<p> With the pace of globalization, the rapid growth in international trade has led to a widespread perception of increasing CO₂ embodied emissions. As the fragmentation of international production has become a dominant feature of modern international trade, there is a vibrant debate over how embodied emissions should be attributed and allocated among economies. To contribute to the debate on emission allocations and mitigation effort comparisons, it is important to consistently investigate the structures of carbon transfers across global economies. The role of carbon transfer structures in affecting mitigation efforts can be explored as part of the consequences of various emission allocations. Thus, it becomes a fundamental theme of all three essays. Due to the leading economies in international trade in terms of volume and CO₂, extensive attention of this dissertation has been paid to the United States (U.S.), China, and European Union (EU) economies.</p><p> Emissions due to U.S. imports grew increasingly and contributed 31% of the worldwide imported emissions in 2012. Undoubtedly, taking emission responsibility for U.S. imports is important to gear up for a low carbon future. To integrate U.S. imports into the responsibility of global emissions, it is important to investigate the U.S. import effects and identify contributing factors behind imported emission changes. Two aspects are of interest for an understanding of imported emissions and the structure of carbon transfers: (1) the U.S. import demand can affect not only embodied emissions but also emissions at home; and (2) the sector coverage can determine the results of contributing factors. In this respect, the first essay entitled &ldquo;Two-Stage Index Decomposition Analyses of Domestic and Import Related CO₂ Emission Changes for the U.S. Economy&rdquo; utilizes a modification of multi-period logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI II) to perform decomposition analyses of the import effects on both emissions for the U.S. economy during the period 1991-2012. It further employs an attribution technique of LMDI II in order to explore emission contributions of four industrial sectors (the utility, primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors). Dynamic changes in imported emissions are decomposed into five consumption factors: emission coefficient; energy intensity; structure of imports; final import composition; and final import scale. Dynamic changes in production emissions are generated based on three production factors of aggregate and disaggregated (real) carbon intensities: emission coefficient; energy intensity; and structure. The main findings of this essay are presented in page 9. Analysis of the interplay of the contributing factors behind changes in emissions stimulated due to both import demand and domestic production become more critical for having a better understanding of the structure of carbon transfers. Also, it becomes important for seeking policy recommendations on emission responsibilities across economies as part of a transition to a low carbon future. </p><p> Global production fragmentation significantly affects the allocation of emissions embodied in international trade. Thus, differences between production-based emissions (PBE) and consumption-based emissions (CBE) increasingly produce uneven policy actions for targeting emission reductions between exporting and importing economies. These differences may impact mitigation efforts across economies given the current level of carbon transfers. As an alternative, a sharing-based emissions (SE) allocation is an approach that assigns exporters and importers responsibility for emissions based upon benefits linked to their production and consumption. The challenge facing the application of SE allocation is how to define a weighing procedure. In light of embodied emissions in international trade, Peters (2008) suggested that value-added should be used to define a weighting framework. However, no defined weighting procedure has been addressed so far in the literature. The second essay entitled &ldquo;Sharing-Based CO₂ Emission Allocation with a Perspective on a Multilateral Border Tax Adjustment-the U.S. Economy&rdquo; first aims to design a weighting procedure for establishing shares of the emission allocation.</p><p> Due to uneven distributions between emission and global trade intensities across economies, a change in emission allocations from the current PBE approach to an alternative approach that considers both production and consumption can result in a significant emission responsibility burden for specific industries. Thus, an impact evaluation is important to explore mitigation efforts and define the consequences of alternative emission allocations. To identify allocations, the applications of alternative allocations are empirically applied to the U.S. economy for the years 2005 and 2011. These alternative allocation are the SE and the consumption allocation with the application of a unilateral border tax adjustment. The main findings of this essay are presented in page 57. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

<p>Monitoring and enforcement are perhaps the biggest challenges in the design and implementation of environmental policies in developing countries where the actions of many small informal actors cause significant impacts on the ecosystem services and where the transaction costs for the state to regulate them could be enormous. This dissertation studies the potential of innovative institutions based on decentralized coordination and enforcement to induce better environmental outcomes. Such policies have in common that the state plays the role of providing the incentives for organization but the process of compliance happens through decentralized agreements, trust building, signaling and monitoring. I draw from the literatures in collective action, common-pool resources, game-theory and non-point source pollution to develop the instruments proposed here. To test the different conditions in which such policies could be implemented I designed two field-experiments that I conducted with small-scale gold miners in the Colombian Pacific and with users and providers of ecosystem services in the states of Veracruz, Quintana Roo and Yucatan in Mexico. This dissertation is organized in three essays. </p><p>The first essay, “Collective Incentives for Cleaner Small-Scale Gold Mining on the Frontier: Experimental Tests of Compliance with Group Incentives given Limited State Monitoring”, examines whether collective incentives, i.e. incentives provided to a group conditional on collective compliance, could “outsource” the required local monitoring, i.e. induce group interactions that extend the reach of the state that can observe only aggregate consequences in the context of small-scale gold mining. I employed a framed field-lab experiment in which the miners make decisions regarding mining intensity. The state sets a collective target for an environmental outcome, verifies compliance and provides a group reward for compliance which is split equally among members. Since the target set by the state transforms the situation into a coordination game, outcomes depend on expectations of what others will do. I conducted this experiment with 640 participants in a mining region of the Colombian Pacific and I examine different levels of policy severity and their ordering. The findings of the experiment suggest that such instruments can induce compliance but this regulation involves tradeoffs. For most severe targets – with rewards just above costs – raise gains if successful but can collapse rapidly and completely. In terms of group interactions, better outcomes are found when severity initially is lower suggesting learning. </p><p>The second essay, “Collective Compliance can be Efficient and Inequitable: Impacts of Leaders among Small-Scale Gold Miners in Colombia”, explores the channels through which communication help groups to coordinate in presence of collective incentives and whether the reached solutions are equitable or not. Also in the context of small-scale gold mining in the Colombian Pacific, I test the effect of communication in compliance with a collective environmental target. The results suggest that communication, as expected, helps to solve coordination challenges but still some groups reach agreements involving unequal outcomes. By examining the agreements that took place in each group, I observe that the main coordination mechanism was the presence of leaders that help other group members to clarify the situation. Interestingly, leaders not only helped groups to reach efficiency but also played a key role in equity by defining how the costs of compliance would be distributed among group members. </p><p>The third essay, “Creating Local PES Institutions and Increasing Impacts of PES in Mexico: A real-Time Watershed-Level Framed Field Experiment on Coordination and Conditionality”, considers the creation of a local payments for ecosystem services (PES) mechanism as an assurance game that requires the coordination between two groups of participants: upstream and downstream. Based on this assurance interaction, I explore the effect of allowing peer-sanctions on upstream behavior in the functioning of the mechanism. This field-lab experiment was implemented in three real cases of the Mexican Fondos Concurrentes (matching funds) program in the states of Veracruz, Quintana Roo and Yucatan, where 240 real users and 240 real providers of hydrological services were recruited and interacted with each other in real time. The experimental results suggest that initial trust-game behaviors align with participants’ perceptions and predicts baseline giving in assurance game. For upstream providers, i.e. those who get sanctioned, the threat and the use of sanctions increase contributions. Downstream users contribute less when offered the option to sanction – as if that option signal an uncooperative upstream – then the contributions rise in line with the complementarity in payments of the assurance game.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Air pollution is now recognized as the deadliest problem in developing countries and policymakers are pressed to take action to relieve its health burden. Using a variety of econometric strategies, I explore various issues surrounding policies to manage air pollution in developing countries. In the first chapter, using locational equilibrium logic and forest fires as instrument, I estimated the willingness-to-pay for improved PM2.5 in Indonesia. I find that WTP is at around 1% of annual income. Moreover, this approach allows me to compute the welfare effects of a policy that reduces forest fires by 50% in some provinces. The second chapter continues on this theme by assessing the long-term impacts the early-life exposure to air pollution. Using the 1997 forest fires in Indonesia as an exogenous shock, I find that prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with shorter height, decreased lung capacity, and lower results in cognitive tests. These findings are consistent across several specifications and robustness checks. The last chapter tackles the issue of indoor air pollution in India. In here, I use stated responses from a discrete choice experiment to categorize households into three distinct groups of cookstoves preferences; interested in improved cookstoves, interested in electric cookstoves; uninterested. These groupings are then verified using actual stoves purchase decisions and I found large area of agreement between households stated responses and their purchase decisions.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Guelph (Canada), 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

This paper applies an augmented version of the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek model to a broad cross section of countries for the period 2001 to 2011, providing evidence that a country's environmental regulatory regime has an influence on the energy content of trade. These results conform to predictions made under the "Pollution Haven Hypothesis" and the notion of "Carbon Leakage", reiterating the importance of incorporating these issues to some extent in the formulation of future trade and climate policy.

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<p> The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and the Travel Cost Method (TCM) are used to measure non-market transactions, such as recreational experiences in nature-based coastal recreational areas. The purpose of this study was to find mean Willingness to Pay (WTP) for an average recreational experience in a Puerto Rico beach, based on surveys conducted in eight beach facilities. Using the Logistic Regression Model, the odds of acceptance of the visitor to pay more for their recreational experience (based on a hypothetical increase in transportation costs) was determined. Mean WTP for all beaches surveyed using CVM was $66.30. It was also determined that mean WTP for Blue Flag beaches ($73.37) was greater than that of beaches without this designation ($53.82). Using TCM, the Negative Binomial Count Model was incorporated to predict the average number of visits within a 12 month period. TCM WTP proved to be $35.05.</p><p> Based on the results of this study it is proposed that a business plan be developed for a Blue Flag beach in Northeast Puerto Rico operating at a loss, based on the recovery of marginal WTP or Consumer Surplus. The results of this study may be useful for managers of coastal recreational facilities and government agencies concerned with tourism economics in Puerto Rico.</p>

<p> Designers and builders focused on green innovations often struggle to know well the costs and benefits of their proposed projects. As such, some are reluctant to innovate beyond the well known, as even modest projects are costly in nearly all respects. This project is designed to provide data to promote actionable recommendations and strategic decision criteria for commercializing a model for exterior wall assemblies constructed with straw bales and earthen plasters. The wall assemblies are specific for houses built in hot arid climates using vernacular architecture and site-available earthen soils that take into account resiliency, environmental and social accountability, and affordability. These data derive from secondary research, four case studies, and two experimental build projects. A Full Costs Accounting (FCA) framework and Benefit Costs Analysis (BCA) assess costs, impacts, and benefits for the two experimental build projects that used the same amount of building material as measured in cubic feet (&plusmn; 3%) but were constructed from different materials and design strategies for exterior wall assemblies. Results from the builds&rsquo; FCA indicate that imported materials needed for a conventional wood framed wall assembly used 204% more fuels in the production process (cradle-to-factory gate) and 733% more diesel fuels in the transportation process (factory gate-to-retail store) than a vernacular build&rsquo;s wall assembly. Upfront labor costs were increased by 287% when using site-available soils for earthen plasters instead of imported lumber for a conventional wall assembly. Benefits (BCA) for the straw bale and earthen plaster construction include reduced impacts upon the extraction site, increased resiliency and social cohesion, and limited requirements for capital investments. This research contributes to the assessment tools available for stakeholders to make more informed decisions when investing in multi-faceted affordable housing projects in hot arid regions throughout the world.</p>