We study a problem of adverse selection in the context of environmental regulation, where the Þrm may suffer from a certain degree of ignorance about its own type. In this framework we analyze the impact on the regulatory process of the presence of informed third-parties. We study and compare the role of environmentalists and of unbiased experts. Our analysis allows us to support the spirit of ...

Vintage-differentiated regulations (VDRs) are standards that are fixed with respect to the date of entry of regulated units, with later vintages facing more stringent standards. VDRs play prominent roles under major Federal, state, and local environmental laws. This paper synthesizes what is known about the effects of environmental VDRs, and develops lessons for public policy and for research. ...

Interactions between environmental conditions and environment-affecting species have not been investigated extensively. In this study, the population dynamics of species yielding regulative feedback between temperature (a representative of environmental condition) and species with a temperature-altering trait was examined. We considered a simple closed model that described the population of two...

Any organism is embedded in an environment that changes over time. The timescale for and statistics of environmental change, the precision with which the organism can detect its environment, and the costs and benefits of particular protein expression levels all will affect the suitability of different strategies–such as constitutive expression or graded response–for regulating protein levels in...

The relationship between new technologies and the environment is a complex one. On the one hand, various human technologies—ranging from “low” technologies like slash-and-burn agriculture, to “high” technologies like nuclear weapons—have done more than their share of environmental harm. On the other hand, new technologies are often cleaner and safer than the older technologies they replace, and...

The environmental problems we face today are multifold and complex. The emission of pollutants in the atmosphere, the discharge of effluents in lakes and rivers, the disposal of hazardous materials in ecosystems, and the use of pesticides on crops and food products are serious problems that are not yet fully understood. More recently, the industrially advanced nations of the world have been con...

The term prion, proteinaceus infectious particle, was first used to describe the causative agent of a group of mammalian neurodegenerative diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) [1]. The mammalian prion protein (PrP) can exist in either a normal cellular conformation, PrP, or in multiple misfolded pathogenic conformations, collectively called PrP. PrP is considered i...

It has often been argued that opening up the economy to increased international trade can transform a less developed economy into a developed economy. There is growing concern, however, about the environmental consequences of increased international trade. Typically, different countries have different environmental regulations and it is argued that the developed countries have more stringent en...