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This study investigates the impact of climate policy uncertainty on environmental degradation and examines the moderating role of democracy in this relationship. Utilizing annual data from 126 economies spanning the years 1996–2021, and employing dynamic least squares and fully modified ordinary least squares models, the analysis reveals a significant negative relationship between climate policy uncertainty and environmental degradation. The findings indicate that higher uncertainty in climate policies is associated with reduced environmental degradation, suggesting that uncertainty in climate policies can drive cautious and ecologically conscious behaviors. Additionally, the study finds that democracy amplifies this negative relationship, implying that democratic environments enhance the effectiveness of climate policies in reducing environmental degradation which is attributed to greater transparency, accountability, public participation, and policy stability inherent in democratic systems. The study offers valuable practical implications for policymakers by highlighting how political and economic systems can influence environmental outcomes amid climate change.

This study investigates how transportation costs and environmental damage affect social welfare and the optimal degree of nationalization by assuming asymmetric mixed oligopoly markets. It assumes that both transportation costs and environmental damage are incurred when products are transported regionally. We find that even if transportation costs or environmental damage decrease, social welfare does not always improve under full nationalization. Next, this study examines how transportation costs and environmental damage affect the optimal degree of nationalization. We find that the optimal degree of nationalization does not always increase with transportation costs and environmental damage. Explaining how transportation costs and environmental damage affect socially preferable privatization policy is important because previous studies on partial privatization have not discussed their influence.

Drawing on a rational choice framework, this study investigates fans' stated preferences for (more) environmentally-friendly stadium travel (bicycles/e-scooters) on game days. Data from fans of a German Football Bundesliga club were collected using an online survey in 2021 (n = 1,652). Travel preferences were assessed using the contingent behavior method. The results of regression analyses indicate that the likelihood of using environmentally-friendly transportation means increases with perceived benefits, while perceived costs decrease this likelihood. Specifically, perceived environmental benefits and being an environmental role model had a positive effect, while monetary, convenience, and time-related costs had a negative effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate real estate’s exposure in Chile to five weather risks, including labor productivity loss due to heat, fires, floods, drought coastal deterioration as measured by the Chilean Climatic Risk Atlas (ARCLIM) and Climate Impact Explorer (CIE) sources. According to our joint ARCLIM-CIE indicator, we measure risk exposure for the appraisal value of all properties of 39% for Chile and 51%, 36%, 36% and 27% for the Central, North, Metropolitan and South macrozones, respectively. Flooding is the greatest risk for Chile, followed by drought. We find that the CIE source underestimates the climate exposures in Chile relative to the ARCLIM measures, particularly for the flooding and drought risks.

I review several studies for the future impact of climate change during the twenty-first century, making a comprehensive summary of the effects estimated for Chile. Several studies suggest that Chile is likely to suffer mild effects in terms of GDP growth, labor productivity, and mortality costs from climate change in the twenty-first century. However, there is substantial uncertainty around these estimates, with at least one study predicting significant GDP losses due to adaptation difficulties. I compute a principal component factor that summarizes the information from six different measures of GDP loss as a single variable, showing a low principal component value for Chile. Furthermore, several studies find that Chile may face non-GDP-related problems from climate change, such as air pollution, fire hazards, drought, water stress, biodiversity loss, ecosystem damages, and human migration. Finally, according to several indexes, Chile is still only in the middle of the table in terms of policy, infrastructure, and climate readiness. Chile is also below several developed countries in terms of government expenditure on environmental protection and environmental taxes, while at the same time presenting a high value of fossil fuel subsidies. Therefore, there is substantial room to improve economic and environmental policies to fight climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Search frictions, defined as the costs of finding trading partners, are a common feature of most permit markets. In these markets prices are not publicly available, buyers and sellers need to find their trading partners, trades often take place bilaterally, and there is often no central market-clearing mechanism. In this paper, we study the search and trading decisions of participants in a permit market with search frictions. We build an analytical model of the trading decision in a market with search frictions and show that individuals set a reservation price and an optimal search effort. The model shows that in the presence of search frictions, those who intend to trade (buy or sell) greater quantities search more. This trading behavior is not expected in a market without search frictions. Furthermore, we show that trading ratios affect the probability of trades taking place. We test the predictions of the model using a unique dataset of trades from a groundwater market with trading ratios that was designed to reduce a spatially explicit externality. We find that search frictions are significant so that buyers or sellers who trade greater quantities search more. Furthermore, we show that while the trading ratio system provides incentives to participants to reduce the spatial externality, search frictions reduces the effectiveness of the market by affecting the pool of potential trading partners for participants in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the present time, a great attention is paid to the ecological innovation, which represents innovation characterization to any ecological change with a positive impact on consumers. Such innovations increase the comfort for consumers and concurrently they represent more effective, more economic, ecological, healthier and safer solutions. Ecological innovation represents any innovation aimed at significant and visible progress towards the goal of sustainable development. This is done by reducing the impact on the environment or achieving a more efficient and responsible use of natural resources, including energy and Zero waste. The aim this paper is evaluation to the perception of Zero waste in the context of ecological innovations in Slovakia. The research is carried out using the Kano model. The results point to the importance of addressing the issue of ZeroWaste, encouraging friends to buy in non-packaging stores and creating a stimulation of advertising to buy products in a non-packaging store. Other attributes of the given issue are perceived by Slovak respondents in the opposite way or have no influence on them. Therefore, it is important to provide sufficient information on this issue and to educate the population in order to increase their interest in this issue and to start behaving responsibly towards waste management.

Research background: Insufficient global cooperation in carbon pricing against global warming has the risk of global carbon emissions rise because of carbon leakage. The effect of a carbon tax on the present supply of fossil fuels is also valuable in regard to global carbon emissions.

Feral hogs destroy crops, encroach upon green spaces, destroy habitat of endangered species, and can be aggressive towards humans. Despite individuals suffering losses from feral hogs, affected individuals often take little action despite control and eradication technologies existing. This study describes what is known about the economic problem associated with feral hogs and the institutional structure surrounding eradication efforts. We argue that institutions at both a national and local level are necessary to control feral hogs. The Problem of Feral Hogs and the Challenges of Providing a Weak‐Link Public Good [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to provide a detailed overview of environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis using bibliometric analysis for the Web of Science (WOS) database. Our analysis provides an overview of research trends, journals and most influential authors. China has contributed the most scientific publications; followed by the USA, Turkey, and Pakistan. Muhammad Shahbaz, Beijing Institute of Technology, and Environmental Science and Pollution Research are the most productive author, research institute, and research journal in EKC publications. Trend analysis of researchers, academic and country-level, reveal that publications in the environmental Kuznets curve have upward trend; also, cocitation analysis indicates that EKC publications are closely related. "Economic growth and income inequality" (1955) by Simon Kuznets is considered to be the basic literature, and "environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis: A Survey" by Dinda (2004) is the most cited research article in the literature. Keywords and abstracts analysis further reveals that carbon emissions, renewable energy, energy consumption, economic growth, and sustainable development are the hot topics in current literature. We propose that joint research projects between industrial and emerging economies will promote research activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For political and economic theory in general, libertarianism in particular, property rights are a pillar of central importance. One might describe the schools of political and economic thought solely by their approach to property rights, for example libertarianism as expansive and communism as constrained, with a fair degree of accuracy on the system as a whole. Despite centuries of property rights philosophy, a fundamental weakness persists that can be most easily seen from a natural science perspective. Property classifications, such as between one's physical body, personal property, and other types of so-called private property, underlie much of the property rights theory, yet these classes are more of a result of technological limitations than philosophical or real economic distinctions. We demonstrate through a lens of molecular and developmental biology how distinctions between types of property are misguided or illusory. Using the developing human embryo as the most basic example of property acquisition, we show that all subsequent examples of greater property acquisition and its use are fundamentally the same. The point is further developed with other biological examples. Foundational concepts are of primary importance as their mistake persists through even the most elegant deductions. In order to defend itself from the political and economic attacks, the property rights ethic must be consistent and logical. For this, any artificial or contradictory concepts must be shed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms' environmental approaches frequently encompass strategies for pollution prevention and product stewardship. We apply resource-based theorizing to determine how these two strategies affect the likelihood that a firm will adopt firm-internal environmental-management standards and how such standards relate to organizational performance. We find that pollution prevention improves firms' competitiveness by enabling the implementation of firm-internal standards that subsequently have positive effects on profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the heterogeneity of pro-environmental behaviors embedded in social contexts from the perspectives of both social relationships and public media. Using new data from a Chinese nationally representative sample, we employ latent cluster models to identify patterns in social relationships and public media. Then we examine how differences across patterns of social relationships and public media correlate with differences in the likelihood that people take pro-environmental actions. Our results show that individuals with more exposure to green social contexts are more likely to take pro-environmental actions and, in particular, that public media plays a more important role than social relationships. The finding implies that developing countries can use public media to promote public participation in environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document that seasonal temperatures have significant and systematic effects on the U.S. economy, both at the aggregate level and across a wide cross section of economic sectors. This effect is particularly strong for the summer: a 1oF increase in the average summer temperature is associated with a reduction in the annual growth rate of state‐level output of 0.15 to 0.25 percentage points. We combine our estimates with projected increases in seasonal temperatures and find that rising temperatures could reduce U.S. economic growth by up to one‐third over the next century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using household survey data and historical daily climate data for 29 communities across Upper East Ghana and Southwest Burkina Faso, we document climatic conditions deemed major threat to farming in the West African Sudan Savanna and assess risks posed by such conditions over the period 1997-2014. Based on farmers' perception, it is found that drought, low rainfall, intense precipitation, flooding, erratic rainfall pattern, extremely high temperatures, delayed rains, and early cessation of rains are the major threats farmers face. Using first-order Markov chain model and relevant indices for monitoring weather extremes, it is discovered that climatic risk is a general inherent attribute of the rainy season in the study area. Due to recent changes in onset of rains and length of the rainy season, some farmers have either resorted to early planting of drought-hardy crops, late planting of drought-sensitive crops, or spreading of planting across the first 3 months of the season to moderate harm. Each of these planting decisions however has some risk implications. The months of May, June, and October are found to be more susceptible to relatively longer duration of dry and hot spells, while July, August, and September are found to be more susceptible to intense precipitation and flooding. To moderate harm from anticipated weather extremes, farmers need to adjust their cropping calendar, adopt appropriate crop varieties, and implement soil and water management practices. For policy makers and other stakeholders, we recommend the supply of timely and accurate weather forecasts to guide farmers in their seasonal cropping decisions and investment in/installation of low cost irrigation facilities to enhance the practice of supplemental irrigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elicitation format is a crucial aspect of Contingent Valuation (CV) surveys and can impact their reliability. This paper contributes to the extensive debate on WTP (Willingness To Pay) elicitation formats by assessing whether the Circular Payment Card (CPC) can reduce anchoring on respondents' previous answers under multiple elicitation questions. This new format uses a visual pie-chart representation without start or end points: respondents spin the circular card in any direction until they find the section that best matches their WTP. We used a CV survey based on two ways of reducing risks associated with flooding, each randomly presented first to half of the respondents, to test the absolute performance of CPC. We presented a second survey on two social insurance schemes for subjects currently uninsured to respondents randomly split into three subgroups. Each group's WTP was elicited using one of three formats: Open-Ended (OE), standard Payment Card (PC) and the new CPC. The two insurance schemes were always proposed in the same order, and we assessed the relative performance of CPC by comparing anchoring across respondents. Our results provide evidence that CPC is likely to reduce anchoring in multiple elicitation questions and that respondents may rely on different heuristic decisions when giving WTP in the OE and in the two PC formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and industrial emissions in member countries of the Central American Free Trade Agreement–Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) between 1979 and 2010. Our model is based on extant literature about the Environmental Kuznets' Curve framework. In this study, we consider sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2) as our dependent variables. Our key independent variables are FDI and trade. Our study finds evidence that foreign investment and trade have had a negative impact on our selected emissions. However, our models also estimate turning points which are below the current GDP per capita values for all CAFTA-DR member countries. This is an encouraging trend in terms of the potential reduction in emissions in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of internal validity in discrete choice experiments. Prior studies have analysed the importance of the order of attributes within a multiple choice context, but few have specifically analysed the importance of the location of the price attribute. The internal validity was analysed while considering variations in the position of the price attribute in the choice cards. Results show differences in the estimates of willingness to pay according to the price-location version used: at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the choice card. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) with a sample of 58 MEA (Middle East & African) and 41 EU (European Union) countries for the period 1990 to 2011. The empirical analysis is carried out using the GMM-system method to solve the problem of endogenous variables. We focused on direct and indirect effects of institutional quality (through the efficiency of public expenditure, financial development, trade openness and foreign direct investment) and the income-emission relationship. We found a monotonically increasing relationship between CO 2 emissions and GDP in both MEA and EU regions. The policy implication is clear: in order to have sustainable positive economic performance and to reduce carbon dioxide emission in the country at the same time, policy makers should regulate and enhance the role and efficiency of domestic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a somewhat novel approach to explore the economic contribution of ecosystems. It develops linked models to capture connections between resource stocks and flows and the resulting microeconomic and macroeconomic impacts. A bioeconomic model is developed that is imbedded into a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. Incorporating imperfect regulation, the bioeconomic model characterizes optimal policies, while the CGE model explores the economy-wide consequences of possible changes to the ecosystem. The model is parameterized and calibrated to the case of the Serengeti ecosystem which is perhaps the most intensively researched biome with a relative abundance of data. This ecosystem is also undergoing rapid change from a host of factors related to developments within and around the protected area system. The analysis identifies the contribution of the ecosystem to the economy and finds that changes in tourism and bushmeat hunting have surprisingly diffuse economy-wide impacts, that are especially large in the rural sector. To guard against overstatement, ecosystem impacts are under-stated relative to other effects. The results suggest that linkages to the natural resource sector (backward and forward multipliers) are important and neglecting these may lead to biased estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green goods such as recycled paper stationary or carbon-neutral flights provide increasingly popular examples of impure public goods. Motivated by theoretical treatments of green goods as a bundle of private and public characteristics in proportions fixed by the provider, we design an experiment with two linked treatments to test how the presence of impure public goods affects behaviour towards public good causes. We set parameters, such that from a standard economic perspective the presence of the impure public good is behaviourally irrelevant. In a treatment where the impure public good provides only small contributions to the public good, we observe that on aggregate pro-social behaviour is lower in the presence of the impure public good. On the contrary, in the treatment where the impure public good is more generous towards the public good component at the expense of private earnings, individuals are unaffected in their behaviour. We observe that impure public goods, that are theoretically irrelevant and are mostly self-interested, may hinder pro-social behaviour and look for explanations in social psychology, such as the phenomenon of thoughtful anchoring, motivated reasoning and reluctant altruism. The results from this experiment question the role of green goods in enhancing environmentally friendly behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the acceleration of economic changes in Sub-Saharan Africa economies (SSA), a better understanding of the relationship between economic growth and pollution is essential for policy makers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of economic, financial and institutional developments on CO 2 emissions for 25 SSA countries over the period 1996–2010. We use the reduced form modeling to control unobserved heterogeneity specific to countries and the GMM dynamic panel method to control endogeneity. We found no -evidence in our investigation for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Indeed, a monotonically increasing relationship with GDP is found more appropriate for CO 2 emissions. The results confirm that political stability, government effectiveness, democracy, and control of corruption influence negatively CO 2 emissions. On the contrary, regulatory quality and rule of law have a positive effect on CO 2 emissions. The results confirm the importance of institutional frameworks in reducing carbon dioxide emissions since institutional quality not only affects carbon dioxide emissions directly, but also indirectly via economic growth and trade openness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]