A existência de instrumentos de política e gestão ambiental não garantem, por si, a compatibilização do crescimento econômico com a manutenção da qualidade ambiental objetivos estabelecidos pela Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente (Lei 6.938/81). Uma das razões para essa constatação é a desarticulação entre os instrumentos implementados, bem como a simples não implementação de alguns. Levando-se em consideração a estruturação do Sistema Nacional de Meio Ambiente (SISNAMA) dada pela política nacional, a atuação das instituições competentes é também um fator importante nesse processo, uma vez que estão vinculadas diretamente com as conseqüências práticas do processo decisório. Nesse sentido, a análise dos mecanismos que se relacionam com a inserção da variável ambiental no processo decisório em âmbito municipal, articulada entre as diferentes instituições que o integram, é importante para verificar os aspectos positivos e negativos relacionados à consecução dos objetivos mencionados. Nesse contexto se insere a presente dissertação, realizada com o objetivo de investigar as diferentes práticas que têm envolvido a atuação da sociedade no processo decisório, a partir do estudo dois diferentes canais de participação que se apresentam para a gestão ambiental municipal em São Carlos - SP - o Conselho Municipal do Meio Ambiente de São Carlos (COMDEMA - SC) e o Ministério Público Estadual (MP). Utilizando como referência as distinções de níveis de participação descritos pela literatura, visitas aos órgãos e levantamento documental foram sistematizados os dados a respeito da participação da sociedade ao longo de todo o período de atuação dos agentes investigados, sendo os resultados discutidos à luz da teoria, apontando as dificuldades e oportunidades para o aperfeiçoamento da prática participativa na questão ambiental municipal. / The existence of instruments of environmental policy and management do not ensure, by itself, to reconcile economic growth with the maintenance of environmental quality - goals set by the National Environment Policy of Brazil (Lei 6.938/81). One reason for this finding is the disconnection between the tools implemented, and the simple lack of some. Taking into account the structure of the National Environmental System (SISNAMA) given by national policy, the role of relevant institutions is also an important factor in this process, since they are linked directly with the practical consequences of the decision making process. In this sense, the analysis of the mechanisms that relate to the inclusion of the environmental variable in decision making at the municipal level, articulated between the different institutions that comprise it, it is important to check the positive and negative aspects related to the achievement of the goals mentioned. In this context we present the dissertation, conducted in order to investigate the different practices that have involved the role of society in decision-making, from the study of two different agents that promote participation and are disponible to municipal environmental management in São Carlos - SP - the City Council\'s Environment of São Carlos (COMDEMA - SC) and State Public Prosecutor (MP). Using as reference the distinctions of levels of participation described in the literature, visits to organs and documentary survey were systematized data about the participation of society throughout the period of performance of the agents investigated and those resuoltados discussed in the light of the theory, pointing out the difficulties and opportunities for the improvement of participatory practice in local environmental questions.

Shek Ming Hon. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-54). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- Income Level and Environmental policy --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2 --- International Trade and Environmental policy --- p.5 / Chapter 2.3 --- Other taxes and Environmental taxation --- p.7 / Chapter 2.4 --- Unemployment --- p.8 / Chapter 2.5 --- Tax and Tax Credits --- p.9 / Chapter 2.6 --- Foreigrt Investment and Environmental policy --- p.9 / Chapter 2.7 --- Pollution and Unemployment --- p.11 / Chapter 3 --- The Fr amework --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1 --- Resource allocation --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2 --- National Welfare --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Optimal Capital Taxes --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Optimal Environmental Taxes --- p.26 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Jointly Optimal Policies --- p.29 / Chapter 3.3 --- Tariff Liberalization and Taxes --- p.33 / Chapter 4 --- Trade and pollution Policies under Investment Tax Credits --- p.35 / Chapter 4.1 --- Welfare Analysis on Capital Tax --- p.38 / Chapter 4.2 --- Welfare analysis on Capital Subsidy --- p.40 / Chapter 4.3 --- Policy in Simultaneous Change --- p.41 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Capital Tax --- p.41 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Capital subsidy --- p.45 / Chapter 5 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.48 / Chapter 6 --- Appendix --- p.55 / Chapter 6.1 --- Resource allocation --- p.55 / Chapter 6.2 --- Unemployment effect --- p.57 / Chapter 6.3 --- Cost and benefit of production of good X --- p.58 / Chapter 6.4 --- The 7 ° and s° schedules --- p.58

In this thesis, I analyze the impacts of the design and implementation of different environmental policy tools from a theoretical and empirical perspective: certificates providing information on the energy performance of buildings (chapter 1); urban road pricing schemes such as congestion charges (chapter 2); quantity-based policy tools to support production with non-polluting technologies (chapter 3).In chapter 1, co-authored with Luisa Dressler, we study how energy performance certificates (EPCs) impact the residential rental market. These certificates can help solve information asymmetries between landlords and tenants about the thermal quality of dwellings for rent, which, in turn, is expected to facilitate investment aimed at improving dwellings' energy performance. However, disclosure of EPCs is often incomplete, which hampers their effectiveness in relieving such information asymmetries. Moreover, even when a certificate is available, landlords do not always disclose it. This contradicts the so-called information unraveling result, according to which all landlords should disclose quality information unless it is costly to do so: in such a setting, information eventually unravels. Using a cross-sectional dataset of residential rental advertisements from the Belgian region of Brussels, we empirically evaluate incentives to disclose energy performance ratings. We find that two fundamental assumptions underlying the unraveling result are not confirmed in our setting: firstly, tenants value energy performance of rental property only when dwellings are of very high quality; secondly, tenants do not appear to rationally adjust their expectations when faced with dwellings that withhold their energy performance rating. Finally, we formulate specific policy advice for reforming EPC mechanisms to increase disclosure rates.In chapter 2, I study how urban congestion pricing impacts the use of sustainable mobility options such as bike sharing, presenting evidence from the city of Milan, Italy.As concern for air pollution grows in cities across the world, policies such as urban road pricing are rolled out to induce urban residents to opt for greener transport options. While several papers have analyzed the impact of urban road pricing on air pollution and on car use, this is the first analysis of its impact on sustainable travel behaviors, such as the use of bike sharing.I extend a stylized theoretical model of travel behavior to formalize the drivers of bike-sharing demand. Then, I exploit a panel dataset covering all bike-sharing trips carried out over an 8-year period in the city of Milan to estimate the impact of congestion pricing on bike-sharing use. The empirical strategy I employ in this study is based on the sudden suspension and reintroduction of congestion pricing, which generate a quasi-experimental setting. Adopting an event study approach, I find that suspending the congestion charge reduces daily bike-sharing traffic by about 5% in the short run. I show that, in Milan, congestion pricing mainly impacts bike-sharing use through the reduction of road traffic congestion, which makes cycling safer and more pleasant. The direct effect of the increased relative cost of car use is secondary in individual decisions to use bike-sharing. The role of these effects is likely to be context-specific, as they may be affected by the baseline level of urban congestion, the broader policy mix affecting the cost of driving and the specific design of the congestion pricing scheme.In chapter 3, co-authored with Renaud Foucart, we study the impact of different quantity-based tools that governments can use to support the production of homogeneous goods through clean rather than polluting inputs in a setting where production costs are uncertain.In recent years, many sectors have been disrupted by clean innovation, as clean inputs have emerged as close substitutes of polluting ones: for example, in the power sector renewable energy sources are increasingly used for electricity generation instead of fossil fuels. Whenever the negative externalities caused by polluting incumbent technologies are not internalized in production costs, emerging clean technologies are left at a disadvantage. For this reason, governments may want to design policy support schemes for emerging clean technologies.We develop a theoretical framework in which well-established polluting technologies entail known production and pollution costs, while using emerging green technologies requires higher, steeper and uncertain production costs. In this context, a government chooses between a range of quantity-based instruments to support the deployment of clean technologies based on cost estimates, as costs of production with green inputs are uncertain.We show that a cap on production with polluting inputs is the least distortionary among quantity instruments; next is a mandatory share of production with green inputs out of total production. Setting a policy objective in terms of a precise level of green inputs for production is the least efficient policy approach. This ranking results from the so-called “technology effect”, which determines the extent to which the market corrects cost estimation errors after real costs are observed. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis looks into the relationship between natural resources and non-resource economic activity in resource-rich countries. This relationship has been investigated through the literature of the “resource curse” which was first noted by Sachs and Warner (1995) who show a significant negative relation between natural resource dependence and income growth. Despite the developing literature in that area, empirical tests suffered from endogeneity. In this thesis, I try to add more resilient identification strategies in order to assess the effect of resource abundance on the macro economy using exogenous variations in 136 countries from 1962-2012. The first essay of this thesis examines the correlation between natural resource rents and economic diversification. The main question I ask in this essay is can resource-rich countries diversify their economies? To address this issue, the essay empirically tests diversification in exports, in employment and in value added and finds a significant negative impact. In the second empirical essay of this thesis, I focus on giant oil and gas discoveries as the main external variation and test the role of institutional quality in diversification when a country becomes resource abundant. Results show that all countries with varied institutional quality go through export concentration after giant oil discoveries. The third empirical essay looks more thoroughly into the manufacturing sector. I estimate the causal effect of two commodity shocks suggested by the Dutch Disease hypothesis on the tradable manufacturing industries: giant oil discoveries as a resource discovery shock, and oil price boom and bust as a commodity price shock. The results suggest a negative impact on the tradable industries growth in manufacturing value added and wages. These results add more credible empirical evidence to the Dutch Disease literature.

Esta tese é resultado de pesquisa que teve o objetivo de compreender o processo de desenvolvimento do Território Bico do Papagaio, no estado do Tocantins (TBP-TO), com base na implantação de projetos PROINFs, vinculados aos Programas PRONAT e PTC, visando explicitar efeitos, avanços e limites das políticas públicas territoriais em regiões com baixos índices de desenvolvimento. Nesta pesquisa utilizou-se de múltiplas estratégias para a coleta e análise de dados, seguindo os princípios e técnicas da triangulação, que constitui uma das formas de combinar métodos qualitativos entre si e de articular métodos quantitativos e qualitativos. Foi realizada, por meio de estudo de caso, em sete projetos implantados no TBP-TO. Uma questão importante, do ponto de vista metodológico, foi a oportunidade de fazer uma imersão no contexto investigado, observando e participando diretamente com os atores envolvidos na implantação e execução dos projetos PROINFs no referido território. Lançou-se mão de informações obtidas por observações, entrevistas, participação em reuniões, seminários, conversa com diferentes atores territoriais, moradores e membros do colegiado, gestores e beneficiários destes projetos. Os resultados levaram a uma compreensão das diferentes dimensões do desenvolvimento territorial e seus efeitos na vida dos beneficiários e na região. Os indicadores de desenvolvimento territorial, do ponto de vista econômico, foram avaliados entre ruins e críticos, dando a entender que a operacionalização da política territorial no TBP-TO reflete a própria história das relações de poder e dominação já existentes. Por outro lado, do ponto de vista social, foi observado o empoderamento da sociedade civil, especialmente nos casos das duas Escolas Família Agrícola (EFAs). Nesse sentido, esta tese contribuiu, não só para entender as dimensões do desenvolvimento territorial, seus desafios e possibilidades, mas para demonstrar que se não houver maior diálogo entre poder público (nas esferas municipal, estadual e federal), sociedade civil e os beneficiários dos projetos, o desenvolvimento territorial pode ficar comprometido. Diante dos resultados da pesquisa conclui-se que, nesse momento de retrocesso da política de desenvolvimento territorial, é necessário repensá-la, especialmente em relação ao exercício do poder e à autonomia dos Colegiados Territoriais. A organização dos colegiados territoriais e a união de seus membros em torno de objetivos comuns podem ser consideradas o motor propulsor da consolidação das EFAs, possibilitando a educação profissional de seus jovens. Esta organização é o maior indicador de desenvolvimento, na dimensão social, observado na pesquisa. / This thesis is the result of research that aims to understand the development process of the Parrot´s Beak Territory in the State of Tocantins (PBT-TO), based on the implantation of PROINFs projects, linked to PRONAT and PTC programs with the goal of clarifying effects, advances and limits of territorial public policies in regions with low levels of development. In this research, it was used multiple strategies for data collection and analysis, following the principles and techniques of triangulation, which is one of the ways to combine qualitative methods among themselves and to articulate quantitative and qualitative methods. The research was done through the case study in seven projects implanted in PBT-TO. An important thing, from the methodological point of view, was the opportunity to do an immersion in the context investigated by observing and participating directly with the actors involved in the implementation and execution of the projects PROINFs, in that territory. It was used the information obtained by observations, interviews, participation in meetings, seminars, talking with different territorial actors, residents and members of the board, managers and beneficiaries of these projects. The results led to an understanding of the different dimensions of territorial development and its effects on the lives of beneficiaries and in the region. The indicators of territorial development, from an economic point of view, were evaluated between bad and critical, implying that the operationalization of territorial policy in the PBT-TO reflect the history of the relationships of power and domination that exists. On the other hand, from the social point of view, it was observed the empowerment of civil society, especially in the cases of the Escolas Família Agrícola (EFAs). In this sense, this thesis has contributed not only to understand the dimensions of territorial development, its challenges and opportunities, but to demonstrate that if there is no greater dialogue between public authorities (in all spheres: Municipal, State and Federal), civil society and the beneficiaries of the projects, the territorial development may be compromised. On the research results it is concluded that, in this moment of backsliding of territorial development policy, it is necessary to rethink it, especially in relation to the exercise of power and the autonomy of Territorial governance bodies. The Organization of territorial governance bodies and the Union of its members around common goals, can be considered the impeller motor on consolidation of EFAs enabling professional education of their young. This organization is the greatest indicator of development in the social dimension, observed in the survey.

The environment and energy have been fundamental to the growth of the economy. This looks like a straightforward claim. But it is not. In order to understand how these are related, how growth came to be associated with the economy, and how this growth came to be seen as the unshakeable fundament of any environmental politics, this thesis focuses on a brief period of largely postwar history, and almost exclusively on a single country - America. At this time, and in this place, the technical removal of material constraints, the provision of energy, the construction of environmental limits and then their dismantling, forms the complex history of the growth of the environment and the environment of growth. This history created both the possibility of the contemporary political economy of the environment as well as its limits. This thesis traces the way that the economy, energy and the environment were co-constructed, transformed and interwoven in the US from the postwar years through to the mid 1970s, through the assembling, application and reassembling of the economic techniques and technologies that defined growth, scarcity and efficiency. To this end, it orients itself around the impacts of the 1952 President's Materials Policy Commission - known as the Paley Commission, and the think tank that was set up in its wake: Resources For the Future (RFF). The Paley Commission report and the RFF would, through their technical innovations play a key role in the construction of the economy as a separate, measurable and observable sphere of monetary flows, driven by an associated logic of exponential growth; energy as an interchangeable system of sources powering this economy; and the environment, initially as encompassing the economy and defined by finite limits, then reconstructed as external to the economy and where pollution is considered as an example of market failure to be rectified by the internalisation of externalities.

This thesis has three separate parts. In the first part I report the first ex post study of the economic impact of sea level rise. I apply two econometric approaches to estimate the past effects of sea level rise on the economy of the USA, viz. Barro type growth regressions adjusted for spatial patterns and a matching estimator. The unit of analysis is 3063 counties of the USA. I fit growth regressions for 13 time periods and I estimate numerous varieties for both growth regressions and matching estimator. Although there is some evidence that sea level rise has a positive effect on economic growth, in most specifications the estimated effects are insignificant. Therefore, I cannot confirm the implicit assumption of previous ex-ante studies, in particular that sea level rise has in general negative effect on economies. In the second part I fit Ricardian regressions of agricultural land values for 2830 counties of the USA on past sea level rise, taking account of spatial autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity. I find a significant, hill-shaped relationship. Hence, the outcomes are mixed. Mild sea level rise increases, while more pronounced sea level rise causes land values to fall. The results are robust to a set of variations. In the third part I explore an unprecedented dataset of almost 6,000 observations to identify main predictors of climate knowledge, climate risk perception and willingness to pay (WTP) for climate change mitigation. Among nearly 70 potential explanatory variables I detect the most important ones using a multisplit lasso estimator. Importantly, I test significance of individuals' preferences about time, risk and equity. The study is innovative as these behavioural characteristics were recorded by including experimental methods into a live sample survey. This unique way of data collection combines advantages of surveys and experiments. The most important predictors of environmental attitudes are numeracy, cognitive ability, inequity aversion and political and ideological world-view.

This study responds to the need for more research around (im)mobility decision-making to better support people facing environmental shocks and climatic changes. The concept of Trapped Populations, first appeared with the release of the 2011 Foresight report yielding repeated use in environmental migration studies and to a more limited extent policy. Although a seemingly straightforward concept, referring to people's inability to move away from environmental high-risk areas despite a desire to do so, the underlying reasons for someone's immobility can be profoundly complex. The empirical literature body referring to ‘trapped' populations has similarly taken a fairly simple and narrow economic explanatory approach. A more comprehensive understanding around how immobility is narrated in academia, and how people's cultural, social and psychological background in Bangladesh influences their (im)mobility, can provide crucial research insights. To better protect and support people living with environmental shocks and changes worldwide we need to build robust and well-informed policy frameworks To achieve this, a set of discourse analyses were carried out. Firstly, a textual Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) reviewed how ‘trapped' has been framed within academia. Secondly, a Foucauldian inspired discourse analysis was performed on field data to explore how power, knowledge and and binary opposites shape and determine people's social norms in terms of their (im)mobility decision-making. These key concepts critically showcased how meaning, values and power can constrain the mobility of a social group. The analysis was carried out on a large set of field data gathered between 2014 and 2016 in Bangladesh. The data on urban immobility and rural non-evacuation behaviour was gathered through a mixed-method quant-qualitative approach that included Q-methodology, storytelling group sessions, in-depth interviews and a survey questionnaire. Other key concepts used to frame the analysis included those of subjectivity, gender, place and space. The textual discourse analysis highlighted the dangers of framing mobility or resettlement as a potential climate adaptation. Assisted migration, could for example end up disguising other hidden political and economic agendas. The research identified how the empirical notions of ‘trapped' move beyond economic immobility. People in Bangladesh described being socially, psychologically and emotionally ‘trapped'. These empirical notions are useful within the area of climate policy, as they raise questions around whether mobility in fact is the solution.

This research examines the formation of Water User Associations that administer communal drinking water supply systems in highland Ecuador and explores the ways in which they have become one of the many spaces through which indigenous and peasant comunidades negotiate and define citizenship rights. While policy debates and academic research have recognised that safe access to drinking water is an essential aspect of life in terms of wellbeing, health and productivity, less attention has been given to the cultural and political implications that accessing hydrological resources holds for marginalised groups in society. In other words, what are the uses and meanings that water acquires through time for local people? How and why different claims over water management become a source of power struggles and political contestation? Based on fieldwork and archival research the thesis explores the case of an indigenous and peasant comunidad of Otavalo, where during the past 30 years the establishment of drinking water supply systems has brought significant changes to the local population in terms of self-governance practices and forms of organisation. It argues that Water User Associations, originally introduced by the state to manage water, have become a space through which local communities negotiate local identities and articulate development aspirations. In this way, water has become an important political tool for a traditionally marginalised segment of the population who are, through their everyday practices of water management, demanding recognition of their rights via à vis the state. The thesis also shows, that despite the importance of these institutional arrangements access to water is also determined by power asymmetries and inequalities within the comunidad. By analysing user associations for drinking water systems, this thesis also contributes to an area of study that has been ignored by most of the existing water literature as it has tended to favour irrigation water management because it is considered more ‘traditional' and part of the ‘hydrological culture' of the Andes. This is important because there is an estimated 10,000 communal water management systems of which 6,600 to 7,000 are administering drinking water in the rural and peri-urban areas of Ecuador.

A crucial contemporary public health issue is the construction and contestation of the relevance of the natural world to human health. Taking a critical approach, this thesis examines how the natural environment as a health determinant is positioned in relation to the 'social' within social epidemiological studies of health, illness and disease. Using conceptual and empirical forms of enquiry, this study shows how current constructions of natural environmental health drivers contour public health practice in the UK and that by challenging the limits of existing structures, innovative responses emerge, which can generate new frameworks for health policy and practice. Having identified a lacuna in research on the 'natural' environment in medical sociology, this inductive qualitative research project brings into conversation the findings from extensive desk and field research. Specially, a study of the elaboration of environmental health discourses within the UK public health policy arena and disciplinary wide discourse analyses of key academic journals are read together to describe the discursive practices shaping environmental public health work in the UK. Linking theory to practice, data from in-depth interviews with sixty health professionals working on health and the environment in the UK and internationally are used to investigate how public health practitioners produce the environment within their work remits. The research breaks ground for further social scientific studies of health and the environment and in particular substantiates the call for an extended notion of the 'environment' using ecological principles. Methodologically, the interdisciplinary reach of this research draws attention to the tensions that arise when working across the medical, natural and social sciences. Practical and philosophical questions about the challenge of expanding the sociological imagination in the contemporary moment are also considered. Empirically, to medical sociology the 'EcoBioPsychoSocial' framework is offered as a tool for studying health at the nexus between the 'social' and the 'natural environment.' Finally, the ways informal public health institutions are serving as 'invisible' forces impeding the uptake of prevention oriented environmental health policies are findings offered to the health policy arena.