Export subsidies and trade policy: The experience of Kenya

This paper finds that manufacturing firms in Kenya have responded poorly to the availability of export subsidies. It is argued that this has resulted from the delays and uncertainty surrounding disbursement procedures, and from the limited extent to which the subsidy lessened the anti-export bias of a policy structure which has emphasized import substitution. It is further argued that a budgetary constraint makes it impossible to offset the anti-export bias with export subsidies at existing levels of domestic market protection, and that what is required is the lowering and standardization of domestic market protection levels, which can be most appropriately achieved through a combination of devaluation and trade tax/subsidy changes.     

Cost benefit analysis and environmental policy

The use of cost benefit analysis (CBA) in British environmentalpolicy has gone through several stages. Early applications ofCBA tended to ignore environmental impacts altogether, leavethem for a subsidiary 'impact analysis', or provide only a partialmonetization of impacts. Currently, CBA is the subject of renewedinterest in government departments, in the Environment Agency,and among other agencies providing guidance and advice to government.While the amount of CBA being undertaken has increased, itsinfluence on policy making is open to question. Obstacles remain.Much CBA is expensive and this means that 'benefits transfer'is widely regarded as essential. Currently, however, the validityof much benefits transfer is questionable. Other problems arisefrom misunderstandings about the nature of economic values andthe links to individuals' self interest, and from concerns thatCBA results will 'crowd out' flexibility in decision-making,especially the likely context of multiple political objectivesover and above economic efficiency. None the less, CBA has begunto have influence in the setting of environmental taxes andalternative decision rules appear to suffer as many, if notmore, shortcomings as those faced by CBA.     

International environmental policy and poverty alleviation

We investigate how alternative national and international policies and circumstances impact the Clean Development Mechanism’s (CDM) contribution to sustainable development and the pursuit of poverty eradication goals in developing countries. In particular, we focus on the importance of technology-specific versus technology-neutral environmental regulations in the project host regions. We also consider alternative CDM benefit-sharing arrangements between the host and client regions. An analytical impure-public-good model is developed which considers CDM projects as a conditional transfer exerting price and income effects. These, in turn, induce changes in the use of environmental technologies, and with it global and local environmental protection levels. Aided by model simulations using empirical data for China and the European Union, we seek to assess conditions in which CDM transfers are more favourable towards improved environmental protection and welfare in developing regions.     

Investment policy under an open economy

The paper looks at the present state and trends of investment in Russia and the issue of investment attraction to the Russian economy. The tasks of investment policy under an open economy and possible approaches to its perfection are discussed.     

Fiscal and environmental policy under monopolistic competition

Summary Keynesian demand management offsets some of the distortions caused by monopolistic competition and thus induces multiplier effects on national income and environmental damages. The cost of public funds rises with the virtual environmental tax and the degree of competition in the product market. The virtual environmental tax rises with abatement and falls with the cost of public funds. Consequently, greener preferences induce a rise in the virtual environmental tax, the cost of public funds and public abatement, and a fall in the provision of traditional public goods. A greater preference for traditional public goods harms environmental quality, since both abatement and output fall. Protecting cartels lowers the cost of public funds and may raise the provision of both traditional public goods and abatement. Environmental quality may thus rise, but other components of social welfare will fall. The paper also analyses the effects of private abatement, pollution taxes, fiscal consolidation and the progressivity of the tax system on government policy, employment, environmental quality and welfare.This paper was prepared for the OCFEB workshop Quantitative Economics for Environmental Policy held at the Tinbergen Institute Rotterdam, March 22 1994. We thank Casper van Ewijk and Jenny E. Ligthart for useful comments.     

Regional policy in a multiregional setting: when the poorest are hurt by subsidies

Regional policies that seek to reduce economic inequalities between regions are common. These policies normally involve subsidies or transfers to the poorest regions. Over any given short-term horizon such subsidies serve to reduce inter-regional inequalities, but as they also affect migration patterns the long-term effects are less clear. This paper demonstrates using a three-region general equilibrium model that subsidising the poorest region may be to the detriment of the periphery as a whole and even to the very region that receives the subsidy, if the subsidy draws firms away from a nearby region that would function better as a production centre. If the subsidy does not attract a sufficient number of firms to the subsidised region, then the long-term effect on the residents of that region would be negative. Though further research is needed to isolate the conditions under which such an effect would arise, this result has potentially important implications for the design of regional policy.     

我国实施对外投资鼓励政策研究

面对世界经济一体化的不断发展，我国企业应积极实施“走出去”的发展战略，开展跨国经营，为企业发展拓展空间。在这一过程中，政府研究、制定和实施国家鼓励对外投资政策，对海外投资活动进行宏观调控，以及促进我国经济长远发展和国家经济安全等都起到了积极作用。     

论布什政府的环保政策

布什政府时期,美国政府改变了里根政府时期的保守的环保政策,在环境保护政策方面采取了新的环保方法。在空气污染政策方面,布什政府允许污染物的排放权的交易,这是以市场为基础的环保政策的应用。对这一空气污染政策进行深入分析,以揭示布什政府的环保政策的新特点和美国环保政策的发展趋势。     

Dynamic simulation and environmental policy analysis: beyond comparative statics and the environmental Kuznets curve

The paper presents a dynamic simulation model for the quantitativeanalysis of environmental policy, incorporating key featuresof technical progress in abatement and an explicit role forpolicy in determining costs and pollution over time. The modelis used to develop scenarios for PM, SO₂, and CO₂ abatementin developing countries, and the results are compared with thosethat emerge from studies of Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC)of economic growth and pollution. The latter, by neglectingthe roles of policy and technical progress in pollution abatement,underestimate dramatically the possibilities for countries toreduce pollution while raising incomes.     

投资拉动型经济增长模式分析与我国未来政策选择

本文深入分析了投资拉动型经济增长模式的经济后果和可持续性,并比较了一般投资拉动和设备投资拉动型经济增长模式的质量优劣。我们的分析指出,我国低水平投资拉动的增长模式已难以为继,但消费拉动型和出口导向型增长模式也不是当前我国的现实选择,未来应当采取以设备投资拉动为主、兼顾消费的经济增长模式。在此基础上,本文提出了若干实现增长模式转型的政策建议。     

Pollution havens,endogenous environmental policy,and foreign direct investment

In an increasingly integrated world economy, countries may have greater incentives to weaken environmental policy as disguised protection intended to give a competitive edge to local firms. This may generate pollution havens as firms relocate in response to different environmental policies. Foreign direct investment (FDI) weakens profit‐shifting policy considerations while increasing environmental damages but, at the same time, may provide external benefits. We derive conditions under which the FDI‐recipient country has an incentive to manipulate its environmental standard to prevent or attract FDI, potentially eliminating or creating pollution havens, in addition to examining the impact of FDI on the equilibrium state of the environment.     

The assessment: environmental policy objectives, instruments, and institutions

The article provides a critique of British environmental policy,focusing in particular on the role of sustainable developmentas an organizing principle, the use of cost benefit analysis(CBA) and economic instruments, and the design of the institutionsresponsible for implementing policy. It is argued that, whileconsiderable progress has been made in the theoretical literatureto define sustainable development, successive governments inthe UK have widened the definition to the point where it provideslittle guidance for policy. Obstacles to the use of CBA arediscussed, as are the political constraints on implementingeconomic instruments in particular, the income effect. Finally,it is argued that the institutional design of the EnvironmentAgency and the Department of the Environment, Transport andthe Regions partly explains the overwhelming reliance on command-and-controlregulation.     

South Africa's integrated environmental management policy at the crossroads of conservation and development

Sustainable development, as formulated in the 1980 World Conservation Strategy and subsequent elaborations, is being advocated in South Africa by the state through development of an integrated environmental management policy. This policy, however, does not adequately reflect the principles of sustainable development and therefore it cannot provide appropriate guidelines for the practice of integrated environmental management Accordingly, it may be said that South Africa has reached a crossroads in its quest for sustainable development.     

Digital and competing information sources: Impact on environmental concern and prospects for international policy cooperation

The environmental concern of people in industrialized and developing countries is analyzed. Using the 2010–2014 wave of the World Value Survey (WVS), the main purpose of our analysis is to investigate the effect of different information sources on the affective, conative and behavioral components of the environmental concern of people in the developed and developing countries. As independent variables, we use a set of economic data as well as information-related variables, including the internet, mobile phones, TV, radio and newspapers. The digital variables of the internet and mobile phones turn out to have a highly significant impact on environmental concern so that digital modernization of countries should have pro-environmental impacts as a side effect of internet and mobile phone services expansion. With the developing countries catching-up vis-à-vis the OECD countries in the field of mobile phone density and internet density, respectively, one may expect better prospects for cooperation between developed and developing countries since attitudes/the environmental concern of people in developed and developing countries will become more similar. For international green cooperation and climate change policy progress, the new findings presented herein are crucial.

     

Economic policy uncertainty and industrial pollution: The role of environmental supervision by local governments

This paper explores the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on industrial pollution using China's real-time pollution data and a novel news-based EPU index constructed by Davis, Liu, and Sheng (2019). Empirical results suggest that EPU can significantly promote sulfur dioxide (SO₂) readings in cities experiencing higher ex-ante fiscal pressure, and this effect is more profound during the daytime. Given that SO₂ is the main contributor to industrial pollution, and local governments have less incentive to monitor illegal pollutant discharges during the nighttime period, our findings indicate that rising EPU will harm the environment by motivating local authorities to reduce environmental supervision and thus increase industrial pollution. We also find that promoting regional innovation and strengthening external environmental regulations can mitigate the pollution effect of economic policy uncertainty.