Methods and tools for integrated assessment of land use policies on sustainable development in developing countries

For stimulating sustainable development in developing countries, land use patterns and land use changes are considered critical, and therefore effective and efficient land use policies are needed. In this paper we present a methodological framework that has been developed in a joint European and developing countries project (LUPIS – Land Use Policies and Sustainable Development in Developing Countries), to assess the impact of land use policies on sustainable development in developing countries. An illustrative application is presented for a case study in China, where water pollution due to agriculture in Taihu Basin is a major problem.     

The visible hands,quantity targets as coaxing tools

Planning is studied in a two-tier environment motivated by Soviet economic reforms. The center's goal is ex post balancing of demand and supply of funded commodities after one informational exchange period. Firm managers make production decisions to maximize a combination of current profit and output adjusted for penalties when quantity directives are not fulfilled. After judiciously differentiating incentive structures, the center manipulates quantity targets to coax production decisions satisfying its balancing objective. A taxonomy of target misspecifications is developed. Traditional concerns of ex ante consistency and feasibility of production plans are shown to be less important in the new environment.