Incomplete Enforcement of Pollution Regulation: Bargaining Power of Chinese Factories

Only a limited number of papers haveempirically examined the determinants of themonitoring and enforcement activities performedby the environmental regulator. Moreover, mostof these studies have taken place in thecontext of developed countries. In this paper,we empirically examine the determinants of theenforcement of pollution charges in China.More precisely, we seek to identify thecharacteristics which may give firms more orless bargaining power with local environmentalauthorities pertaining to the enforcement(collection) of pollution charges. Firms fromthe private sector appear to have lessbargaining power than state-owned enterprises.Firms facing an adverse financial situationalso appear to have more bargaining power.Finally, we also show that the higher thesocial impact of a firm's emissions (asmeasured by the presence of complaints), thesmaller the bargaining power of the firms withlocal environmental authorities.     

The impact of prices and macroeconomic policies on agricultural supply: a synthesis of available results

This paper reviews the literature dealing with the link of agricultural prices and macroeconomic policies to agricultural supply with particular emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa. Although the study echoes the stylized facts on price elasticities underlined in previous literature reviews, the paper points out that our understanding of the quantitative dimensions of agricultural supply response is weak given the importance of this assumed response for growth, poverty alleviation, and the environment. Indeed, issues such as simultaneity of variables, data pooling, omission of variables, and asymmetry in supply responses to price changes have not been adequately addressed in many instances.