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37711. 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

37712. 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

37713. 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

37714. 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

37715. 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

37716. 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

37717. 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

37718. 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

37719. 2014 Global Terrorism Index

Author:
Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
Publication Date:
11-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:
This is the second edition of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report which provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism over the last 14 years beginning in 2000 and ending in 2013. Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GTI is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) which is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). The GTD is considered to be the most comprehensive dataset on terrorist activity globally and has codified over 125,000 terrorist incidents. The report summarises trends in terrorism over time and analyses its changing patterns in terms of geographic activity, methods of attack, organisations involved and the national economic and political context. The index has also been compared to a range of socio-economic indicators to determine the key factors most closely associated with terrorism. In 2013 terrorist activity increased substantially with the total number of deaths rising from 11,133 in 2012 to 17,958 in 2013, a 61 per cent increase. Over the same period, the number of countries that experienced more than 50 deaths rose from 15 to 24. This highlights that not only is the intensity of terrorism increasing, its breadth is increasing as well. Terrorism is both highly concentrated as well as a globally distributed phenomenon. Over 80 per cent of the lives lost to terrorist activity in 2013 occurred in only five countries - Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria. However, another 55 countries recorded one or more deaths from terrorist activity.
Topic:
Economics, Terrorism, Taliban, Al Qaeda, Islamic State, Conflict, Risk, Boko Haram, and Foreign Fighters
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, and Global Focus

37720. Peace and Religion

Author:
Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:
This report presents empirical research conducted by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) in conjunction with the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation1 that aims to get beyond ideology to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how religion interacts with peace. Quantitative analysis has revealed that many of the commonly made statements surrounding the relationship between peace and religion are not supported by the analysis contained in this study. This report answers five common questions relating to religion and violence. To determine the list of questions the most common themes of discussion and opinions expressed in the media were identified. The scope of the research highlights key relationships between peace and religion and provides a platform and opportunities for further research. The five questions addressed in this report are: Question 1 — Is religion the main cause of conflict today? Question 2 — Does the proportion of religious belief or atheism in a country determine the peace of the country? Question 3 — In Muslim countries, does the demographic spread of Sunni and Shia determine peace? Question 4 — Is religion key to understanding what drives peace? Question 5 — Can religion play a positive role in peacebuilding?
Topic:
Islam, Religion, Conflict, Peace, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:
Global Focus