Social discount rates are estimated for six major economies: Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. A common methodology based on social time preference is employed and the information required is taken from the same OECD database. The main policy implications of applying...

Each of the member countries of the European Union should, ideally, employ the same approach to measuring a discount rate for application in the appraisal of social projects. This, however, is far from the case! The German rate is based on financial market data, the British measure reflects...

This paper provides a review of the science pertaining to all aspects of acidification in the Adirondack Park, updating an earlier review of the science (Cook et al. 2002). The review supports an ongoing social science investigation into the willingness to pay for ecological improvements that...

Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, is home to the U.S.–Mexico border’s largest maquiladora labor force, and also its worst air pollution. We marshal two types of evidence to examine the link between maquiladoras and air pollution in Ciudad Juárez, and in its sister city, El Paso, Texas. First, we...

For years economists have urged policymakers to use market-based approaches such as cap-and-trade programs or emission taxes to control pollution. The SO2 allowance market created by Title IV of the 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments represents the first real test of the wisdom of economists’...

Purpose – The British government takes equity issues formally into account in its appraisal of social projects and policies. However, evidence on which the measured distributional welfare weights are based is neither broad enough nor sufficiently reliable. This paper seeks to address these...