Suchergebnisse

In marine areas throughout the world, copper-based hull coatings are used on recreational boats to kill algae and barnacles. Unfortunately, copper, a registered fungicide, harms other marine organisms and violates government concentration standards when there is a sizeable number of recreational boats moored in close proximity. An immediate nationwide ban of copper would cost over one billion dollars. Designing more efficient policies for phasing out copper requires an understanding of copper and non-toxic hull coatings as a dynamic capital replacement problem, an understanding of the behavior of utility-maximizing consumers, and how these two factors interact with possible pollution control instruments. Once the dynamic nature of the policy problem is established, heterogeneity in capital vintage and heterogeneity in consumer willingness-to-pay for environmental properties become key determinants of the overall cost of alternate policy instruments. This dissertation consists of three papers that analyze these types of heterogeneity in a dynamic context and explore their implications for the optimal design of pollution control policies. The first chapter introduces the policy problem and puts forth a conceptual framework for thinking about how to design and evaluate alternative policies to transition to non-toxic boat hulls. Many of the issues raised are broadly applicable to environmental problems where the solution involves a large -scale replacement of durable consumer goods. The second chapter analyzes the preferences of utility-maximizing boat owners in order to accurately evaluate policy options. I implemented a choice experiment with recreational boaters in San Diego Bay to build an econometric model of paint choice, and estimate willingness-to-pay for marginal changes in paint attributes and discount rates implicit in respondents' tradeoffs over time. I also consider how choice behavior would change with altered expectations of future policies. Using my results, I discuss a fifteen-year plan to phase out toxic paints in San Diego Bay at no cost. The third and final chapter presents evidence that consumer preferences toward environmental attributes can be highly heterogeneous, and can strongly influence the time-path of pollution abatement. Prior studies tend either to ignore the speed of compliance/adoption by conducting static analysis or ignore heterogeneity by taking a representative agent approach; even models that condition on individual-level covariates are generally plagued by the fact that unobservable characteristics can drive the behavior of interest. Using data from my choice experiment, I estimate the distribution of environmental preferences. This heterogeneity will cause initial abatement to occur more quickly than would be expected without it, but the ultimate target will be achieved more slowly than in a homogeneous population. The greater the heterogeneity, the more this effect is exacerbated. Failure to understand and account for heterogeneity will prevent policymakers from achieving targets in desired time frames. I discuss implications of this finding, coupled with results from my first two chapters, for the optimal design of pollution control policies

Twenty years ago, governments gathered for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The "Rio Declaration" laid out several principles of sustainable development, including the central role of policy instruments. In this article, we take stock of where we stand today in implementing sound and effective environmental policy instruments throughout the world, particularly in developing and transitional economies. We argue that, as our experience with market-based environmental policies has deepened over the past two decades, so has the ability to adapt instruments to complicated and heterogeneous contexts—but we are only just beginning, and the need to be further along is dire. One key factor may be that economists have not yet meaningfully accounted for the importance of political feasibility, which often hinges on risks to competitiveness and employment, or on the distribution of costs rather than on considerations of pure efficiency alone.

Effective environmental policymaking requires an understanding of how environmental goals interact with other political goals. This article analyzes development strategies in the PICT's, where policymakers aim to leverage tuna resources into sustainable economic development and job creation. The authors develop a model that analyzes costs and benefits of different development strategies, with a focus on job creation and local socioeconomic factors that drive optimal policy mixes across PICTs. The analysis demonstrates that investment in fisheries management can effectively encourage economic development and create employment opportunities, and compare this strategy to others such as selling access permits and investing in processing capacity. While many benefits of fisheries management are widely recognized, its ability to create high-quality employment opportunities is often overlooked. For many PICTs, this may represent the lowest cost strategy for jobs creation and, coupled with selling fishery access to foreign vessels, can form a strong basis for economic development plans.

Broken Theory is a jettisoned collection of fragmentary writing, collected and collaged by new media artist, writer, musician, and theorist Alan Sondheim. Folding theoretical musings, text experiments, and personal confessions into a single textual flow, it examines the somatic foundations of philosophical theory and theorizing, discussing their relationships to the writer and body, and to the phenomenology of failure and fragility of philosophy's production. Writing remains writing, undercuts and corrects itself, is always superseded, always produced within an untoward and bespoke silo – not as an inconceivable last word, but instead a broken contribution to philosophical thinking. The book is based on fragmentation and collapse, displacing annihilation and wandering towards a form of "roiling" within which the text teeters on the verge of disintegration. In other words, the writing develops momentary scaffoldings – writing shored up by the very mechanisms that threaten its disappearance.

Broken Theory is prefaced by a text from Maria Damon and followed by an extensive interview with art historian Ryan Whyte.

Climate change represents a serious threat to the economic growth potential in low income countries. Instead of investing in growth, they may be drawn into strife and conflict. Climate change and the global politics to deal with it, could however also present a number of interesting opportunities for developing countries. Such opportunities may arise in sustainable forestry, new forms of solar, wind or bioenergy and related industries, agriculture or in the programs for abatement and mitigation that are likely to be created. It is an important priority for low-income countries to develop local knowledge and understanding concerning climate change in order to better prepare for both the costs and challenges posed by climate change, as well as to defend their national interests and participate in international negotiations. Creating academic capacity is however a long and painstaking process. We discuss a number of existing initiatives but conclude that more is needed, particularly at the higher level of PhD studies.

Environment and Society connects the core themes of environmental studies to the urgent issues and debates of the twenty-first century. In an era marked by climate change, rapid urbanization, and resource scarcity, environmental studies has emerged as a crucial arena of study. Assembling canonical and contemporary texts, this volume presents a systematic survey of concepts and issues central to the environment in society, such as: social mobilization on behalf of environmental objectives; the relationships between human population, economic growth and stresses on the planet's natural resources; debates about the relative effects of collective and individual action; and unequal distribution of the social costs of environmental degradation. Organized around key themes, with each section featuring questions for debate and suggestions for further reading, the book introduces students to the history of environmental studies, and demonstrates how the field's interdisciplinary approach uniquely engages the essential issues of the present