Suchergebnisse

AbstractFaced with a global emissions problem such as climate change, we know that if countries' emissions decisions are made in an independent and self-interested fashion the outcome can be very far from optimal. One proposed solution is to have countries enter international environmental agreements (IEAs) whereby individual countries' emissions decisions are taken in the interests of all the participating countries and so reflect a degree of altruism. However, if the decision to co-operate is made in a self-interested fashion the standard non-cooperative model of IEAs yields the pessimistic conclusion that the more serious the environmental problem the smaller will be the equilibrium membership of an IEA. Our paper examines the implications for emissions, IEA membership and welfare of assuming that countries make both emissions and IEA membership decisions in the alternative moral fashion of acting as imperfect Kantians as defined by Alger and Weibull (Econometrica 81:2269–2302, 2013). We show that (i) the first-best can be achieved when countries either act as Perfect Kantians or by fully cooperating; (ii) in a more imperfect setting, these two forms of moral behaviour are complementary approaches to improving welfare outcomes in the sense that the greater the weights on Kantian behaviour the larger is the equilibrium coalition; (iii) the weights on Kantian behaviour that will induce full cooperation and hence the first-best are significantly less than 1; (iv) for given Kantian weights, our model generates higher equilibrium IEA membership, lower emissions and higher welfare than in the related paper by Eichner and Pethig (International environmental agreements when countries behave morally) which, we argue, does not fully capture the benefits of membership decisions.

"The Lower Danube-the stretch of Europe's second longest river between the Romanian-Serbian border and the confluence to the Black Sea-was effectively transformed during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In describing this lengthy undertaking, Luminita Gatejel proposes that remaking two key stretches-the Iron Gates and the delta-not only physically altered the river but also redefined it in a legal and political sense. Since the late eighteenth century, military conflicts and peace treaties changed the nature of sovereignty over the area, as the expansionist tendencies of the Habsburg and British Empires encountered rival Ottoman and Russian imperial plans. The inconvenience that the river's physical shape obstructed free navigation and the growth of commercial traffic, was an increasing concern to all parties. This book shows that alongside imperial aspirations, transnational actors like engineers, commissioners, and entrepreneurs were the driving force behind the river regulation. In this highly original, deeply researched, and carefully crafted study, Gatejel explores the formation of international cooperation, the emergence of technical expertise and the emergence of engineering as a profession. This constellation turned the Lower Danube into a laboratory for experimenting with new forms of international cooperation, economic integration, and nature transformation"--

This book addresses an essential gap in the regulatory regime, which provides legislation, statements and guidelines on airlines, airports, air navigation services providers and States in the field of aviation, but is notably lacking when it comes to the rights of the airline passenger, and the average citizen who is threatened by military air strikes. It addresses subjects such as international resolutions on human rights and other human rights conventions related to aviation that impact both air transport consumers and people on the ground who are threatened by air strikes through drone attacks; disabled and obese airline passengers; compensation for delayed carriage and the denial of carriage; noise and air pollution caused by aviation and their effects on human health and wellbeing; prevention of death or injury to passengers and attendant compensatory rights; risk management; relief flights; and racial profiling. These subjects are addressed against the backdrop of real case studies that include but are not limited to instances of drone attacks, and contentious flights in the year 2014 such as MH 370, MH 17 and QZ 8501.