The analysis finds that in addition to U-shaped paths of environmental quality arising for growth in income per capita, growth in population can also produce socially efficient patterns that are U-shaped. Sufficient conditions for both types of paths are identified for a range of models and...

The simple fact that environmental resources are endowments is found to have profound effects on their patterns of allocation with changes in income, population, and income inequality. For broad classes of theoretical models, and in Pareto efficient as well as decentralized economies,...

Recent literature has investigated whether the welfare gains from environmental taxation are larger or smaller in a second-best setting than in a first-best setting. This question has mainly been addressed indirectly, by asking whether the second-best optimal environmental tax is higher or lower...

The last two decades have witnessed a decline in Africa's agricultural exports and a sharp rise in the region's food imports. With over 70 percent of Africa's people dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, getting agriculture moving in Africa is one of the most important formidable...

Land-use regulations are contentious everywhere because of their potential negative effects on private property values. In recent years, so-called pay or waive compensation legislation was passed in a number of US states, requiring governments to compensate property owners for losses due to...

This paper examines biofuels from an economic perspective and evaluates the merits of promoting biofuel production in the context of the policies’ multiple objectives, life-cycle implications, pecuniary externalities, and other unintended consequences. The policy goals most often cited are to...

Based on a model where climate change affects productivity, the second-best optimal carbon tax is found to exceed marginal social damage by 53% and ‘‘marginal private damage’’ (aggregate households’ willingness to pay) by 73%. Annual welfare gains are estimated at $3.58 billion when...

According to biologists, increasing streamflows is among the measures necessary to protect salmon and other native fish in the Pacific Northwest. Yet our understanding of the costs and most cost-effective approaches is hampered by lack of comparative experience. This article attempts to address...