is free trade in the interest of exporting countries when there is ecological dumping abstract given conditions of oligopolistic competition the coordinated ban of direct export promoting policies e g in the eu or by gatt increases the income of exporting countries however in the presence of environmental distortions free trade can lead to ecological dumping in exporting countries the question arises if free trade is still in the interest of exporting countries we show that welfare maximizing governments of exporting countries prefer free trade even if countries subsidize their local industries indirectly via ecological dumping the existence of further national policy instruments does not make free trade agreements obsolete

long run water demand estimation habits adjustment dynamics and structural breaks this article examines a water demand equation for milan for the second half of the 20th century 1950 2001 we focus mainly on the effects of price and habits but also account for other factors in the demand for water such as climate income and productive activity allowing for trend break stationarity or nonlinear trend stationarity we find evidence against the unit root hypothesis for many time series based on this result standard cointegration analysis would not be appropriate therefore we adopt an alternative estimation and testing procedure we focus in particular on the so called bounds testing approach which can be applied irrespective of the level of integration of the variables and which can be a useful modelling strategy given that dynamics are important when estimating a water demand equation the main results are that long run price elasticity is higher than short run elasticity and that consumption habits are relevant we also find that both climate sectoral and technological modif

reforms of environmental policies in the presence of cross border pollution and public private clean up we construct a two country model where pollution from production is transmitted across borders pollution abatement is undertaken by both private producers and the public sector we characterize nash optimal levels of the policy instruments in the two countries emission taxes and funds allocated for public abatement activities we examine the implications of a number of multilateral policy reforms one of our findings is that the magnitude of the beneficial effect of a reform depends on the scope of the reform if it is restricted to a subset of policy instruments then the efficacy of environmental policy reform can be greatly undermined

fixing exchange rates a virtual quest for fundamentals abstract fixed exchange rates are less volatile than floating rates but the volatility of macroeconomic variables such as money and output does not change very much across exchange rate regimes this suggests that exchange rate models based only on macroeconomic fundamentals are unlikely to be very successful it also suggests that there is no clear tradeoff between reduced exchange rate volatility and macroeconomic stability

to float or to fix evidence on the impact of exchange rate regimes on growth we study the relationship between exchange rate regimes and economic growth for a sample of 183 countries over the post bretton woods period using a new de facto classification of regimes based on the actual behavior of the relevant macroeconomic variables in contrast with previous studies we find that for developing countries less flexible exchange rate regimes are associated with slower growth as well as with greater output volatility for industrial countries regimes do not appear to have any significant impact on growth the results are robust to endogeneity corrections and a number of alternative specifications borrowed from the growth literature

estimating residential water demand under multi part tariffs using aggregate data using a new model formulation and data from a sample of colorado utilities we investigated the price specification controversy marginal price versus average revenue when estimating residential water demand the improved statistical fit using average

how much does water consumption drop when each household takes charge of its own consumption the case of the city of seville making individuals take charge of their own domestic water consumption is one of the measures used to reduce the growing demand for this resource and to achieve sustainable consumption compatible with the goal of equity the use of individual meters instead of communal meters and fixing tariffs by inhabitant rather than by household are two measures aimed at achieving these objectives this article assesses the measures put in place in the seville metropolitan area during the last 20 years with an unobserved component model set up in a state space framework estimated using maximum likelihood water consumption elasticity to individual meters has changed from 0 307 to 1 317 with the introduction of per inhabitant tariffs which demonstrates that there are water saving synergies when the two measures are implemented together the reductions in water consumption achieved with these measures are also longer lasting than the changes in consumption habits during the frequent droughts in seville

can cross border pollution reduce pollution we develop a two country model of foreign aid and cross border pollution result ing from production activities in the recipient country there is both private and public abatement of pollution the latter being financed through emissions tax revenue and foreign aid we characterize a nash equilibrium in which the donor country chooses the amount of aid and the recipient chooses the fraction of aid allocated to pollution abatement and the emission tax rate at this equilibrium an increase in the donor s perceived rate of cross

water and energy price impacts on residential water demand in copenhagen while water price effects on residential water demand have been studied for several decades the impact of energy prices does not seem to have received much attention in this paper a residential water demand function derived from a model of household production of final consumption goods taking water energy and an aggregate of other goods as inputs is estimated on pooled time series data we find negative energy cross price elasticities around 0 2 and water price elasticities in the order of 0 1 or smaller

privately operated water utilities municipal price negotiation and estimation of residential water demand the case of france this paper addresses the issue of price negotiation between a municipality and a private water utility operator and its implications for residential water demand estimation we use appropriate econometric procedures to estimate a water demand equation on a panel of french municipalities we find evidence that negotiated water price depends on municipality s characteristics causing endogeneity of price in the demand equation the impact of average household income housing and system features such as metering is investigated both on municipal consumption and price estimated price and income elasticities are significant and close to previous household level studies

estimation of substitution possibilities between water and other production inputs the traditional approach to measuring the demand for water by industries relies upon fixed water use coefficients water supply planners base decisions about system expansion partly upon fixed coefficients applied to projected levels of industrial growth among the restrictive assumptions implied by this approach is that producers are generally unresponsive to the relative price of water compared with other factors earlier studies focused on industry by industry assessments of present and potential water use technologies and the possibilities for substituting other productive inputs for water most of these studies are economic engineering in form thompson and young and russell are analyses of the steam electric generating industry and the petroleum refining and petrochemical industry respectively because they used linear programming techniques their results must be interpreted cautiously the flexible functional forms which have become

do droughts have long term effects on water consumption evidence from the urban area of barcelona this article examines the long term effects of droughts on water consumption using data of municipalities of the urban area of barcelona two important characteristics of the sample of municipalities are the relatively low water consumption in the pre drought period and the fact that indoor uses are clearly predominant controlling for prices income and various socio demographic factors we find a reduction in water consumption not only during the drought episode but also in subsequent periods these permanent reductions in water use may be explained by household behavioural changes technological changes or structural water policy changes

demand side management policies for residential water use who bears the conservation burden to assess the potential for urban demand side management dsm policies as a water resource management tool we analyze the extent to which price and alternative policy instruments such as use and quantity restrictions and subsidies for water efficient technologies reduce residential demand and their distributional implications by type of household using detailed household level panel data for two california communities the results suggest that the ultimate effects of dsm policies in terms of the reduction in aggregate demand and distribution of water savings among household classes depend both on the policy instrument selected and the composition of aggregate demand

modeling commercial demand for water exploring alternative prices instrumental variables and heterogeneity in this paper we introduce a previously unused instrumental variable to estimate the elasticity of commercial water demand for firms served by a large municipal utility we then present evidence that firms are more responsive to one period lagged average price than marginal price finally we find notable differences in elasticity among different categories of businesses the findings in this paper are particularly important as water utilities consider how to maintain revenue while coping with limited water supplies and increasing commercial demand

regulation of public utilities under asymmetric information we consider the relationship between a localcommunity and a private operator in charge ofthe water utility an important feature of themodel is the possibility of water networklosses that are costly to the operator wecompute the first best and asymmetricinformation solutions to the optimal contract with private information on the operator stechnology based on an econometric estimationof production cost and water demand for a panelof french local communities we simulate theoptimal contract solutions and show thatasymmetric information has importantconsequences for the regulation of water publicutilities

the modern history of exchange rate arrangements a reinterpretation we develop a novel system of reclassifying historical exchange rate regimes one key difference between our study and previous classifications is that we employ monthly data on market determined parallel exchange rates going back to 1946 for 153 countries our approach differs from the imf official classification which we show to be only a little better than random it also differs radically from all previous attempts at historical reclassification our classification points to a rethinking of economic performance under alternative exchange rate regimes indeed the breakup of bretton woods had less impact on exchange rate regimes than is popularly believed

estimating residential water demand in the presence of free allowances the main aim of this paper is to quantify the impact of a rate structure which includes a free allowance on residential water consumption the analysis here differs from most previous research in that it explicitly recognizes that water consumption above the free allowance being sensitive to price responds less to social and climatic factors than consumption below the free allowance while the model specification and estimation procedures used here should be of interest to those interested in the demand for water the results using data for adelaide south australia on the determinants of water consumption should be of interest to water authorities

integrated water and economic modelling of the impacts of water market instruments on the south african economy a static computable general equilibrium model of south africa is adapted to compare new taxes on water demand by two industries namely forestry and irrigated field crops comparisons are made with respect to both the short and the long run in terms of three target variables namely i the environment ii the economy and iii equity since the taxes on the two industries do not raise the same amount of revenue the target variables are calculated per unit of real government revenue raised by the new taxes also referred to as the marginal excess burdens of the taxes the model results are robust for moderate values of the water elasticity of demand in the two industries in both the long and the short run the tax on irrigated field crops performs better in terms of all three the target variables in the short run in the long run the tax on irrigated filed crops is better in terms of water saving but reduces real gdp and the consumption by poor households

international trade and the environment policy reform in a polluted small open economy abstract this paper investigates sufficient conditions for welfare improving policy reforms in a small open economy facing many trade and pollution distortions we investigate and compare reform in tax regimes quota regimes and mixed regimes where some pollutants are regulated with taxes and others with quotas it is also shown that the welfare benefits of reforming pollution policy are greater in an economy with international factor mobility than in an economy not subject to such mobility

long run study of residential water consumption the estimation of dynamic models and themeasure of long run effects arerare in residential water demand studies weshow in this paper that a dynamicmodel of water consumption can be derived froma structural optimisation programsolved by local communities thisnonlinear model is estimated on asample of french municipalities and is foundasymptotically equivalent to a dynamic panel data model that is linear in theparameters the latter includes anoriginal error component structure that allowsfor a flexible heterogeneity pattern including both the usual idiosyncraticeffect and an additional individualeffect affected by a multiplicative time varyingparameter as usual gmm estimators for panel data are not consistent inthis case we propose a new gmmprocedure that yields consistent and efficientestimates of short and long runprice elasticities respectively 0 26 and 0 40

specification of block rate price variables in demand models using a new model formulation and data from a sample of colorado utilities we investigated the price specification controversy marginal price versus average revenue when estimating residential water demand the improved statistical fit using average

carbon capture and storage and transboundary pollution a differential game approach abstract we study the strategic behavior of two countries facing transboundary co2 pollution under a differential game setting in our model the reduction of co2 concentration occurs through the carbon capture and storage process rather than through the adoption of cleaner technologies furthermore we first provide the explicit short run dynamics for this dynamic game with symmetric open loop and a special markovian nash strategy then we compare these strategies at the games steady states and along some balanced growth paths our results show that if the initial level of co2 is relatively high state dependent emissions reductions can lead to higher overall environmental quality hence feedback strategy leads to less social waste

the impact of selected abatement strategies on transnational pollution the terms of trade and factor rewards a general equilibrium approach abstract widespread publicity of international conflict over transfrontier pollutants such as acid deposition and the november 1986 chemical spill in the rhine river has increased the public s awareness of the need to devise abatement strategies appropriate for transnational pollution this article develops a general equilibrium approach for analyzing the economic impacts of selected abatement strategies the model includes internationally mobile goods capital and pollution flows and flexible output and factor prices the general equilibrium approach provides policymakers with important information which is usually not revealed by a partial equilibrium approach that is demonstrated by applying the model to the north american acid deposition issue

urban residential demand for water in the united states further discussion using a new model formulation and data from a sample of colorado utilities we investigated the price specification controversy marginal price versus average revenue when estimating residential water demand the improved statistical fit using average

international trade rules and environmental cooperation under asymmetric information with asymmetric information about local costs relative to international benefits of direct environmental policy countries will rely too heavily on trade policy in controlling cross border externalities in negotiated agreements the unilateral externality policy chosen before negotiations by an exporter provides a signal about its local cost modifying the information used in negotiations the greater the exporter s incentive to use an externality tax as a second best trade instrument the better the signal consequently exogenous limits on the unilateral use of trade policy in the absence of environmental cooperation can diminish the informational problem and improve the performance of prospective environmental agreements copyright 1997 by economics department of the university of pennsylvania and the osaka university institute of social and economic research association

cointegration how short is the long run abstract when testing for cointegration and faced with short sample periods it is common for researchers to turn to more frequently sampled observations that is to move from annual to quarterly or monthly data in order to increase the number of observations we argue that such a gain in the degrees of freedom is more apparent than real essentially cointegration is a long run concept and hence requires long spans of data to give tests for cointegration much power rather than merely large numbers of observations using monte carlo simulations we demonstrate this for four popular tests for cointegration

water reuse in brazilian manufacturing firms this article examines the factors influencing manufacturing firms water reuse decision and analyses whether the structure of intake water demand differs between firms that adopt water reuse practices and those which do not the first stage of the estimation model involves a probit analysis of the water reuse decision and the second stage employs an endogenous switching regression to estimate the intake water demand equations results suggest that water charges may act as an effective mechanism in inducing firms to undertake water reuse investments and in reducing intake water demand estimates of the water demand price elasticities indicate that plants that reuse water are more sensitive to water price increases than plants without access to reuse technologies

is all domestic water consumption sensitive to price control this paper presents a model of residential water demand based on the stone geary utility function which explicitly considers a threshold of water that is insensitive to price and a quantity that can adapt instantaneously to price changes first the threshold is assumed constant being then allowed to vary according to past levels of consumption a proxy for households water using equipment and habits a measure of the depreciation rate of habits is derived and the effectiveness of price and non price conservation measures are compared the results provide useful policy recommendations for the studied case of seville spain

estimating the structure of industrial water demands the case of canadian manufacturing this study considers water use by canadian manufacturing firms the estimation of water demands is based on a detailed cross sectional survey of establishment level observations on water prices quantities and expenditures industrial water use is modeled as having four components intake treatment prior to use recirculation and discharge average values for the estimated own price elasticity for water intake range from 0 1534 to 0 5885 water recirculation is found to be a substitute for both water intake and water discharge this confirms that expanding the use of economic incentives e g effluent fees may be effective in encouraging firms to reduce their water use while increasing in plant recirculation

cross border externalities and trade liberalization the strategic control of pollution the authors examine international trade in a commodity whose production creates a negative externality for the importing country and they consider the nations strategic policy choices when they can restrict trade and when they are bound by a free trade agreement when pollution abatement technology is available the exporting country induces its adoption despite national indifference to the externality in order to reduce the tariff in a free trade agreement environmental policy is used to exploit monopoly power in trade an alternative policy instrument a process standard is introduced national competition in controlling emissions leads to very restrictive antipollution measures we examine international trade in a commodity whose production creates a negative externality for the importing country and we consider the nations strategic policy choices when they can restrict trade and when they are bound by a free trade agreement when pollution abatement technology is available the exporting country induces its adoption despite national indifference to the externality in order to reduce the tariff in a free trade agreement environmental policy is used to exploit monopoly power in trade an alternative policy instrument a process standard is introduced national competition in controlling emissions leads to very restrictive anti pollution measures

investment in manufacturing exchange rates and external exposure abstract this paper introduces a new measure of external exposure which emphasizes exposure to external markets both through export sales and imported inputs into production and uses this measure to explore the linkage between exchange rates and investment in us industry on average manufacturing sectors have evolved to being primarily import exposed by the early 1980s in low price over cost markup sectors markups are relatively unresponsive to exchange rate changes whereas sectoral investment patterns are strongly affected by contrast high markup industries absorb much of the exchange rate fluctuations in markups and pass relatively little through to real investment

strategic interaction among nations negotiable and non negotiable trade barriers trade policy is modelled as a two stage game between governments governments choose a negotiable trade barrier in the first stage of the game which is co operative the level of this barrier is treated as a binding commitment in the second stage of the game where the non negotiable trade barrier is chosen non co operatively hence governments choose trade barriers during negotiations with a view to influencing the equilibrium of the non co operative game to follow this proves to be a convenient framework in which to analyse the idea that trade agreements contain loopholes which can be exploited by protectionist governments trade negotiations induce substitution toward less efficient instruments of protection but are nevertheless welfare improving as long as the negotiations are relevant i e the negotiable barrier is actually in use and the two instruments are not perfect substitutes

estimating demand under block rates electricity and water many empirical studies of the demand for electricity under declining block tariffs have been conducted but few have produced results consistent with traditional demand theory nordin bell j economics 7 719 21 1976 explains this in part by pointing out that most of those studies failed to take into account the income effects caused by intramarginal price differences the authors show here that nordin s suggestion involves the inappropriate use of ordinal level statistics ols they propose a method by which consistent estimates of the demand parameters can be obtained when a household s rule for selecting a block can be estimated 19 references 1 figure

political uncertainty and the earmarking of environmental taxes abstract far from being used to secure a double dividend by reducing distorting taxes revenues from environmental taxes seem quite often to be earmarked to particular spending programs in the us for example a range of such taxes feed into environmental trust funds such earmarking runs counter to standard notions of good practice in taxing and spending this paper develops and explores an explanation of such apparent inefficiencies in terms of political uncertainty roughly a green incumbent may chose to earmark revenues if the efficiency loss from doing so is outweighed by the value of constraining subsequent and potentially non green policy makers from wasting the funds raised it emerges for example that those most likely to earmark are green politicians who are politically weak and that earmarking then enables such a policy maker to set the corrective tax higher than they otherwise would but nevertheless lower than the pigovian tax

an econometric estimation of industrial water demand in france this study investigates the structure of industrial water demand byestimating the derived demand for water on a sample of industrialestablishments located in the south west of france productiontechnologies are represented by short term variable cost functions andapproximated by a translog form industrial water use is modeled ashaving three components the quantity of water bought to a waterutility the quantity of autonomous water and the quantity of watertreated prior to use we include in this framework water effluents which are considered as a by product of the production process emittedby firms each of the three water components is treated as a separateinput and all are estimated as a system of simultaneous equations themodel is estimated on a sample of 51 industrial plants in the girondedistrict observed from 1994 to 1996 using seemingly unrelated regression sur and feasible generalized least squares fgls results ofestimations show that industrial firms are sensitive to water priceinputs network water elasticity is estimated at 0 29 it variesfrom 0 10 to 0 79 according to the type of industryconsidered autonomous water price elasticity is not significant elasticity for treated water is evaluated at 1 42 at themean sample and varies from 0 90 to 2 21 according to theindustry considered

the welfare impact of self supplied water pricing in canada a computable general equilibrium assessment this paper uses a computable general equilibrium model to assess the welfare cost of changing the method of water allocation in canada towards one that uses prices to ration demand we model the introduction of a price on both water that is abstracted as well as water that is consumed that is abstracted and not returned to the source we estimate that reducing water consumption by 25 would require imposition of a price on water consumption of around 0 21 text m 3 similarly introduction of a water abstraction charge of about 0 013 text m 3 would be sufficient to reduce water abstraction by 25 we find that if revenues from water pricing are returned in lump sum to households the introduction of water pricing would result in a modest welfare loss when revenues from water pricing are used to offset existing taxes we find a gain in welfare corresponding to a strong double dividend

are big mergers welfare enhancing when there is environmental externality abstract previous studies find that horizontal merger deals that consolidate a majority of firms in the market are likely to reduce welfare this study provides an in depth analysis of the relationship between the size of a merger and welfare in industries with environmental externality in an international framework we show that in a market where more than 50 of firms have merged a further increase in the size of the merger could increase or decrease welfare depending on two previously unexplored factors i a given threshold of size of a merger and ii the pollution intensity of firms furthermore we show that the relationship between welfare and size of merger can be affected by an exogenous change in emission tax at home and in a foreign country

business cycles and the exchange rate system some international evidence this paper investigates the differences in time series behavior of key economic aggregates under alternative exchange rate systems we use a postwar sample of 49 countries to compare the behavior of output consumption trade flows government consumption spending and real exchange rates under alternative exchange rate systems pegged floating and cooperative systems such as the ems we then examine evidence from two particular episodes involving canada and ireland of changes in the exchange rate system aside from greater variability of real exchange rates under flexible than under pegged nominal exchange rate systems we find little evidence of systematic differences in the behavior of macroeconomic aggregates or international trade flows under alternative exchange rate systems these results are of interest because a large class of theoretical models implies that the nominal exchange rate system has important effects on a number of macroeconomic quantities

municipal water supply and sewage treatment costs prices and distortions municipal water supply and sewage treatment utilities in ontario canada are studied in order to establish their costs of supply and evaluate their pricing practices prices charged to residential and commercial customers are found to be only one third and one sixth of the estimated marginal cost for water supply and sewage treatment respectively for example the average price to residential customers is 0 32m superscript 3 while the estimated marginal cost is 0 87 m superscript 3 the estimated cost parameters are combined with estimated residential and nonresidential demands functions in order to calculate approximate welfare losses that arise from overconsumption

cross border pollution terms of trade and welfare we construct a two good general equilibrium model of international trade for two small open economies where pollution from production is transmitted across borders governments in both countries impose emission taxes non cooperatively within this framework we examine the effect of changes in the degree of cross border pollution on nash emission taxes emission levels and welfare we do so under two scenarios when changes in cross border pollution do not affect domestic pollution non strategic and when they do strategic we also examine the effect of changes in international terms of trade on pollution and welfare when cross border pollution is non strategic

valuing water for chinese industries a marginal productivity analysis a marginal productivity approach is developed for valuing industrial use of water and applied using data from chinese industrial firms where water as well as capital labour and raw materials are treated as inputs to a production function models on price elasticity of water demand associated with the marginal productivity approach are also developed and estimated for different chinese industrial sectors

price and income elasticities of residential water demand a meta analysis this article presents a meta analysis of variations in price and income elasticities of residential water demand meta analysis constitutes an adequate tool to synthesize research results by means of an analysis of the variation in empirical estimates reported in the literature we link the variation in estimated elasticities to differences in theoretical microeconomic choice approaches differences in spatial and temporal dynamics as well as differences in research design of the underlying studies the occurrence of increasing or decreasing block rate systems turns out to be important with respect to price elasticities the use of the discrete continuous choice approach is relevant in explaining observed differences

trade and pollution linkages piecemeal reform and optimal intervention we demonstrate how coordinated trade and environmental policy can achieve ef ficiency and pollution mitigation gains superior to those obtained without such coordination we show how trade and environment linkages give rise to complex second best policy issues and derive optimal interventions and sufficient conditions for welfare improving piecemeal trade and environmental policy reforms in a small economy changing trade and environ ment distortions in proportion to their optimal levels increases welfare we decompose the economic and environment effects of policies targeted at trade and pollution in both con sumption and production we also decompose production responses into output adjustments and changes in pollution intensities

household responses to increased water rates during the california drought this paper explores the use of fixed effects and maximum likelihood techniques to es timate household responses to water price in creases during the california drought estimates are based on bimonthly meter readings from 599 single family households in the alameda county water district over the period 1982 1992 before and after the introduction of a steeply increasing block rate price structure i find that household and monthly fixed effects models are not success ful in modeling water demand with these data however maximum likelihood models that ex plicitly consider the household s response to the rate structure result in plausible estimates of wa ter demand jel q25

exchange controls capital controls and international financial markets this paper examines the effects of restrictions on international financial m arkets in a general equilibrium rational expectations model of a two country world state contingent financial markets allow households t o allocate wealth optimally across states so that the imposition of e xchange and capital controls has roughly speaking only substitution effects but no wealth effect taxes or quantitative controls on purc hases of foreign currency and on the income from foreign assets reduc e international trade in goods lower ex post welfare in the country in which they are imposed and affect nominal prices and the exchange rate copyright 1988 by american economic association

evidence on the specification of price in the study of domestic water demand the development of lakefront property in northern wisconsin has prompted in several towns minimum frontage zoning stricter than the state standard such zoning generates an economic loss by constraining development development effect and an economic

money inflation and output under fiat and commodity standards we examine the behavior of money inflation and output under fiat and commodity standards to better understand how changes in monetary policy affect economic activity using long term historical data for 15 countries we find that under fiat standards the growth rates of various monetary aggregates are more highly correlated with inflation and with each other than under commodity standards money growth inflation and output growth are also higher in contrast we do not find that money growth is more highly correlated with output growth under one standard than under the other

evaluating the impact of specific environmental regulations on exports there is clear concern in developing and transition economies that new and proposed changes in environmental policies and regulations will reduce exports the existing trade and environment literature however provides little empirical guidance for policy makers to evaluate sector specific trade impacts of environmental regulatory changes to assist with such analysis this paper develops a microeconomic framework that can be used to evaluate the impact of changed environmental regulations on exports the results provide clear empirical guidance to understand when the impact of such changes are likely to be relatively small and when the impacts are larger

residential water demand in the northwest of spain a panel of monthly aggregate data from the northwest of spain is used to estimate domestic water demand functions under linear and non linear tariffs price billing climatic and sociodemographic variables are used as explanatory variables the use of intraannual data constitutes a relevant contribution in the european context overall marginal price elasticity estimates lie between 0 12 and 0 17 summer only elasticities and elasticities associated with uses beyond the effectively free allowances seem significantly higher climatic variables significantly affect monthly use although probably less than in other wealthier and drier areas domestic water use appears to be a normal good

pollution content tariffs environmental rent shifting and the control of cross border pollution this paper considers the optimal unilateral policy for a country that imports a good from a neighbouring country and is harmed by pollution generated during the production of that good if the foreign country has a variable abatement technology then home has an incentive to impose a tax on the pollution content of imports a pollution content tariff foreign regulation of pollution does not eliminate home s incentives to intervene but instead may create rent shifting opportunities by making the right to pollute a scarce asset foreign pollution quotas create rents that the home government can try to extract

confidence intervals for elasticity estimators in translog models this paper examines the distribution fu nctions of elasticity estimators in translog demand models the authors consider the normaland ratio of normals distributions and present confidence intervals for the elasticity estimators the results suggest that only elasticity estimato rs based on the means of the actual cost shares are likely to follow either the normal or ratio of normals distribution function examination of three published empirical studies demonstrates that inferences regarding the values of elasticities cannot be made from point estimates alone and suggests a trade off between the level of aggregation and the width of confidence intervals for the elasticit y estimators copyright 1986 by mit press

public pollution abatement regional capital mobility and tax competition the environmental economics literature has ignored the effects of the interaction among capital mobility private and public pollution abatement and cross border pollution on environmental policies we analyze these effects in the context of a general equilibrium model we find among other things that i when countries are symmetric the presence of public pollution abatement makes nash equilibrium pollution taxes efficient while lump sum taxes remain inefficient and ii when countries are asymmetric both taxes are inefficient and the nash equilibrium pollution taxes depend mainly on the direction of capital mobility factor intensity and the degree of cross border pollution these results indicate that policy cooperation is more important when countries are different