Kerry Krutilla

Environmental regulation in an open economy

Abstract Environmental regulation by a large trading country affects the world price of traded commodities. A series of second-best environmental taxes are derived which explicitly incorporate trade effects for cases which depend on the type of externality, the regulating countrys commodity trade balance, and the presence or absence of trade taxes in the regulated market. A coordinated policy solution using both tax and tariff instruments also is derived. The practical implications for domestic environmental policy-making which emerge from the theoretical results are evaluated.

The Urban Household Energy Transition : Social and Environmental Impacts in the Developing World

Urban Household Energy, Poverty, and the Environment The Urban Energy Transition Household Fuel Choice and Consumption Energy and Equity: the Social Impact of Energy Policies The Urban Energy Transition and the Environment The Energy Transition in Hyderabad, India: a Case Study Toward More Effective Urban Energy Policies

Transaction Costs and Environmental Policy: An Assessment Framework and Literature Review

This article develops a framework for environmental policy analysis based on an encompassing assessment of transaction costs. This approach emphasizes the ex ante costs of establishing environmental entitlements, and the ex post costs of administrating, monitoring, and enforcing them. The framework is used to organize a literature review which addresses policy design and instrument choice, as well as optimal environmental policy-making and benefit-cost analysis. The review also considers the empirical literature on transaction costs associated with environmental policy-making, and current practices to record some categories of transaction costs in regulatory impact assessments. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for environmental policy analysis.

The Welfare Impacts of U.S. Trade Restrictions against the Canadia n Softwood Lumber Industry: A Spatial Equilibrium Analysis

In this paper the authors estimate the production and welfare impacts of various U.S. trade restrictions on Canadian lumber. After building a model which incorporates the regional character of the North American lumber market, the authors simulate a variety of tariffs and quotas now advocated by a number of U.S. lawmakers. They find that the tariff losses incurred by Canadian producers could be substantial, depending on the elasticity of their export supply. Voluntary restraint agreements, however, might lead to Canadian gains as high as 40 percent of their preexisting profits.

Periurban deforestation in developing countries

Abstract In this research, we develop a conceptual, bioeconomic model to explain deforestation around developing-country cities, and apply the model in an empirical analysis to a cross-section of 33 cities in Africa, Asia, and Central and Latin America. We find that forests decline around cities in response to urban income growth, with the deforestation pattern reflecting a combination of such factors as transportation development, topography, precipitation, and island location. We also find that the establishment of protective state property regimes appears to have little impact on stemming deforestation in the vicinity of developing-country cities.

The quality of life in the dynamics of economic development

The neoclassical economic growth model and its extensions in the fields of environmental economics and endogenous growth theory typically represent welfare as a single argument function of consumption when the models are analytically solved. This simplified welfare specification is narrower than those described in the quality-of-life literature and emphasized by proponents of sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to analytically solve for the properties of a growth model based on a broader quality-of-life measure. The welfare measure includes two arguments, consumption and the stock of nature capital. This formulation enables an analysis of the consequences of the dynamic tension between conventionally defined economic growth and nature capital preservation. We find that a static model without technical progress yields diverse steady states, stability properties, and comparative statics, while a model with exogenous technical progress exhibits unusual comparative dynamics and balanced growth paths. These unusual outcomes have a number of policy-relevant implications for sustainable development.

The coase theorem in rent-seeking society

Abstract The Coase literature presumes that agents will passively accept a property rights assignment, and then bargain. We use a game-theoretic approach to show that rational agents may instead attempt to rent-seek over the initial rights distribution. In this additional stage to the Coase bargaining problem, the parties expend resources in an effort to influence the property rights assignments. The characterization of the equilibrium in this expanded model suggests that low transactions costs will encourage rent-seeking behavior.

The impact of tariff liberalization between the United States and Mexico: an empirical analysis

A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the US is constructed in order to simulate the impact of tariff liberalization between the United State and Mexico following the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). We find that although this agreement will have a minimal effect on the US economy as a whole, certain sectors and regions may experience substantial gain and losses. Overall, however, the treaty should increase economic welfare and enhance economic growth.

The politics and consequences of protectionism: A case study in the North American lumber market

Abstract In this paper we estimate the welfare impacts of recent U.S. trade restrictions on Canadian lumber. After building a model that incorporates the regional character of the North American lumber market, we simulate both a tariff collected by the U.S. government and the present policy of letting the Canadian government collect the tariff revenues in the form of an export tax. We find that under either policy, the losses incurred by Canadian producers can be substantial. Under the present policy, however, total Canadian welfare will go up, and total U.S. welfare will go down.

Aggregation bias in natural resource price composites: the forestry case

In this paper, we use cointegration tests to evaluate whether two types of aggregation bias are likely to be present in the composite price time series of forestry products. We find that the two types of bias are likely to be present, and furthermore, that forestry price series tend to be difference, rather than trend, stationary processes. These results raise doubts about the information content of composite forestry price time series, and suggest that inferences from such information about timber scarcity trends will likely be spurious. If the time series properties of forestry price series hold for other natural resources, then inferences about resource scarcity trends will also be dubious in these cases. This possibility suggests the need for further research to explore the time series properties of other natural resources.