The European Commission (2001a) has recently presented a directive proposal to the Parliament and the Council in order to implement a tradable permits scheme. However, as stressed by the positive political economy, due to the influence of various interest groups, very few environmental policies...

This essay reviews the implementation experience with three main applications of tradable permit systems: air pollution control, water supply and fisheries management. Opening with a brief summary of the theory behind these programs and both the economic and environmental consequences...

The Kyoto Protocol on climate change allocates tradable quotas to developed countries, but let them free to choose the means to respect their quota. There are good reasons for a country not to control its firms through internationally tradable permits. We thus compare a tax and purely domestic...

One of the policy options to increase the efficiency in the provision of scarce water resources is a reduction in transaction costs in water chains by developing integrated forms of water management. Integrated water management in case of river basin areas may comprise inter alia: (1) increasing...

This paper presents a meta-analysis of variations in price and income elasticities of residential water demand.Information on the determinants of consumer demand is of pivotal importance for the efficiency and efficacy ofpublic and private policy-making. It is also crucial for effective water...

This paper explores water pricing policy in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, in a political economy perspective. I argue that current water prices are too low and significantly below long-run marginal cost, and demonstrate that water prices must be raised significantly over the next ten...

Der Koalitionsvertrag, den CDU, CSU und SPD Ende November 2013 veröffentlich haben, enthält im Hinblick auf die wirtschaftliche und soziale Entwicklung viele konkrete und ehrgeizige Ziele: So sollen die Investitionsausgaben steigen, die Einkommenssituation ausgewählter Gruppen von Rentnern...

We discuss the selection of the socially optimal discount rate for public investment projects that entail costs and benefits in the very long run. More specifically, we examine in an expected utility framework how the uncertainty on the growth rate of the GNP per head affects this rate. Under...

We analyse the regulation of nonpoint source pollution. In particular, we study the use of peer monitoring to sustain co-operative abatement by a group of polluters. Delegation to a group of polluters has sometimes been proposed under a policy of so called voluntary abatement accords. By solving...

This paper investigates the effect of credibility of environmental policies on environmental innovation and welfare. When the government precommits to an emission tax, the monopolist's abatement effort is lower than if the environmental policy is at the government's discretion. Time consistent...