Policy Instruments for Environmental and Natural Resource Management

by Sterner, Thomas; Coria, Jessica

• ISBN13: 9781617260988
• ISBN10: 1617260983
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-13
• Publisher: Resources for the Future

Summary

Sterner's book is an attempt to encourage more widespread and careful use of economic policy instruments. The book compares the accumulated experiences of the use of economic policy instruments in the U.S. and Europe, as well as in rich and poor countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Ambitious in scope, it discusses the design of instruments that can be employed in any country in a wide range of contexts, including transportation, industrial pollution, water pricing, waste, fisheries, forests, and agriculture. While deeply rooted in economics, Policy Instrumentsis informed by political, legal, ecological, and psychological research. The new edition enhances what has already been widely hailed as a highly innovative work. The book includes greatly expanded coverage of climate change, covering aspects related to policy design, international equity and discounting, voluntary carbon markets, permit trading in United States, and the Clean Development Mechanism. Focusing ever more on leading ideas in both theory and policy, the new edition brings experimental economics into the main of its discussions. It features expanded coverage of the monitoring and enforcement of environmental policy, technological change, the choice of policy instruments under imperfect competition, and subjects such as corporate social responsibility, bio-fuels, payments for ecosystem services, and REDD.

Author Biography

Thomas Sterner is a Professor of Environmental Economics at the University of Gothenburg. He is a former president of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He is also a University Fellow at RFF and he has published widely, on the theory and practice of environmental policy making. Jessica Coria is a Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Gothenburg and Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile. Her work lies on the effects of the choice of different environmental policy instruments and modelling of environmental regulations.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xvi
Background and Overview	p. 1
The Need for Environmental and Natural Resource Policy	p. 11
Causes of Environmental Degradation	p. 15
The Evolution of Rights	p. 42
Review of Policy Instruments	p. 57
Direct Regulation of the Environment	p. 61
Taxes	p. 73
Tradable Permits	p. 82
Subsidies, Deposit-Refund Schemes, and Refunded Emissions Payments	p. 108
Property Rights, Legal Instruments, and Informational Policies	p. 116
Selection of Policy Instruments	p. 139
Efficiency of Policy Instruments	p. 143
Role of Uncertainty and Information Asymmetry	p. 163
Equilibrium Effects and Market Conditions	p. 181
Distribution of Costs	p. 198
Politics and Enforcement of Policy Instruments	p. 214
International Aspects and Climate Change	p. 231
Design of Policy Instruments	p. 254
Policy Instruments for Road Transportation	p. 263
Environmental Damage Caused by Transportation and Road Pricing	p. 267
Taxation or Regulation for Fuel Efficiency	p. 285
Fuel Quality Policies	p. 298
Vehicle Standards, Urban Planning, and Lessons Learned	p. 311
Policy Instruments for Industrial Pollution	p. 333
Experience in Developed Countries	p. 335
Experience in Developing Countries	p. 369
Policy Instruments for the Management of Natural Resources and Ecosystems	p. 399
Adapting Models to Ecosystems: Ecology, Time, and Space	p. 401
Water	p. 425
Waste	p. 445
Fisheries	p. 460
Agriculture	p. 477
Forestry	p. 498
Ecosystems	p. 512
Conclusion	p. 531
Policy Issues and Potential Solutions	p. 533
References	p. 551
Index	p. 613
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