The green bond market has grown rapidly since its inception in 2007. Climate-aligned standards provide investors with the confidence that their investments deliver a measurable climate benefit. Serving as a benchmark, these standards demonstrate alignment with the Paris Agreement, against which...

Since naturally occurring genetic information serves as a valuable input for biotechnological R&D, the private provision of genetic resources could generate income for the protection of biodiversity-rich areas. However, there has been a controversy over whether these potential revenues are...

This paper studies the properties of second-best optimal policy in a standard general equilibrium model of growth augmented with renewable natural resources. The government chooses its policy instruments (the income tax rate and the allocation of collected tax revenues between public investment...

Temperature records compiled by the International Panel on Climate Change are biased by non-climatic factors that are largely socioeconomic in origin. The result is that as much as 50 percent of the land-surface warming that has been detected in recent decades may not be the product of global...

The analysis finds that in addition to U-shaped paths of environmental quality arising for growth in income per capita, growth in population can also produce socially efficient patterns that are U-shaped. Sufficient conditions for both types of paths are identified for a range of models and...

The institutional and ecological structure of Hardin’s “tragedy of the commons” appears deceptively simple: the open-access pasture eventually will be overexploited and degraded unless (i) it is privatized, (ii) the government regulates access and use, or (iii) the users themselves impose...

We model biological invasions as an unintended by-product of capital accumulation. We distinguish three spillover effects: (1) a negative production externality, (2) a negative or positive consumption externality and (3) an increase in the risk of future welfare loss. We also consider the...

The regulation of genetically modified products pursuant to statutes enacted decades prior to the advent of biotechnology has led to a system that is passive rather than proactive about risks, that has difficulty adapting to biotechnology advances, and that is highly fractured and inefficient -...

This chapter studies the interface in poor countries of population growth, rural poverty, and deterioration of the local natural-resource base, a subject that has been much neglected by modern demographers and development economists. The motivations for procreation in rural communities of the...