Empirical Studies of Environmental Policies in Europe

John W. Maxwell and Jiirgen von Hagen Kelley School of Business, Indiana University; ZEI, University of Bonn, Indiana University, and CEPR Prior to the 1970's, economic studies of the natural environment were chiefly concerned with the optimal extraction of natural resources such as oil, coal, and timber. This focus reflected the commonly held belief that the natural environmental was sufficient to sustain the world's population in relative comfort (at least in developed nations) and was "there for the taking". By the late 1960's, however, the spectacular levels of economic growth that had taken place since the Second World War began to exact a visible toll on the natural environment. This visibility prompted growing concern for the environment among activists, government officials, academics and the pUblic. This concern has followed a general upward, though cyclic, trend to the present day. Remarkable events during this trend include the issuing of the Brundtland report, and the world environmental summits help in Rio and Kyoto. Concern for the natural environment has impacted the discipline of economics, resulting in the birth of the field of environmental economics that has recently eclipsed in popularity its parent field of natural resource economics.

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The visible encroachment of industrial development on the environment, and its unintended consequences, has increased public demand for better environmental management and policy. As policy makers struggle to meet these demands, empirical analysis of the effects of environmental policies is crucial for guiding the development, the implementation, and the evaluation of alternative government interventions and regulatory approaches. Such analysis is scarce, however. The need for empirical studies is particularly large in Europe, where environmental policy debates are still mainly theoretical and tend to reflect different ideological positions more than informed assessments of alternative policies. Empirical Studies of Environmental Policies in Europe presents contributions on empirical environmental policy evaluation. The individual chapters, written by authors from Europe and the US, contain quantitative studies of proposed and implemented environmental policies, at both the micro and macroeconomic levels. The policy issues studied in this volume include the 'double dividend-hypothesis' of carbon taxation, the political economy of environmental policy development, the voluntary environmental efforts of corporations, the enforcement of environmental regulations, the development of environmental policies in transition economies, and the implementation of environmental policies in the face of transboundary pollution.

Contenu
1 Environmental Policy Analysis Using CGE Models.- 2 Economic Effects of CO2 Abatement in Germany The Role of Factor Substitution.- 3 Energy Modelling for Economies in Transition.- 4 Winners and Losers of a CO2-Reduction Policy and their Impact on the Politics of Climate Change: A Case Study for Germany.- 5 Present Inefficiencies in European Transport and Environment Policies.- 6 Predicting Environmental Violations: An Empirical Examination of Illegal Corporate Behavior.- 7 An Initial Examination of the U.S. E.P.A.'s 33/50 Program.- 8 Health Damage of Air Pollution and Benefits and Costs of Ammonia Control in the Netherlands.- 9 Corporate Evaluation of Pollution Prevention Opportunities.- List of Workshop Participants.