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- eeu sweden | Policy design Natural Resource Management: Challenges and Policy Options Much of the improvement in living standards in developed and developing countries alike is attributable to the exploitation of nonrenewable and renewable resources. The problem is to know when the exploitation occurs at rates and with technologies that are sustainable. Coria, J and T. Sterner “Natural resource management: Challenges and policy options”, Annual Review Resource Economics 2011. 3:14.1–14.28
- Behavior ec. Climate change Policy design Reconnecting to the Biosphere Humanity has emerged as a major force in the operation of the biosphere, with a significant imprint on the Earth System, challenging social–ecological resilience. This new situation calls for a fundamental shift in perspectives, world views, and institutions. Human development and progress must be reconnected to the capacity of the biosphere and essential ecosystem services to be sustained. Folke, Carl, Åsa Jansson, Johan Rockström, Per Olsson, Stephen R. Carpenter, F. Stuart Chapin III, Anne-Sophie Crépin, Gretchen Daily, Kjell Danell, Jonas Ebbesson, Thomas Elmqvist, Victor Galaz, Fredrik Moberg, Måns Nilsson, Henrik Österblom, Elinor Ostrom, Åsa Persson, Garry Peterson, Stephen Polasky, Will Steffen, Brian Walker, and Frances Westley. 2011. "Reconnecting to the Biosphere." Ambio 40 (7): 719-738.
- Climate change Policy design Advancing the diagnostic analysis of environmental problems Social-ecological systems exhibit patterns across multiple levels along spatial, temporal, and functional scales. The outcomes that are produced in these systems result from complex, non-additive interactions between different types of social and biophysical components, some of which are common to many systems, and some of which are relatively unique to a particular system. These properties, along with the mostly non-experimental nature of the analysis, make it difficult to construct theories regarding the sustainability of social-ecological systems. This paper builds on previous work that has initiated a diagnostic approach to the analysis of these systems. Michael Cox, Advancing the diagnostic analysis of environmental problems, 2011, International Journal of the Commons, Vol. 5, no 2 August 2011, pp. 346–363
- central america eeu sweden | Parks & Wildlife Policy design Ecotourism and the development of indigenous communities: The good, the bad, and the ugly. A large part of the literature analyzing the links between biodiversity conservation and community development assumes that nature-based tourism managed by indigenous communities will result not only in conservation of natural resources but also in increased development. In practice, ecotourism has often failed to deliver the expected benefits to indigenous communities due to a combination of factors, including shortages in the endowments of human, financial and social capital within the community, lack of mechanisms for a fair distribution of the economic benefits of ecotourism, and land insecurity. Coria, J. and E. Calfucura. 2012. Ecotourism and the development of indigenous communities: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Ecological Economics 73(15): 47-55.
- central america rff usa | Agriculture Policy design Does Ecocertification Have Environmental Benefits? Organic Coffee in Colombia Eco-certification of coffee, timber, and other high-value agricultural commodities is increasingly widespread. In principle, it can improve commodity producers’ environmental performance, even in countries where state regulation is weak. However, evidence needed to evaluate this hypothesis is virtually nonexistent. To help fill this gap, we use detailed farm-level data to analyze the environmental impacts of organic coffee certification in southeast Colombia. M. Ibañez and A. Blackman. 2011. "Does Ecocertification Have Environmental Benefits? Organic Coffee in Colombia." Working Paper. Resources for the Future: Washington, DC.
- central america rff usa | Agriculture Forestry Policy design Producer-level Benefits of Sustainability Certification Initiatives certifying that producers of goods and services adhere to defined environmental and social-welfare production standards are increasingly popular. According to proponents, these initiatives create financial incentives for producers to improve their environmental, social, and economic performance. We reviewed the evidence on whether these initiatives have such benefits. A. Blackman and J. Rivera. In Press. "Producer-level Benefits of Sustainability Certification." Forthcoming in Conservation Biology.
- central america rff usa | Policy design What Drives Voluntary Eco-Certification in Mexico? Advocates claim that voluntary programs can help shore up poorly performing command-and-control environmental regulation in developing countries. Although literature on this issue is quite thin, research on voluntary environmental programs in industrialized countries suggests that they are sometimes ineffective because they mainly attract relatively clean plants free-riding on prior pollution control investments. A. Blackman and S. Guerrero. In Press. "What Drives Voluntary Eco-Certification in Mexico?" Forthcoming in Journal of Comparative Economics.
- china eeu sweden rff usa | Climate change A Fair Share - Burden-Sharing Preferences in the United States and China Using a choice experiment, we investigated preferences for distributing the economic burden of decreasing CO2 emissions in the two largest CO2-emitting countries: the United States and China. We asked respondents about their preferences for four burden-sharing rules to reduce CO2 emissions according to their country’s 1) historical emissions, 2) income level, 3) equal right to emit per person, and 4) current emissions. Carlsson, Kataria, Krupnick, Lampi, Löfgren, Qin, Sterner, and Chung (2010). “A Fair Share : Burden-Sharing Preferences in the United States and China”, Working Papers in Economics no 471, Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg.
- eeu sweden | Climate change Green Growth in the Post-Copenhagen Climate Energy Policy Global climate change stands out from most environmental problems because it will span generations and force us to think in new ways about intergenerational fairness. It involves the delicate problem of complex coordination between countries on a truly global scale. As long as fossil fuels are too cheap, climate change policy will engage all major economies. The costs are high enough to make efficiency a priority, which means striving toward a single market for carbon—plus tackling the thorny issues of fairness. Sterner, T. and M Damon, ”Green Growth in the Post-Copenhagen Climate Energy Policy”, Energy Policy, Forthcoming
- china | Forestry Forest Tenure Reform in China: A Choice Experiment on Farmers’ Property Rights Preferences Decentralization experiments are currently underway in the Chinese forestry sector. However, researchers and policy makers tend to ignore a key question: what do forest farmers really want from reform? Qin, P, F. Carlsson, and J. Xu. 2011. "Forestland reform in China: what do the farmers want? A choice experiment on farmers’ property rights preferences." Land Economics. 87 (3): 473-487.
- eeu sweden ethiopia | Agriculture Climate change Climate Change and the Ethiopian Economy: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis This paper analyses the economic impacts of climate change on Ethiopia’s agriculture using a countrywide computable general equilibrium model. Gebreegziabher Zenebe, Stage Jesper, Mekonnen Alemu, and Atlaw Alemu, 2011, “Climate Change and the Ethiopian Economy: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis”. Environment for Development Discussion Paper Series, EfD DP 11-09.
- central america rff usa | Policy design Does Eco-Certification Boost Regulatory Compliance in Developing Countries? ISO 14001 in Mexico Private sector initiatives certifying that producers of goods and services adhere to defined environmental process standards are increasingly popular worldwide. According to proponents, they can circumvent chronic barriers to effective public sector environmental regulation in developing countries. Blackman, Allen, 2011, “Does Eco-Certification Boost Regulatory Compliance in Developing Countries? ISO 14001 in Mexico”, Environment for Development Discussion Paper Series, EfD DP 11-08.
- eeu sweden | Climate change Paying for Mitigation: A Multiple Country Study Unique survey data from a contingent valuation study conducted in three different countries (China, Sweden, and the United States) were used to investigate the ordinary citizen’s willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing CO2 emissions. We found that a large majority of the respondents in all three countries believe that the mean global temperature has increased over the last 100 years and that humans are responsible for the increase. Fredrik Carlsson, Mitesh Kataria, Alan Krupnick, Elina Lampi, Åsa Lofgren, Ping Qin, Susie Chung, and Thomas Sterner, 2011, “Paying for Mitigation: A Multiple Country Study”, Accepted for publication in Land Economics
- eeu sweden | Climate change Policy design Is fairness blind?—The effect of framing on preferences for effort-sharing rules This paper uses a choice experiment to study citizens' preferences for effort-sharing rules for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. For a given global cost and level of emission reduction, we study the willingness to pay for various rules that imply different distributions of the cost between EU, the US, China and Africa. Fredrik Carlsson, Mitesh Kataria, Elina Lampia, Åsa Löfgren, and Thomas Sterner, 2011, "Is fairness blind?—The effect of framing on preferences for effort-sharing rules", Accepted for publication in Ecological Economics.
- china eeu sweden rff usa | Behavior ec. Climate change The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth: A Multiple-Country Test of an Oath Script Hypothetical bias is one of the main issues bedeviling the field of nonmarket valuation. The general criticism is that survey responses reflect how people would like to behave, rather than how they actually behave. In our study of climate change and emissions reductions, we took advantage of the increasing bulk of evidence from psychology and economics that addresses the effects of making promises, in order to investigate the effect of an oath script in a contingent valuation survey. Carlsson, Fredrik, Mitesh Kataria, Alan Krupnick, Elina Lampi, Åsa Löfgren, Ping Qin, Thomas Sterner and Susie Chung, 2010, “The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth: A Multiple-Country Test of an Oath Script”, Environment for Development Discussion Paper Series, 2010, EfD DP 10-24.
- eeu sweden | Policy design Natural Resource Management: Challenges and Policy Options Much of the improvement in living standards in developed and developing countries alike is attributable to the exploitation of nonrenewable and renewable resources. The problem is to know when the exploitation occurs at rates and with technologies that are sustainable. Jessica Coria and Thomas Sterner (2011) "Natural Resource Management: Challenges and Policy Options", University of Gotheburg, Working Papers in Economics 480
- central america | Agriculture Does Eco-Certification have Environmental Benefits? Organic Coffee in Costa Rica We find that organic certification improves coffee growers’ environmental performance. It significantly reduces chemical input use and increases adoption of some environmentally friendly management practices. Blackman, Allen and Maria A. Naranjo (2010) Does Eco-Certification Have Environmental Benefits? Organic Coffee in Costa Rica. Environment for Development. Discussion Paper Series. November 2010. EfD DP 10-25.
- eeu sweden | Behavior ec. Farmers' Preferences for Crop Variety Traits: Lessons for On-farm Conservation and Technology Adoption Although in-situ conservation is increasingly considered an efficient way of conserving plant genetic resources, little is known about the incentives and constraints that govern conservation decisions among small farm holders in developing countries. Asrat S., Yesuf M., Carlsson F., Wale E. 2010. Farmers' preferences for crop variety traits: Lessons for on-farm conservation and technology adoption, Ecological Economics 69, 2394-2401.
- eeu sweden | Behavior ec. Conformity and the Demand for Environmental Goods We test the hypothesis that people conform to certain social norms, i.e. that some individuals may be willing to pay a higher price premium for green products the more widespread green consumerism is in society. Carlsson F., Garcia J., Löfgren Å. 2010. Conformity and the demand for environmental goods, Environmental and Resource Economics 47, 407-421
- eeu sweden | Climate change Policy design The Progress of GHG Markets: Opportunities and Risks The purpose of this report is to build knowledge about the effects of the development of regional and international carbon markets and the auxiliary technology agreements that might be needed. Among the topics we address are: the evolution and integration of carbon markets, the impacts of policy and technology cost uncertainty on the cost of meeting targets through a carbon market mechanism, the effect of banking, price floors and ceilings, institutional constraints and technological change in the further development of carbon markets and their links to other environmental policy instruments, and the potential of REDD-plus to encourage sustainable forest development and climate mitigation. Coria, J., Hennlock, M., Löfgren Å., Persson, M., Söderholm, P., Sterner, T., Wråke, M. (2010) “The Progress of GHG Markets: Opportunities and Risks”, Gothenburg Environmental Economics Report, September 2010.
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