Pigou's conjecture was that under costly taxation public expenditures should not reach the point where marginal benefits equal marginal costs. In the treatment here, public expenditures (and environmental protection) may provide public goods for consumption but also collective inputs for...

Tradable permits are celebrated as a political instrument since they allow (i) firms to equalize marginal abatement costs through trade and (ii) the government to distribute the burden of the policy in a politically fair and feasible way. These two concerns, however, conflict in a dynamic...

Locally motivated air quality programs in Santiago and Mexico City have only minor collateral benefits for the global climate. If agencies with global and local agendas did business together, then individuals and firms and even cities would act globally when thinking locally, and one would see...

In many parts of the world, lower levels of government are taking over responsibilities from national authorities. This often leads to difficulty in maintaining fiscal discipline. So-called soft budget constraints allow these subnational governments to expand expenditures without facing the full...

This paper analyzes the claim, made by both academics and by industry insiders, that vessels speed up under conditions of high freight rates and low bunker prices. The rationale for the claim is that a ship should move slowly when high bunker prices make energy cost savings great and when the...

Emission reductions could be provided by cleaner technologies as well as substitution towards less polluting inputs and goods. We develop a model to assess the scope for emission reductions by input substitution. We then apply the model to manufacturing in Chile and Indonesia-two developing...

¿Cuáles son las estrategias apropiadas para proteger el ambiente en países en desarrollo que al mismo tiempo buscan promover el crecimiento y reducir la pobreza? Este artículo revisa la literatura acerca de la intervención costoefectiva,2 comparando los instrumentos regulatorios y fiscales...