In the early 1990s, hoping to reduce chronic electricity shortages and enhance the efficiency of Chinese power plants, China opened its doors to foreign direct investment (FDI) in electricity generation. Using data from an original survey of US private investors, official Chinese statistics, and...

Managed forest ecosystems—agroforestry systems in which crops such as coffee and bananas are planted side-by-side with woody perennials—are being touted as a means of safeguarding forests along with the ecological services they provide. Yet we know little about the determinants of land cover...

Colombia’s discharge fee system for water effluents is often held up as a model of a well-functioning, economic-incentive pollution control program in a developing country. Yet few objective, up-to-date evaluations of the program have appeared. Based on a variety of primary and secondary...

Location efficient mortgages (LEM) programs are an increasingly popular approach to combating urban sprawl. LEMs allow families who want to live in densely-populated, transit-rich communities to obtain larger mortgages with smaller downpayments than traditional underwriting guidelines allow....

According to conventional wisdom, rapidly growing stocks of scrap tires on the U.S.–Mexico border pose a variety of health and environmental risks. This article assesses these risks in Paso del Norte, the border’s second-largest metropolis comprised principally of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua,...

Although a growing body of evidence suggests that publicly disclosing information about plants’ environmental performance can motivate emissions reductions, this phenomenon remains poorly understood. To help fill this gap, this paper presents original data from a survey of plants participating...

More than three-quarters of Mexico’s coffee is grown on small plots shaded by the existing forest. Because they preserve forest cover, shade coffee farms provide vital ecological services including harboring biodiversity and preventing soil erosion. Unfortunately, tree cover in Mexico’s...

Increasingly, conventional wisdom dictates that agrarian policy in developing countries should foster a "doubly green revolution" that both protects the environment and boosts output. Like the first green revolution, such a transformation will entail convincing millions of farmers to adopt new...

In many developing countries the informal sector, comprised of low-technology unlicensed micro-enterprises, is a major source of pollution. Environmental management in this sector is exceptionally challenging, even by developing country standards. Though clean technologies offer a means of...