This paper compares the optimal dynamic choices between policies of mitigation and adaptation for three economies: Brazil, Chile and the United States. The focus is on the optimal role of mitigation and adaptation for 'environmentally small economies,' i.e., economies that are witnessing an...

As the first global carbon fund, the World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF) aims to catalyze the market for project-based greenhouse gas emission reductions while promoting sustainable development and offering a learning-by-doing opportunity to its stakeholders. Since the inception in 2000,...

This paper presents a brief literature review concerning the costs and benefits of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles, highlighting their advantages in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Even though electric and electro-hybrid vehicles must still overcome many cultural and...

This paper discusses techniques for measuring the incidence of carbon taxes across different household income groups and provides some cross-country estimates of these effects for selected advanced countries. The general message of this paper is that distributional concerns should not...

Environmental regulations such as air quality standards can lead to notable improvements in ambient air quality and to related health benefits. But they impose additional production costs on firms and may reduce productivity, earnings, and employment, especially in sectors exposed to trade and...

This paper analyzes two indexes in order to capture the volatility inherent in El Niños Southern Oscillations (ENSO), develops the relationship between the strength of ENSO and greenhouse gas emissions, which increase as the economy grows, with carbon dioxide being the major greenhouse gas, and...

This paper investigates the technical inefficiency, shadow price and substitution elasticity of CO2 emissions of China based on a provincial panel for 2001-2010. Using linear programming to calculate a quadratic parameterized directional output distance function, we show that China's technical...

Critics of modern macroeconomics often raise concerns about unwarranted welfare conclusions and data mining. This paper illustrates these concerns with a thought experiment, based on the debate in environmental economics about the appropriate discount rate in climate change analyses: I set up an...

China’s rampant environmental pollution problems and rising greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting climate change are undermining its long-term economic growth. China, from its own perspective cannot afford to and, from an international perspective, is not meant to continue on the...

A number of empirical studies have been carried out to assess the impact of sustainable development assistance (SDA) and aid on environmental quality in poor countries, but these studies have been characterized by weak theoretical anchor. It is against this background that this paper provides a...