The German Environmental Liability Law (ELL) of 1991 has introduced far-reaching civil liability for environmental damages with the aim to increase firms? efforts to prevent accidents. Previous studies find poor evidence that this goal has actually been achieved. One and a half decades after the...

This papers studies the effects on service quality and consumer surplus of a minimum price which is fixed by a bureaucratic non-monopolistic professional association. It shows that the price set by a Niskanen-type professional assocation will maximize consumer surplus only if consumers demand...

This paper discusses the problem of crowding out of insurance by co-existing governmental relief programs - so-called 'charity hazard' - in a context of different institutional schemes of governmental relief in Austria and Germany. We test empirically whether an assured partial relief scheme (as...

Nach den Versorgungsbereichen Telekommunikation, Strom und Gas steht die Liberalisierung der Wasserwirtschaft auf der politischen Tagesordnung. Welche Besonderheiten sind bei dem Gut Wasser zu berücksichtigen? Welche Wettbewerbsform führt zu den besten Ergebnissen?

This paper investigates in detail the design parameters of the two most prominent U.S. tradeable emission permit program - the U.S. EPA Sulfur Allowance Trading Program and the South Californian Regional Clean Air Incentives Market (RECLAIM). In contrast to expectations and the existing...

The strategy of adaptation to climate change has become a central topic within the UNFCCC negotiations in recent years. On the national level, adaptation plans are elaborated, and on the international level, the need for funding adaptation in developing countries is discussed. This tendency...

Grassland development serves as an important part of the national sustainable development strategy in China. This paper defines the strategic objectives of grassland development in China based on the national strategy, the current status of grassland development in China and the status of...

Diese Arbeit analysiert, inwieweit die unterschiedlichen Risikotransfersysteme dreier vom Augusthochwasser 2005 betroffener Länder, Deutschland (reine Marktlösung mit ergänzender staatlicher Notfallhilfe), Österreich (steuerfinanzierter Katastrophenfonds mit ergänzenden Marktangeboten) und...

This paper develops an analytical framework for studying the Baumol-Oates efficiency of traditional single instrument abatementpolicies vis-à-vis green defaults in the face of price inertia and deliberate defaultingby subpopulations. In this special case ofbehavioural heterogeneity, command and...