Environmental Regulation And Economic Efficiency

øThe authors present an extensive survey of the empirical evidence on the determinants of environmental performance as well as the effects of environmental regulation on the costs of production, plant location, firm-level productivity, stock prices and

Environmental economists have in general paid little or no attention to the political context within which green taxation would be introduced. In order to understand the real-life politics of green taxation, it is necessary to establish which political constraints determine the actual design of green taxes. Daugbjerg and Svendsen identify rent-seeking, party politics, and policy networks as the three main constraints in environmental regulation. This analysis forms the basis of policy recommendations on the future design of green taxation and international permit trading. Even though these policy recommendations are second best in strict economic terms, they are the best economic designs given that they must be politically feasible.

Drawing together the fields of environmental economics, environmental regulation and strategic management, this study discusses the question of environmental performance versus corporate practices and finds that environmental considerations can have a positive effect on business.

A management agency --such as a publicly or privately owned electric utility -- must, if it is to be efficient in carrying out its day-to-day tasks, have a means of monitoring its performance to assess the efficiency of its operations and the effectiveness of its planning. For example, how did the demand for electricity compare with that assumed in planning? How effective were the incentives applied to induce energy conservation by users? Such ex post analyses are essential for improving the planning process and hence for improving decisions with respect to efficiency and resource allocation. Unfortunately, it seems to be very difficult for public agencies to make such ex post evaluations an integral part of agency activities, whether the agencies are "producers," e. g. , the Corps of Engineers or the Bureau of Reclamation with respect to water resources management, or are regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency or the Food and Drug Administration. Here and there a few ex post analyses of agency programs have been done, but rarely by the responsible agency itself. These analyses have attempted to compare the results actually achieved with the results estimated in planning, either in terms of project outputs or in terms of effectiveness of regulatory and/or economic incentives in inducing desired changes in behavior.

A study showing that environmentally beneficial technical innovation would be more effective than economic efficiency as the organizing principle of environmental public policy.

This book deals with the increasingly complex issues of eco-innovation. Eco-innovation is becoming a conceptual reference point for many regional and international public policies and management strategies. Since 2000, this field of research has been focusing on environmental innovation, particularly related to the intensity of emissions, and economic performance and efficiency. There are two reasons for this growing interest. The first is that environmental performance is one of the main economic policy goals of European countries thanks to its relevance to the Lisbon Strategy and the Göteborg priorities for sustainable development. The second, which is partly linked to the first, is related to the growing impact of environmental regulation on private sector activity in many European countries. This volume brings together microeconomics studies on firms’ eco and economic performance both in the industrial and service sector; by considering a sector based perspective rooted mainly in the exploitation of NAMEA data; at regional level, and a macroeconomic analysis of the environment, income and welfare. This collection brings together the best of recent research in the area of eco-innovation and in its entirety is an excellent source of knowledge for postgraduates and researchers students of Environmental and Ecological Economics alike. As well as fully developing the theoretical aspects of its topics, these essays are also strongly policy-oriented and will be of interest to anyone seeking information an applied perspective.