Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

Adopters of transgenic crops produce a negative externality for producers of transgenic free crops through potential pollen flow. Producers of transgenic free crops produce a negative externality for growers of transgenic crops if they call for keeping a minimum distance. This chapter examines spatial implications of co-existence of transgenic crops from the perspective of Ronald Coase’s influential paper “The Problem of Social Cost” published in 1960. First, the problem of co-existence will be assessed as a problem of social cost. Second, we discuss the impact of the distribution of different property rights on the adoption of transgenic crops. Third, we show that allocations of property rights result in different spatial agglomeration of transgenic and non-transgenic crops.

Over the past decades commuting distances have increased substantially in all developed countries. Bringing jobs and dwellings more closely together is desirable from a societal viewpoint. So, instead of commuting, which causes extensive negative externalities like air pollution and traffic congestion, residential mobility should be fostered. The question that then arises is which type of investment influences residential mobility of households and reduces commuting. After an exploration of the relationship between investment in houses and residential mobility, a model is developed that allows for the testing of the hypothesis that, on the one hand, investment in houses in a region favours residential mobility to that specific region and, on the other hand, reduces in-commuting. The hypothesis is tested on data from provinces in the Netherlands for the years 1998 and 1999. The results indicate that the model gives a fairly adequate description of commuting and residential mobility behaviour. The hypothesis is confirmed. Furthermore, it appears that the investments in houses in a province in the Netherlands should be roughly twice as high as the investments in buildings. The policy implications of the results are discussed.

In this chapter a model will be presented that aims at the explanation of disparities in regional economic growth in the Czech Republic and its relevance for regional economic policy. The proposed specific regional development strategies are based on a compact model containing only a few variables. With the help of the model the development of 13 regions in the Czech republic will be simulated. From the computations it appears that innovations are the driving forces behind regional development. However, for sustainable regional growth, it is essential to understand the dynamics of innovative dissemination by networks. This chapter is an attempt to contribute to that end.

There are many aims for the Government’s policies. Different ministries care for different sector policies. Each ministry administers one (or several) policy sector(s), and normally has a bundle of policy measures to reach their aim(s). Applying a policy measure, directed towards reaching the aim(s) of a policy sector, affects many sectors of the economy, and therefore regional development. The impacts on regional development can be positive or negative, but are normally not intended. Since these impacts are not intended, the impacts on regional policies are externalities of sector polities. In this chapter, I look into a broad set of Norwegian fiscal and non-fiscal sector policies, and discuss their impacts on regional development. The impacts of different policies on regional development are compared and rated according to their significance and magnitude. The chapter illustrates that sector policies, including macro economic policies, influence regional development in different parts of the country differently, and that the non-intended impacts of sector policies are significantly more important for influencing regional development than specific regional and periphery policies. Most significant are the welfare policies, including transfers to local governments and the social security system. Among industrial transfers, agricultural policies have the most significant impacts on regional development.

This article provides a framework for identifying least-cost sites for carbon sequestration through tree-planting and deriving carbon cost curves at a global level in a scenario of limited information. Special attention is given to country risk considerations and the sensitivity to spatial datasets. Our model results, illustrated by grid-scale maps, show that most least-cost carbon uptake projects are located in Africa, South America and Asia. By comparing emissions reductions through tree-planting with the emission abatement scenarios of integrated assessment models (RICE-99) for a 100-yr time span, we find that global carbon uptake of planted forests could represent between 5% to 25% of the emissions reduction targets of relevant climate change mitigation scenarios.

Current climate policies in Poland target for an increase in bioelectricity share in total electricity production. In Poland most of the renewable energy comes from biomass (around 90%). Most probably, in the future, biomass will continue to play a dominant role within the renewable energy sources. Except of their primary functions, such as providing CO neutral fuels and decreasing dependency on oil, biomass plantations can positively influence the environment. They carry similar functions to natural areas e.g. they can contribute to the improvement of soil and water quality, sequester carbon in the soil and create an environment for many species. However, an often-heard concern is that large-scale biomass plantations might increase pressure on the productive land and might cause a substantial increase of food prices. The aim of this chapter is to investigate the impact of different energy policies, focused on increasing the shares of bioelectricity in the total electricity production, on production and prices of agricultural goods and electricity and on changes in land cover.