This paper examines the impact of electoral cycles and the introduction of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) policy upon the holding of small-scale mining property rights in Guyana. Mining is both the major cause of deforestation and the main economic activity in the...

The invention of a new ICT, the printing press, may have been a fundamental turning point in knowledge transition. But did Gutenberg�s printing press succeed in Europe because of, or despite of, government intervention? To answer the question, this paper endeavours to make a comparative...

Cooperation between countries is required to overcome major societal problems, such as climate change. However, rational logic dictates that individual countries are incentivised not to act, instead preferring to �free ride� on the efforts of others. It is possible to imagine a...

This paper measures the response of bilateral trade flows to differences in industrial energy prices across countries. Using a panel for the period 1996-2011 including 42 countries, 62 sectors and covering 60% of global merchandise trade, we estimate the short-run effects of sector-level energy...

It is commonly believed that large energy efficiency gaps exist in the energy-using durables markets. We develop a broad analytical framework capturing consumer purchase behavior and suppliers� pricing and innovation decisions to estimate the effect of household electricity price variations...

What is the optimal instrument design and choice for a regulator attempting to control emissions by private agents in face of uncertainty arising from business cycles? In applying Weitzman�s result [Prices vs. quantities, Review of Economic Studies, 41 (1974), 477-491] to the problem of...

We show that the level of deforestation in Indonesia is positively correlated with the degree of ethnic fractionalization of the communities. We explore several channels that may link the two variables. They include the negative effect of ethnic fractionalization on the ability to coordinate and...

Modern agriculture relies on a small number of highly productive crops and the continued expansion of agricultural land area has led to a significant loss of biodiversity. In this paper we consider the macroeconomic consequences of a continued expansion of modern agriculture from the perspective...

We study the interactions between global population, technological progress, per capita income, the demand for food, and agricultural land expansion over the period 1960 to 2100. We formulate a two-sector Schumpeterian growth model with a Barro-Becker representation of endogenous fertility. A...

This paper investigates the relationship between investment in new and second-hand capital goods and energy intensity. Using a panel dataset of about 4,500 Chilean firms for the period 2001-2007, we find that both types of investment help reducing energy intensity although second-hand machinery...