"This briefing paper provides a concise summary of some of the key issues surrounding the biodegradability of plastics in the oceans. It explores whether the adoption of biodegradable plastics will reduce the impact of marine plastics overall. The paper also addresses the lack of public...

Oates and Schwab (1988) consider an economy with mobil capital and jurisdictions that suffer from local pollution. They show that welfare-maximizing jurisdictions implement the first-best, if they take prices as given and have at their disposal a capital tax and an environmental standard....

Output-based allocations (OBAs) are typically used in emission trading schemes to mitigate leakage in sectors at risk. Recent work has shown they may also help to stabilize prices in markets subject to supply and demand shocks. We extend previous work to simultaneously include both leakage and...

In this paper we study the impact of environmental pollution in an endogenous growth model that allows for structural change. The model is based on doubly-differentiated R&D where newer, less polluting technologies gradually replace older ones. The analysis shows that the presence of...

Urban road infrastructure is crucial in determining air pollution. Yet, little is known about the roles played by road width vs. road length. This paper attempts to fill this gap by estimating the effects of road infrastructure on 10-micron particulate matter (PM10) using city-level data from...

This paper aims to investigate the effects of urbanization, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, trade liberalization, and economic growth on pollutant emissions and energy intensity in selected Asian developing countries from 1980 to 2010. We use both linear and nonlinear panel data...

With global specialization and trade, countries make directly but also indirectly use of the environment via traded goods. Based on the theory of comparative advantages, the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek approach, we are using the Ecological Footprint as a broad measure of environmental use because its...

This paper assesses the low-carbon economy in Asia: how large it is today and how well it will fare in the future. Using patent and trade data, it analyzes the potential of Asian economies to capture value from the design and export of low-carbon technologies, acknowledging that these are only...