This paper explores the empirical effects of decentralization on environmental quality by studying water pollution in rivers around the world. It examines the level of pollution and variation in pollution across jurisdictions within a country, for both a local and a regional pollutant. Federal...

This study uses a structural econometric model to evaluate the impacts of support from a European Union agri-environmental program designed to reduce nutrient pollution from agricultural land. Drawing on a representative sample of individual grain farms, we first quantify the effects of...

We investigate the effectiveness of voluntary pollution prevention activities in reducing toxic releases from facilities that reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory from 1991–2001, using generalized method of moments dynamic panel data models that...

This study examines the effect of waste and recycling policy on scrap prices and the importance of scrap price feedbacks as a determinant of policy costs. Price effects and direct and indirect channels of waste reduction are decomposed for deposit/refund, advance disposal fee, and recycling...

Estimating the economic benefits of reduced health damages due to improvements in environmental quality continues to challenge economists. We review welfare measures associated with reduced wildfire smoke exposure, and a unique dataset from California’s Station Fire of 2009 allows for a...

This paper finds that bottle laws reduce the costs of waste streams by diverting new material into recycling programs, in addition to increasing the income of the working poor. New survey data from California indicate that between 36% and 51% of the material generated by the redemption centers...

This paper examines the links between environmental taxes and distortionary taxation in a dynamic model of climate change and economic growth. Under first-best conditions, labor and capital would remain untaxed, and carbon dioxide emissions would be taxed at a rate equal to the present-value...

Trust and communication barriers have contributed significantly to the lethargic performance of many point-nonpoint source water quality trading programs—farmers are often reluctant to participate despite direct financial incentives— yet the literature lacks a comprehensive investigation of...

This paper proposes a water quality trading design that addresses common implementation problems. Trading ratios, which are calculated from damages integrated over each source’s spatial zone of influence, drive the system to a socially costeffective outcome. The design is applied to combined...

The allocation of tradable emissions permits has important efficiency as well as distributional effects when tax and trade distortions are taken into account. We compare different rules for allocating carbon allowances within sectors (lump-sum grandfathering, output-based allocation (OBA),...