Economic Institutions and Environmental Policy

About this book

The essays in this volume examine the questions of evaluation processes and enforcement with regards to environmental externalities, stressing the role of institutional failures in dealing with the environment. The essays are divided into three sections: 1 - the complexity of evaluation processes; 2 - the complexity of institutional arrangements; and 3 - evaluation processes and political choice. Overall, the essays argue that the effectiveness of environmental policy depends on the role played by economic institutions in affording and implementing policy objectives. The studies investigates the role played by institutions in affecting and implementing environmental policy. Institutions, in the wider sense, are typically shaped by a complex set of economic and political interests, culture and values which require detailed interdisciplinary analysis.

Contents

Part One The complexity of evaluation processes: welfare indices and environmental accounting - a critical survey, Simone Borghesi, Silvia Tiezzi; sustainable development and the valuation problem - option values as a guideline for institutional choices, Marcello Basili. Part Two The complexity of institutional arrangements: "voluntary" approaches to envioronmental regulation, Thomas P. Lyon, John W. Maxwell; economic institutions and common-pool resources - the role of exit costs in enforcing full co-operation, Antonio Nicita; facing environmental "bads" - alternative property rights regimes for local and transnational commons, Massimo Di Matteo, Antonio Nicita. Part Three Evaluation processes and policy choice: exploring biophysical approaches to develop environmental taxation tools - encitax to face the "new scarcity", Salvatore Bimonte, Sergio Ulgiati; the environmental Kuznets curve - a critical survey, Simone Borghesi; environmental resources valuation as an institutional problem, Maurizio Franzini.

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