Working Papers / Documents de travail

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    Rough guide to impact evaluation of environmental and development programs
    (SANDEE, Kathmandu, NP, 2009) Pattanayak, Subhrendu K.
    This paper provides an overview of the what, how, and why of program evaluation, with particular emphasis on the role of control groups, pre-and post measurement, and covariate data. Resource and environmental economists in developing countries have little training in how to conduct programme or policy evaluations of proposed environment /sustainable development projects. The paper reviews detailed examples of four methods for evaluation: randomized experiments, natural experiments, matching methods, and panel-based “difference-in-difference” (DID) estimators with a description of the pros and cons of each method. It also provides a detailed case study from South Asia as an example.
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    Place of nature in economic development
    (SANDEE, Kathmandu, NP, 2009) Dasgupta, Partha
    In the presence of externalities involving nature's services, individuals and communities overexploit natural capital. In other words ecological services are subsidized. This working paper proposes a mathematical model that factors in values of social and environmental costs/benefits. Nature consists of degradable resources: resource stocks are self-regenerative, but suffer from depletion or deterioration when they are over-used. Extreme poverty is frequently associated with a degraded environment. Studies confirm that the world's poorest people live in especially fragile natural environments. When policies are evaluated a social cost-benefit analysis must be included.
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    Awareness and the demand for environmental quality : drinking water in urban India
    (SANDEE, Kathmandu, NP, 2003) Jalan, Jyotsna; Somanathan, E.; Choudhuri, Saraswata; Gunatilake, Herath; Shyamsundar, Priya
    The demand for environmental quality clean air, potable water, sanitation, safe food is often presumed to be low in developing countries due to poverty. However, individuals in developing countries often lack the necessary information to make good decisions about environmental hazards in their day-to-day lives. Even if households can afford to take private measures to improve environmental quality, very often they choose not to do so, because they are not aware of the health risks associated with inferior environmental quality. A key policy question is whether increasing awareness about the adverse health effects of environmental pollution will increase demand for a cleaner environment? // In this paper, a household survey from urban India is used to estimate the effects of awareness and wealth on household decisions to purify home water. Average costs of different home purification methods are used to get estimates on willingness to pay for better drinking water quality in Delhi. It is found that measures of awareness such as schooling and exposure to mass media have statistically significant effects on adoption of different home purification methods and therefore, on willingness to pay. The interesting result is that these effects are similar in magnitude to wealth effects – this suggests that lack of awareness may be as important as poverty in influencing demand for clean water.
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    Discounting climate change
    (SANDEE, Kathmandu, NP, 2008) Dasgupta, Partha
    In this paper I offer a fairly complete account of the idea of social discount rates as applied to public policy analysis. I show that those rates are neither ethical primitives nor observables as market rates of return on investment, but that they ought instead to be derived from economic forecasts and society’s conception of distributive justice concerning the allocation of goods and services across personal identities, time, and events. The welfare theory is developed in the context of three empirical studies on the economics of global climate change. I argue that the theoretical foundations of intergenerational welfare economics are still unsettled even in deterministic models. The standard precautionary motive for saving is then reviewed in the case where future uncertainties are not large. I then show that if the uncertainties associated with climate change and biodiversity losses are large, the formulation of intergenerational well-being we economists have grown used to could lead to ethical paradoxes even if the uncertainties are thin-tailed: an optimum policy may not exist. Various modelling avenues that offer a way out of the dilemma are discussed. It is shown that none of them is entirely satisfactory.
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    Environment as a production input : a tutorial
    (SANDEE, Kathmandu, NP, 2008) Vincent, Jeffrey R.
    The paper examines and reviews relationships among three key functions in production economics: production functions, cost functions, and profit functions, and how they can be used to value changes in environmental quality. A cost function is an economic relationship that relates the minimum cost of production to the quantity of output, the prices of variable inputs, and the quantities of fixed inputs, including environmental inputs. The paper demonstrates the application of some mathematical models, for calculating variables and possible outcomes. The work can be used as a tutorial for production economics.
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    Importance of being informed : experimental evidence on the demand for environmental quality
    (SANDEE, Kathmandu, NP, 2004) Somanathan, E.; Jalan, Jyotsna
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    Environmental and resource economics : some recent developments
    (SANDEE, Kathmandu, NP, 2004) Mäler, Karl-Göran; Dasgupta, Partha
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    Individuals' time preferences for life - saving programs : results from six less developed countries
    (EEPSEA, Singapore, SG, 1999) IDRC. Regional Office for Southeast and East Asia, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia; Whittington, D.; Poulos, C.
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    Valuation of environmental health damages in developing countries : some observations
    (Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, US, 2000) Bowdoin College; Freeman, A.M.; Shipman, W.D.
    The paper identifies the most serious gaps and conceptual issues surrounding the economic valuation of environmental health damages in developing countries, focusing on disease associated with anthropogenic environmental degradation. The paper takes the form of a series of ten observations about environmental health valuation with supporting detail and discussion, including problems of air pollution, pesticides, and environmentally transmitted diarrheal diseases.
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    NZ experience with fishery : lessons learned!
    (EEPSEA, Singapore, SG, 1999) IDRC. Regional Office for Southeast and East Asia, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia; Meister, A.
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    Mandelbrot Project : a case study in applied decision-making in environmental economics
    (H.J. Ruitenbeek Resource Consulting, Gabriola, BC, CA, 2000) H.J. Ruitenbeek Resource Consulting; Ruitenbeek, H.J.
    The project design is based on a hypothetical low-middle income country (Mananaland), and draws on actual conditions from a cross-section of real life projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Ocean island states, the Indian sub-continent, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. This case study exercise provides a role-playing context/game for students of environmental economics. The Mandelbrot Project is composed of a number of regional development activities that include: (i) a mining project to extract ilmenite; (ii) a port expansion component required for the mining development; and, (iii) associated infrastructure. Students will gain an understanding of the decision-making and policy formulation dynamics that often surround such studies.
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    Political economy of increasing block tariffs in developing countries
    (EEPSEA, Singapore, SG, 1998) IDRC. Regional Office for Southeast and East Asia, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia; Boland, J.J.; Whittington, D.
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    Using choice experiments for non-market valuation
    (Göteborg University, Dept. of Economics, Göteborg, SE, 2001) Alpizar, Francisco; Carlsson, F.; Martinsson, P.
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    Science and public policy : how the twain might meet; plenary paper
    (EEPSEA, Singapore, SG, 2000) IDRC. Regional Office for Southeast and East Asia, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia; Malayang, B.
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    Damage schedules for Thai coastal areas : an alternative approach to assessing environmental values
    (EEPSEA, Singapore, SG, 1998) IDRC. Regional Office for Southeast and East Asia, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia; Chuenpagdee, R.
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    Guidelines for conducting extended cost - benefit analysis of dam projects in Thailand
    (EEPSEA, Singapore, SG, 2001-10) Chutubtim, Piyaluk
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    Assessing environmental values : the damage schedule approach
    (EEPSEA, Singapore, SG, 1999) IDRC. Regional Office for Southeast and East Asia, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia; Chuenpagdee, R.
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    Introduction to experimental economics : plenary paper
    (EEPSEA, Singapore, SG, 2002) IDRC. Regional Office for Southeast and East Asia, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia; Harrison, G.
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    Package for transferable discharge permits game
    (EEPSEA, Singapore, SG, 2001) IDRC. Regional Office for Southeast and East Asia, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia; Olewiler, N.
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    Measuring the value of life and limb : estimating compensating wage differentials among workers in Chennai and Mumbai
    (SANDEE, Kathmandu, NP, 2004) South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics; Madheswaran, S.
    There is extensive literature on the value of a statistical life (VSL) and compensating wage differentials for developed countries, but few studies exist for developing countries. The compensating wage differentials method estimates the wage premium a worker would need to be paid to accept a small increase in his/ her risk of dying. Workers routinely make trade-offs between health risks and economic gains, and these can be identified by studying wages associated with different industries. This study obtains estimates of VSL that reflect Indian risk preferences based on a survey of 550 workers in Chennai and 535 workers in Mumbai.