Global Climate Change
F. Gerard Adams
Volume 10, Number 3, 2009, pages 193 - 194
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Three Cheers for the 'Progressive State'
Ben Friedman on the moral consequences of economic growth
An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon
Volume 9, Number 1, 2008, pages 97 - 146
Ben Friedman is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading macroeconomists. His research and publications have focused on monetary and fiscal policy, and the key role that financial markets play in influencing how macroeconomic policies impact on aggregate economic activity. Professor Friedman’ ... Read more
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How Many Wildebeest do You Need?
Mike Norton-Griffiths
Volume 8, Number 2, 2007, pages 41 - 64
The catastrophic decline of wildlife in Kenya—some 60% over the last 30 years—finally galvanised the government into a review of wildlife policy. But what should have been a sober discussion of market failures, institutional failures, policy failures and conservation failures was hijacked by the int ... Read more
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Comment
Phillip Crowson on the ‘death of distance’ and natural resource-based economic development in history.
Volume 7, Number 1, 2006, pages 185 - 187
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Natural Resource-Based Economic Development in History
Edward B. Barbier
Volume 6, Number 3, 2005, pages 103 - 152
The role of natural resources in fostering economic development is examined for key historical epochs, from the agricultural revolution in 8,000 BC to the present. Natural resource exploitation has been important to development for most of global history. Depending on which epoch is examined, resour ... Read more
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Should Fuel Taxes Be Scrapped in Favor of Pay-by-the-Mile Charges?
Ian Parry
Volume 6, Number 3, 2005, pages 91 - 102
This paper discusses the appropriate balance between traditional gasoline taxes and charging by the mile, focusing on economic efficiency considerations. It begins with a brief discussion of the five major passenger vehicle issues of concern—local pollution, greenhouse warming, oil dependency, traff ... Read more
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Paradoxes in Biodiversity Conservation
David Pearce
Volume 6, Number 3, 2005, pages 57 - 69
Biodiversity is important for human wellbeing, but it is declining. Measures to
conserve biodiversity are essential but may be a waste of effort if several
paradoxes are not addressed. The highest levels of diversity are in nations least
able to practise effective conservation. The flow of funds ... Read more
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The Nature of Corruption in Forest Management
Charles Palmer
Volume 6, Number 2, 2005, pages 1 - 10
Corruption is a well-documented and common feature of natural resource management in the developing world. This article investigates the nature of corruption and whether or not there is such a thing as a ‘tolerable’ level of corruption, particularly where there is an established culture of patronage ... Read more
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Does European Union Environmental Policy Pass a Cost–Benefit Test?
David Pearce
Volume 5, Number 3, 2004, pages 115 - 137
Most European Union countries are committed to some form of regulatory
impact assessment, and in some cases these assessments involve the formal use
of cost–benefit analysis. The European Treaty of Union also calls for a
comparison of costs and benefits for all European regulations. Despite this, ... Read more
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Pricing Cultural Heritage
A new approach to managing ancient resources
Susana Mourato, Ece Ozdemiroglu, Tannis Hett & Giles Atkinson
Volume 5, Number 3, 2004, pages 95 - 113
A growing determinant of leisure travel decisions has been the demand for
cultural destinations. This has presented complex challenges with regards to the
correct management of major cultural resources. Management options can be
assessed in terms of three criteria of performance: access, financia ... Read more
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The Morality of Market Mechanisms to Control Pollution
Wilfred Beckerman & Joanna Pasek
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 191 - 207
The use of pollution charges or tradeable permits to reduce pollution has been
condemned by many environmentalists and some philosophers on the grounds
that (i) pollution is inherently immoral; (ii) environmental assets are not
appropriately valued in monetary terms; and (iii) the sale of ‘enviro ... Read more
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The Economics of the Kyoto Protocol
Michael Grubb
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 143 - 189
This paper surveys economic aspects of the Kyoto Protocol, the Treaty adopted
to control emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
The first part focuses upon the structural aspects of the agreement, with
particular attention to the long-term conception of the Treaty an ... Read more
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Hydropower in Bhutan and Nepal
Why the difference?
Jeremy Berkoff
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 121 - 142
Bhutan and Nepal have followed differing hydropower development strategies.
Bhutan has co-operated with India and power export earnings have helped fund a
broadly successful economic, environmental and social programme. In contrast,
Nepal turned to the World Bank and other donors to fund its powe ... Read more
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Five Centuries of Energy Prices
Roger Fouquet & Peter Pearson
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 93 - 119
Concerns about rising energy prices tend to occur in times of economic
expansion, to disappear in times of recession. A recurring fear is that, in the long
run, real energy prices will trend upwards. This paper presents evidence from
five hundred years of prices of energy sources for the United K ... Read more
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The Undivided City
James D. Wolfensohn
Volume 4, Number 3, 2003, pages 1 - 13
Two billion people are set to flood into the already crowded cities of the
developing world over the next twenty-five years, mainly to live in the squalid
surroundings of a slum or a shanty town and to endure the consequent effects of
social injustice and division. James Wolfensohn, President of ... Read more
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Valuing the Future
Recent advances in social discounting
David Pearce, Ben Groom, Cameron Hepburn & Phoebe Koundouri
Volume 4, Number 2, 2003, pages 121 - 141
One of the most controversial areas of economics is the practice of discounting:
attaching a lower weight to future costs and benefits than present costs and
benefits. Discounting appears to offend notions of sustainable development and
the interests of future generations. Recent advances in the ... Read more
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Congestion Charging
Utopia vs. Reform
Edward Gottesman
Volume 4, Number 2, 2003, pages 13 - 22
The debate about road use charging continues. No simple and effective proposal
to limit center-city congestion has attracted popular support. The economic case
for reducing vehicle congestion in towns and cities is indisputable, as shown in
the recent article by Begg and Gray, but their solution ... Read more
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Global Challenges of Providing Water and Wastewater Services
Paul Seidenstat
Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, pages 133 - 152
A key problem of water is the provision of a safe water supply for domestic use.
Given the characteristics of water as a commodity, the general misuse of the
pricing mechanism, and the economics of developing and operating water and
wastewater systems, governments are faced with the challenge of ... Read more
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The Case for Congestion Charging
David Begg & David Gray
Volume 3, Number 3, 2002, pages 71 - 84
Car use has grown significantly in the UK in recent years, raising concerns about pollution and congestion. Although existing fiscal measures have been effective in tackling the former, the UK now has the worst traffic congestion in Europe. The economic costs of congestion are considerable, and moto ... Read more
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Mother Earth: Ally or Adversary?
Thorvaldur Gylfason
Volume 3, Number 1, 2002, pages 7 - 24
Economic growth requires capital. This article reviews the relationship between
economic growth around the world and six different kinds of capital: real capital; human capital; financial capital; foreign capital; social capital; and natural capital. Economic theory and empirical evidence suggest t ... Read more
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Economists and Sustainable Development
The OECD Report on Policies for Sustainable Development
Wilfred Beckerman
Volume 2, Number 4, 2001, pages 1 - 17
The OECD report is almost exclusively about environmental policy (on which it
contains a mass of useful data and discussion). There is, commendably, hardly
any discussion of the implications of the usual core condition in consensus
definitions of sustainable development, namely that there should ... Read more
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The Modern Motor Industry
Nowhere for the inefficient to hide
Garel Rhys
Volume 2, Number 1, 2001, pages 9 - 29
The motor industry is experiencing one of its periods of massive change. This
involves considerable micro- and macroeconomic effects, reflecting the structure
and behaviour of the industry and its scale of operations within an economy. The
industry is a highly rivalrous oligopoly, where although ... Read more
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How Much Damage Will Climate Change Do?
Recent estimates
Richard S.J. Tol, Samuel Fankhauser, Richard G. Richels & Joel B. Smith
Volume 1, Number 4, 2000, pages 179 - 206
Two reasons to be concerned about climate change are its unjust distributional impact and its negative aggregate effect on economic growth and welfare. Although our knowledge of the impact of climate change is incomplete and uncertain, economic valuation is difficult and controversial, and the effec ... Read more
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Biodiversity in the Marketplace
Geoffrey Heal
Volume 1, Number 4, 2000, pages 149 - 177
What is the nature of biodiversity as an economic commodity and why does it matter? How would its conservation contribute economically to our well-being? In this article, Geoffrey Heal considers three issues: Why is biodiversity important from an economic perspective? What kind of commodity is it? D ... Read more
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Why Did the Protected Areas Fail the Giant Panda?
The economics of conserving endangered species in developing countries
Timothy M. Swanson & Andreas Kontoleon
Volume 1, Number 4, 2000, pages 135 - 148
Most biodiversity lies within the developing world, and much of it is under threat because of forces for change within these countries. In order to be effective, biodiversity conservation must be viewed as a development opportunity, rather than as a constraint on development. This implies manageme ... Read more
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Reply to Professor Zimmermann
Giles Atkinson
Volume 1, Number 3, 2000, pages 149 - 152
Giles Atkinson replies to Professor Zimmermann’s "A Multi-coloured GDP -or No New GDP at All?"[World Economics, Vol 1 No 3 July-September 2000]
... Read more
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A Multi-coloured GDP -or No New GDP at All?
Horst Zimmermann
Volume 1, Number 3, 2000, pages 141 - 147
This is a reply to Giles Atkinson’s article ‘Re-thinking Economic Progress’ that appeared in the first issue of World Economics (Vol. 1, No. 1, January – March 2000). Atkinson discussed proposals for the construction of ‘green’ alternatives to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the same issue, Amanda ... Read more
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Can Agriculture Become an Environmental Asset?
Daniel W. Bromley
Volume 1, Number 3, 2000, pages 127 - 139
Traditional treatments see agricultural practices as inimical to many environmental attributes in rural areas. In the policy arena, farmers and environmentalists often clash over land-use practices, crop monoculture, animal wastes, and the application of chemicals – the residues of which are said t ... Read more
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Market-based Instruments
If they’re so good, why aren’t they the norm?
Tannis Seccombe-Hett
Volume 1, Number 3, 2000, pages 101 - 126
Economists have long recommended market-based instruments for efficient environmental policy-making – taxes, tradable permits, auctions of property rights, etc. So why is progress on them so slow? The reality is that any environmental policy faces many political, institutional and technical obstacl ... Read more
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Technical Progress and Global Warming
The case for a technology policy
Dennis Anderson
Volume 1, Number 3, 2000, pages 81 - 99
The case is argued for a larger and more explicit role for technology policies in responding to climate change. Policies and institutions set up during the Cold War arms race could be reformed and redirected towards the goal of making renewable energy a viable competitor to carbon-emitting fuels. Pu ... Read more
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Save the Planet: Sell Carbon
David Pearce
Volume 1, Number 3, 2000, pages 61 - 79
This article examines the political economy of agreements on global greenhouse emissions reduction. The author explains the complex emissions trading mechanisms set up under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and considers the likely size and structure of a future market for emissions credits. ... Read more
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Housing in the South East of England
Some issues raised by the Government’s plans
David Miles
Volume 1, Number 2, 2000, pages 1 - 11
Plans recently unveiled by the UK government will, if implemented, generate a
major increase in new housebuilding in one of the most crowded and congested
parts of the UK. The plans fail to take account of the impact on people living in
London and the South East—and in the rest of the ... Read more
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Re-thinking Economic Progress
Giles Atkinson
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 153 - 166
Most national governments have pledged a commitment to sustainable development. The transformation of these pledges into policy is a formidable challenge. Of particular interest are proposals for the construction of green alternatives to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which it is hoped will provide ... Read more
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Extending the UK National Accounts
What can be done?
Amanda Rowlatt
Volume 1, Number 1, 2000, pages 139 - 151
The national accounts measure economic activity. The UK is developing "satellite accounts" which use the framework of the national accounts but aim to quantify other aspects of living standards. This article starts by comparing satellite accounts with the use of indicators to measure the quality o ... Read more
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