Soils are often subject to environmental shocks which are caused by negative extern- alities linked to overexploitation. We present a stochastic model of a dynamic agricultural economy where natural disasters are sizeable, multiple, and random. Expansion of agricultural activities raises...

The author analyzes the optimal investment in environmental protection in a model of an infinite series of non-overlapping hyperbolically discounting agents. He shows that without a commitment mechanism society is eventually stuck in a situation where all agents prefer further investment in the...

This paper assesses the scope for and implications of trade measures for environmental purposes in the WTO and the European Union. The assessment is illustrated by a number of cases that have tested the limits of legal provisions in the WTO and EU dealing with issues arising at the intersection...

The Rural Development Regulation (RDR) within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as an exemplary manifestation of the New Rural Development Paradigm, has achieved significant results. Nevertheless, it has increasingly become liable to institutional complexity and central control in an...

In this paper, we extend the well known result that hyperbolically discounting agents tend to postpone costs into the future. In a simple model we show that, without commitment to the ex ante optimal plan, no investment in environmental protection is undertaken over the whole time horizon, no...

Dieser Beitrag formuliert aus der wirtschaftsethischen Perspektive des ordonomischen Forschungsprogramms einige Denkanstöße, die dazu beitragen sollen, ein differenzierte(re)s Moralurteil über 'Kapitalismus' zu entwickeln: Kapitalismus setzt Wettbewerbsanreize ein, um Produktionseffizienz und...

This paper is concerned with agri-environmental policy in Germany and focuses in particular on soil and water conservation. At first it discusses to what extent agriculture contributes to erosion and the pollution of surface waters and groundwater with nutrients and pesticides. Whereas erosion...