Search

Begin New Search

40031. Resistance to the Regulation of Common Resources in Rural Tunisia

Author:
Xiaoying Liu, Mare Sarr, and Timothy M. Swanson
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
We examine the effect of the introduction of uniform water-charging for aquifer management and provide evidence using a survey-based choice experiment of agricultural water users in rural Tunisia. Theoretically, we show that the implementation of the proposed second-best regulation would result both in efficiency gains and in distributional effects in favour of small landholders. Empirically, we find that resistance to the introduction of an effective water-charging regime is greatest amongst the largest landholders. Resistance to the regulation of common resources may be rooted in the manner in which heterogeneity might determine the distributional impact of different management regimes.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Water, and Regulation
Political Geography:
North Africa and Tunisia

40032. Multinational Firms and the Internationalization of Green R&D: A Review of the Evidence and Policy Implications

Author:
Joëlle Noailly and David Ryfisch
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
This paper presents novel empirical evidence on the internationalization of green R&D by multinational firms (MNCs), as measured by patents data. Using data on inventors’ addresses for the set of 1,200 MNCs firms patenting in green technologies over the 2004-2009 period, we find that about 17% of green patents result from MNCs R&D investments conducted outside their home countries. MNCs tend to locate their foreign green R&D activities in other OECD markets and in China, in particular in lightings and solar technologies. The empirical analysis reveals that the probability of conducting green R&D abroad increases with the host country’s stringency of environmental regulation, market size and (green) R&D intensity. Also, relatively lower wages for scientists and engineers, and stronger protection for intellectual property rights in the host country increase the likelihood for MNCs to offshore green R&D. The paper concludes by discussing the policy implications of this changing global innovation landscape.
Topic:
Green Technology, Multinational Corporations, and Research and Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

40033. Estimating the demand for tap water quality: Avertive expenditures on substitutes for hardness and aesthetic quality

Author:
Bruno Lanz and Allan Provins
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
This paper uses avertive expenditures to estimate the demand for qualitative aspects of tap water supply. We focus on two characteristics that are of importance for water consumers: water hardness and aesthetic quality in terms of taste, smell and appearance. To elicit expenditures on substitute products, we survey more than 4,500 households in England and Wales. For water hardness, around 14% of households employ at least one water softener device, with mean and median yearly expenditure around £95 and £50 respectively. Substitutes for the aesthetic quality of tap water mainly include bottled water, water filter devices, or adding squash or cordial before drinking. Overall 39% of respondents report at least one such behaviour, with mean and median yearly expenditure around £92 and £60 respectively. These are substantial amounts given a yearly average household bill of £186 for water services. Matching household data to highly disaggregated records on regional water hardness, our econometric analysis suggests that a 10% reduction in water hardness is associated with a £1.50 reduction in avertive expenditures. We also exploit geographic variation in the aesthetic characteristics of tap water, and correlate self-reported quality ratings to expenditures. We find that a one-fifth increase in the rating of water taste is associated with a £19 reduction in yearly expenditures.
Topic:
Water, Economy, Demand, and Spending
Political Geography:
Global Focus

40034. Documenting Legal Dissonance: Legal Pluralism in Papua New Guinea

Author:
Shaun Larcom and Timothy Swanson
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
We examine the case of payback killings and similar retributive sanctions in the context of a transplant regime such as that existing in Papua New Guinea. This is a post-colonial regime with multiple overlaid legal systems, with significant negative interaction existing between the different regimes. We explain how multiple regimes can co-exist in the context of negative externalities. To explain such an outcome, we provide a simple model for considering the interaction between legal regimes within a single jurisdiction. We demonstrate that, even when the fundamental relationship between such regimes is to behave as substitutes for one another, the existence of negative externalities between the enforcement technologies can result in the withdrawal of enforcement efforts. We term this phenomenon legal dissonance – the situation in which legal regimes interact negatively in their production technologies. This model is then applied to the post-colonial state of Papua New Guinea where we use survey data to identify significant negative production externalities in the enforcement of informal law. We suggest that disorder may be the outcome of too much law.
Topic:
Law Enforcement, Law, Norms, and Pluralism
Political Geography:
Papua New Guinea

40035. Directing Technical Change from Fossil-Fuel to Renewable Energy Innovation: An Application Using Firm-Level Patent Data

Author:
Joëlle Noailly and Roger Smeets
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
This paper investigates the determinants of directed technical change at the firm level in the electricity generation sector. We use firm-level data on patents filed in renewable (REN) and fossil fuel (FF) technologies by 5,261 European firms over the period 1978-2006. We investigate how energy prices, market size and knowledge stocks affect firms’ incentives to innovate in one technology relative to another and how these factors may thereby induce a shift from FF to REN technology in the electricity generation sector. We separately study small specialized firms, which innovate in only one type of technology during our sample period, and large mixed firms, which innovate in both technologies. We also separate the extensive margin innovation decision (i.e. whether to conduct innovation) from the intensive margin decision (i.e. how much to innovate). Overall, we find that all three factors - energy prices, market sizes and past knowledge stocks - matter to redirect innovation towards REN and away from FF technologies. Yet, we find that these factors have a larger impact on closing the technology gap through the entry (and exit) of small specialized firms, rather than through large mixed firms’ innovation. An implication of our results is that firm dynamics are of direct policy interest to induce the replacement of FF by REN technologies in the electricity generation sector.
Topic:
Innovation, Renewable Energy, Fossil Fuels, Patents, and Firm Dynamics
Political Geography:
Global Focus

40036. Clean substitutes and the effectiveness of carbon footprint labels vs. Pigovian subsidies: Evidence from a field experiment

Author:
Bruno Lanz, Jules-Daniel Wurlod, Luca Panzone, and Timothy Swanson
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
We study how substitutability between clean and dirty alternatives affects the effectiveness of environmental regulation in a field experiment that controls for the choice set of respondents. We consider four product categories with clean and dirty alternatives: (i) cola products in plastic bottles vs. in aluminum cans; (ii) skimmed vs. whole milk; (iii) chicken meat vs. beef meat; and (iv) margarine vs. butter. We employ two neutrally framed treatments to quantify the willingness to substitute between clean and dirty alternatives in each product market, namely a change in relative prices and the removal of the dirty alternative, leaving respondents the option of buying one of the remaining clean alternatives or nothing. We then compare the impact of a carbon footprint label and a Pigovian subsidy to the clean alternatives. While both instruments increase the market share of the clean products, their impact is higher when clean and dirty alternatives are close substitutes. We also find evidence that motivation crowding is present and increases with substitutability. Our results highlight the importance of product markets in the design of consumer-orientated policies.
Topic:
Environment, Economy, Consumer Behavior, Market-Based Instruments, and Carbon Footprint
Political Geography:
Global Focus

40037. Air pollution in urban Beijing: the role of government-controlled information

Author:
Chiara Ravetti, Yana Popp Jin, Mu Quan, Zhang Shiqiu, and Tim Swanson
Publication Date:
08-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
This paper looks at the problem of information control behind the unsustainable levels of air pollution in China. In particular, it focuses on a large urban area, Beijing, and it examines the role of the public, government-controlled information and the adaptation choices of households in response to signals about high pollution. Our analysis is based on a simple theoretical framework in which people migrate from rural areas to polluted cities, receiving a signal from the government about urban pollution; hence, they decide whether to adapt to pollution or not. We find that the government has no incentive to ensure sustainable air quality, as it can distort pollution information in order to attract cheap labour. We then analyse empirically two different air pollution indexes from different sources and agents’ behaviour in an original household survey collected in Beijing. We find that the official air pollution values are systematically distorted, creating perverse incentives for households to react to bad air quality, especially for people who rely on government-controlled sources of information.
Topic:
Government, Sustainability, Air Pollution, and Information
Political Geography:
China and Asia

40038. EU – NATO Relations in The Western Balkans

Author:
Michael Littlehale
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Centre for Security Studies
Abstract:
This paper will outline past examples of successful cooperation in relevant operations (that is, in meeting security issues on the continent) in the western Balkans, and show the implications this has in moving forward. In doing so, the initial international response to the breakup of Yugoslavia will briefly be reviewed, and the subsequent involvement of NATO and Europe to these conflicts in the 1990s. This leads to US/NATO efforts that finally brought the warring parties to the table, and Europe’s increasing involvement as NATO phased out its operations. The evolution of institutional and operational dynamics of cooperation between the EU and NATO will then be examined before focusing on this relationship in regards to the western Balkans, and the impact it has had on the region —both positive and negative —to date. The paper will conclude with the lessons drawn and the implications for EU and NATO relations’ moving forward, as conflict once again has emerged on the European continent.
Topic:
International Relations, NATO, International Cooperation, European Union, Post-Conflict, and Regional Politics
Political Geography:
Europe, Balkans, and Bosnia and Herzegovina

40039. Mapping the Quality of the Statistical Data on Police Involvement in Corruption Amongst Police Agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)

Author:
Alma Kovačević
Publication Date:
08-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
The Centre for Security Studies
Abstract:
This project was aimed to research and analyze the quality of the statistical data on police involvement in corruption kept by police agencies in BiH, and to measure their effect on the overall integrity of the police system. The project also aimed to increase transparency of police agencies as well as generate dialogue on the methods of generating statistics and quality of the statistics themselves. The project is emphasizing the importance and need of harmonizing manners for data collection and keeping statistics and possibilities of achieving harmonization across BiH. "Mapping the Quality of the Statistical Data on Police Involvement in Corruption Amongst Police Agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)" is the first evidence-based research on police corruption in BiH. Most of research of local and international NGOs and other bodies stating that there is a high level of police involvement in corruption in BiH have been based on the citizens' perspective or were victim-based. None of them had dealt with real and relevant data from official registers and there is no evidence-based research on police corruption that takes into account the relevant statistical data. Hence, the real picture on police corruption in BiH is still not clear. However, the methodology used in mentioned research is somehow "justified" understandable. This is due to the lack of real and objective statistical data on police corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The lack of legislation regulating this obligation usually leads to misinterpretation and wrong assessment of police behavior. In addition to that, the lack of clear international standards regulating this area makes the issue more dubious.
Topic:
Corruption, Crime, Statistics, Police, and Transparency
Political Geography:
Europe, Balkans, and Bosnia and Herzegovina

40040. Different Perceptions of International Justice

Author:
Mirza Dedic
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Centre for Security Studies
Abstract:
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the court established to preserve justice and promote reconciliation among the people of the former Yugoslavia, left different impressions on the people when it comes to the question of its success or failure. It would probably be too harsh to label the court and its work as failure, especially from this time-point (it is probably too early to give definite conclusions) and after taking into account that people in the Balkans would probably still wait for the justice to serve them and for the start of the processes supposed to lead towards the reconciliation, if there was not for the ICTY. However, controversies regarding its work, leniency, plea bargaining, and emphasis on deterrence and not on retribution; all of these factors, including others will be mentioned throughout this paper as the reasons influencing the dissatisfaction with the court and the emerging sense of injustice. In order to explain the work of the ICTY, it is first necessary to explain the notion of the international justice, as well as its importance in promoting the reconciliation among the warring sides through its “truth seeking value” (Rosenberg 2008). Apparent failure of the ICTY to satisfy the appetites of the people in Bosnia and Herzegovina led some of them to start favouring the local courts, disregarding many negative aspects related to their work.
Topic:
International Law, Conflict, Justice, Reconciliation, and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Political Geography:
Europe, Balkans, and Bosnia and Herzegovina