presents a model which takes into account two main factors that have been partially neglected by the economic development literature: the environmental externalities of human activities and agents' heterogeneity in terms of asset endowment and, consequently, in terms of income source...

We model in an endogenous growth set-up the hypotheses that the expansion of market activities weakens social capital formation, and that firms can invest in formal mechanisms of control and enforcement to substitute for social capital (trust, work ethics, honesty). The model shows that the...

This paper examines the intermediary role of carbon dioxide emissions and GDP per capita in the relationship between natural resource rents and renewable energy, with a specific focus on distinguishing between renewable energy consumption and production. Specifically, the paper aims to identify...

We analyze ecosystem management under `unmeasurable' Knightian uncertainty or ambiguity which, given the uncertainties characterizing ecosystems, might be a more appropriate framework relative to the classic risk case (measurable uncertainty). This approach is used as a formal way of modelling...

We address the problem of optimal management of a self organizing ecosystem along ecological succession. A dynamic carrying capacity is interpreted as depicting the dynamics of habitat creation and occupation along ecological succession. The ecosystem may have three growth modes: pure...

This work examines the impact that economic growth can have on biodiversity and on the ecological dynamics that would naturally emerge in the absence of human activity. The loss of biodiversity may induce policy-makers to implement defensive actions that prevent single species from extinction....

The main objective of the paper is to analyze the effects on economic agents’ behavior deriving from the introduction of financial activities aimed to environmental protection. The environmental protection mechanism we study should permit exchange of financial activities among citizens, firms,...

We analyze an overlapping generations model where agent’s welfare depends on three goods: leisure, environmental quality and consumption of a private good. We assume that the production process of the private good depletes the natural resource and that the consumption of the private good...