When economic agents decide their optimal environmental behavior, they have to take into account non continuos evolutionary trends and irreversible changes characterising environmental phenomena. Given the still non perfect biophysical and economic knowledge, decisions have to be taken in an...

Research on risk communication relates basic risk perception studies to the formulation of policies, the currently evolving legislation dealing with hazards, the key issues of public involvement, the risk and environmental management. Risk communication is a relatively new field based on a...

We present a simple growth model which has two original features: the strategic context considered, which is an evolutionary game, and the growth mechanism described, in which growth is caused by negative externalities. The emphasis in this growth mechanism is evidently different from that...

In this paper we analyse a common agency model in which agents can choose with how many principals they want to work, while principals cannot condition contracts on the agent's decision to accept other contracts. In this case of "non-intrinsic" common agency we characterise the equilibrium....

This paper shows that the introduction of a minimum quality standard can have repercussions on market structure, opening the possibility of predatory behaviour. The predatory equilibrium exists independently of whether or not adjustment costs are present. Moreover, whenever predation is an...

We discuss the selection of the socially efficient discount rate for public investment projects that entail costs and benefits in the far distant future. We show that the discount rate should be a decreasing function of time horizon under some specific restrictions on the distribution of...

The total expected cost of sequestering carbon in agricultural soils is estimated under different government-based and market-based policies. A possible government-based EQIP programme offering a per-acre subsidy to adopt conservation tillage and a market-based carbon credit programme where...

In this paper, the expansion of private production erodes the quality of commonly owned goods, thereby forcing individuals to rely increasingly on private goods to satisfy their needs. In the face of this deterioration, households keep their labour supplies and saving rates relatively high in...

This paper distinguishes relative risk aversion and resistance to intertemporal substitution in climate risk modelling. Stochastic recursive preferences are introduced in a stylised numeric climate-economy model using preliminary IPPC 1998 scenarios. It shows that higher risk aversion increases...

It is typical for economists and policy makers alike to presume that competitive markets allocate input licenses efficiently. This paper demonstrates that competition in the licenses market cannot assure efficiency when the product market is oligopolistic. We develop a model to provide the...