The application of the contingent valuation method to environmental resources has been criticised on the grounds that individuals' responses are thought to be motivated by considerations not strictly relevant to economic valuation, thus leading to observed anomalies such as scope insensitivity....

In this paper we argue that the burgeoning empirical debate over scope sensitivity within contingent valuation studies is fundamentally incomplete in that the effect of study design upon observed scope has largely been ignored. In particular we highlight the frequently overlooked fact that in...

Environmental decisions made by individuals, civil society and the state involve questions of economic efficiency, environmental effectiveness, equity and political legitimacy. These four criteria are constitutive of economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, which...

This paper reviews literature in and around new institutional economics to assess its contributions to, and limitations in, research on environmental decision-making and governance. The paper also proposes ways to increase the fruitfulness of new institutional approach for environmental...

This paper critically reviews the literature on environmental valuation of ecosystem services across the range of global biomes. The main objective of this review is to assess the policy relevance of the information encompassed by the wide range of valuation studies that have been undertaken so...

Charitable giving has increasingly become ‘tough love’ - it has come to require recipients to undertake costly prior action. A common justification is that of greater efficiency: willingness to undertake costly actions signals greater productivity from transfers. However, there is a...

Is the World Bank’s Development Policy Lending likely to enhance ownership and have greater effectiveness than structural adjustment? We specify a dynamic common agency model in which a government committed to reform faces domestic opposition from interest groups. The dynamic specification,...

In developing societies, social norms typically ascribe differential weights to paternal, maternal and communal (or state) contributions to children’s expenses. Individuals internalize these valuations. I examine a Cournot model of voluntary contribution to children’s goods in a twoadult...

Lenders condition future loans on some index of past performance. Typically, banks condition future loans on repayments of earlier obligations while international organizations condition future loans on the implementation of some policy conditions. We build an agency model that accounts for...