In the past there was hardly any use of economic instruments in environmental policy, mainly command and control measures were used. More recently, ecological taxes as well as tradable permits became more popular and voluntary agreements have been implemented. Using the Public Choice approach we...

The absence of costs of externalities generated in the environment by business operations results in suboptimal resource allocation in Pareto terms as well as in Kaldor-Hicks terms, the destruction of valuable natural areas and the reduction in biodiversity. The article examines the existing...

In this essay, three separate yet interconnected components of pro-environmental decision making are considered: knowledge, in the form of basic scientific understanding and procedural knowledge, risk perception, as it relates to an individual’s direct experience of climate change and...

This paper attempts to empirically identify the key factors involved in the decision to scrap a wind turbine using data from Denmark. The importance of the opportunity cost of operating an older wind turbine is shown to be a prominent factor in the decision to scrap. I show the strong effect...

It is well established within both the economics and power system engineering literature that hydro power can act as a complement to large amounts of intermittent energy. In particular, hydro power can act as a "battery" where large amounts of wind power are installed. This paper attempts to...

Research on land tenure and use control and the socioeconomic sets of regulations in the agricultural rainfed sub sector of Sudan, come to focus for many reasons. Anthropogenic pressure, expanding animal population and migration led to accelerated impacts on both the ecological systems and land...

For some years now, the Happy Planet Organization presents the so-called ‘Happy Planet Index’ (HPI), which is an index of measuring the trade-off between ecological footprint data and life quality (Happy Life Years, HLYE). Costa Rica emerges from these comparisons as the world’s ‘best...

The Mississippi Gulf Coast is famous for its shrimp, oysters, and crabs. Seafood is an essential part of both the culture and the diet of coastal residents. The last five years have been hard on the seafood industry, first with Hurricane Katrina, then the national recession, and then the Deep...