Currently, the world petroleum market is facing attempts by petroleum exporting countries to extend their influence further downstream. The process of vertical integration is based on natural gas which accrues as a by-product of crude oil recovery. Gas can be used for downstream production, for...

Most oil-producing countries have now nationalised their oil reserves and are pursuing their own pricing and marketing policies; in recent years some of them have attempted to extend their influence over the oil market by undertaking processing activities downstream from oil production. What...

Is tax competition good for economic growth? The paper addresses this question by means of a simple model of economic growth in which a wasteful Leviathan state sets taxes and provides productive input. Wasteful behaviour is restricted by the voter, who reduces political support if her income is...

This paper looks at a model in which two countries trade agricultural and manufactured commodities. The manufactured-goods sector produces with increasing returns to scale under conditions of monopolistic competition. It is shown that an increase in land endowment (or an increase in agricultural...

The paper investigates the spatial patterns of industrial location and environmental pollution in a new-economic-geography model. Factors of production and their owners are mobile, but factor owners are not required to live in the region in which their factors are employed. Under laisser-faire,...

Is tax competition good for economic growth? The paper addresses this question by means of a simple model of endogenous growth. There are many small jurisdictions in a large federation and individual governments benevolently maximise the welfare of immobile residents. Investment is costly:...

The paper combines an economic-geography model of agglomeration and periphery with a model of species diversity and looks at optimal policies of biodiversity conservation. The subject of the paper is 'natural' biodiversity, which is inevitably impaired by anthropogenic impact. Thus, the economic...

The paper looks at a model of directed technical change in an environmental-economics context. Firms can do conventional or 'green' R&D or they can abate emissions at the end of pipe. The paper has two main foci. On the one hand, it investigates the impact of environmental regulation on the...

Commodities do not only serve the purpose of satisfying direct needs in the production and con-sumption process. Some of them can also be used to display social status and to affect the position of an individual in society. This paper addresses the question under which circum-stances...

The paper surveys economic aspects of sustainability and the use of complex ecological systems. In a first step, an economist's view of the concept of sustainability is presented. Then, a simple model of the economic use of a dynamic ecological system is discussed. It is shown how economically...