It is often said that water is under-priced and that if the full cost of water were charged, water use would be more sustainable. Moving from a statement to actual practice requires a shift in thinking about the fundamental economics. Australia has embarked on a process of economic reform and...

The challenge of rural landscape and water quality improvement is investigated as a problem of positive and negative externalities. Based on this analytical background, alternative policy measures are evaluated, and a charge-subsidy scheme with balanced budget is proposed as a cost-effective...

In this chapter both theory and empirics are used to show that our picture of the processes of economic development changes radically when nature is introduced as a capital asset. Particular features of institutions that fashion societies' use of the natural-resource base are identified and...

This report provides a methodology and framework for valuing externalities associated with urban water use.

In this chapter both theory and empirics are used to show that our picture of the processes of economic development changes radically when nature is introduced as a capital asset. Particular features of institutions that fashion societies' use of the natural-resource base are identified and...

Report to the High Level Steering Group on Water. The High Level Steering Group on Water endorsed the project 'Best Practice in Identifying, Costing and Charging for Externalities' in October 1999. The project's objective was to develop a pragmatic set of guidelines to assist jurisdictions in...

This report identifies a range of opportunities to adopt policies that improve the efficiency of water use, reduce the extent of undesired externalities and to enhance the quality of urban environments.

In a rapidly changing world, sustainability, if it can be said to exist at all, is concept that has attained mythic status, often pursued and rarely reached. In order to improve our capability to cope with environmental problems, adopting an Ecosystem Approach has been suggested. One of the...

Because the issue of sustainability presents urgent problems crucial to the future of mankind, there has been serious discussion of the role accounting should play. In this context, a new line of research, still at a relatively unexplored, embryonic stage, has arisen, which tries to establish...

When productivity is fostered by an individual's own human capital as well as by the economy-wide average level of human capital, individuals under-invest in human capital. The provision of subsidies for the formation of human capital, conditional on the subsidy being self-financed by tax...