In the past 10–15 years, innovations in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have fueled a boom in the production of natural gas from geological formations that were previously unprofitable. The rapid deployment of fracking has been accompanied by concerns about negative externalities. In response, a regulatory regime has emerged that requires disclosure of chemical additives, but prese...

Environmental crimes are unauthorized acts against the environment that are subject to criminal prosecution and sanction. While their deterrence e¤ect is largely unknown, policy is moving rapidly towards strengthening the role of criminal sanctioning in the context of environmental crime. This paper provides new evidence on the e¤ects of the use of criminal sanctions in environmental policy mak...

We estimate hurdle rates for firms’ investments in pollution abatement technology, using ex post data. The method is based on a structural option value model where the future price of polluting fuel is the major source of uncertainty facing the firm. The empirical procedure is illustrated using a panel of firms from the Swedish pulp and paper industry, and the energy and heating sector, and the...

This article uses theory and experiments to investigate voluntary-threat approaches for regulating nonpoint source water pollution. The policies allow a group of polluters to voluntarily meet a pollution standard, under threat of a mandatory tax policy to be implemented in the case of noncompliance. Building upon recent work by Segerson and Wu (2006), who propose what we label an “exogenous” vo...

the main objective of this paper is to study the relationship between the energy consumption (energy use intensity), economic growth, and co2 emission in iran. to that end, we use time series data of iran during 1967–2004. in order to examine the long-run relationship among these variables, the johanson-juselius cointegration method is used along with vecm. the main finding of this study shows ...

In the past 10–15 years, innovations in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have fueled a boom in the production of natural gas from geological formations that were previously unprofitable. The rapid deployment of fracking has been accompanied by concerns about negative externalities. In response, a regulatory regime has emerged that requires disclosure of chemical additives, but prese...

On June 25, 2013, President Obama announced his plan to introduce carbon dioxide emission standards for electricity generation. This paper proposes an efficiency analysis approach that addresses which emission rates (and standards) would be feasible if the existing generating units adopt best practices. A new efficiency measure is introduced and further decomposed to identify different sources’...

This paper adds to the existing literature on the estimation of future consumption patterns. I first forecast the demand of beef, chicken and pig products for the years 2020 and 2040 using a simultaneous equations model for the world and specific regions. Then, using existing research on “best existing case” scenarios of the ecological impact of different foods, I estimate the land usage and gr...

This paper contributes to the debate on the inducement of environmental innovations by analysing the extent to which endogenous inducement mechanisms spur the generation of greener technologies in contexts characterized by weak exogenous inducement pressures. In the presence of a fragile environmental regulatory framework, inducement can indeed be endogenous and environmental innovations may be...