For a meaningful discussion of the effectiveness of ecological objectives and ecological quality standards, their terms and purposes must be examined and clarified. This study explores the terms and content of ecological quality objectives and ecological quality standards, based on the Water Framework Directive’s legal conceptualization of ‘ecological status’. This exploration is accomplished by analysing and describing the Water Framework Directive’s ‘ecological status’ aspect from a legal-ecological perspective. The analysis of ‘ecological status’ and its main constructs forms the basis for a possible alternative form of regulation, which addresses the shortcomings identified in the analysis.

When setting the stringency of environmental regulations of the intensive livestock industry, governments make a trade-off between rural economic development and environmental quality. This trade-off represents the weight the government places on social welfare relative to the profitability of the intensive livestock industry. The impact of the weight the government places on rural economic development on the formation of environmental regulations in the US intensive livestock industry is examined in this thesis. A political economy model explaining the formation of environmental regulations in the presence of a special interest lobby group is developed. The theoretical model finds that the incumbent government sets policy in response to the marginal disutility from pollution, the intensity of pollution damages, and according to the weight the government places on rural economic development. The theoretical model is tested using a cross-sectional analysis of 1997 intensive livestock industry environmental regulations across US states. Econometric results provide evidence that state governments implement more stringent regulations in response to the concerns of rural citizens and the intensity of pollution damages. The study finds that the pressure to pursue rural economic development has a positive relationship with the stringency of regulations.

When setting the stringency of environmental regulations of the intensive livestock industry, governments make a trade-off between rural economic development and environmental quality. This trade-off represents the weight the government places on social welfare relative to the profitability of the intensive livestock industry. The impact of the weight the government places on rural economic development on the formation of environmental regulations in the US intensive livestock industry is examined in this thesis. A political economy model explaining the formation of environmental regulations in the presence of a special interest lobby group is developed. The theoretical model finds that the incumbent government sets policy in response to the marginal disutility from pollution, the intensity of pollution damages, and according to the weight the government places on rural economic development. The theoretical model is tested using a cross-sectional analysis of 1997 intensive livestock industry environmental regulations across US states. Econometric results provide evidence that state governments implement more stringent regulations in response to the concerns of rural citizens and the intensity of pollution damages. The study finds that the pressure to pursue rural economic development has a positive relationship with the stringency of regulations.

Consent orders are issued by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA EPD). Consent orders require facilities to comply with environmental rules and regulations. The effectiveness of the consent order process has recently been questioned. Several facilities were cited with multiple consent orders, suggesting possible implementation weaknesses, i.e., monitoring and enforcement. There is a need to examine trends among facilities issued multiple consent orders and the content of those consent orders. Such an analysis can help determine the efficacy of the process as a tool of compliance and recommendations to improve it. The present assessment covered a span of fourteen years, 1993-2006. The data analysis reflected the strengths and limitations of this enforcement tool as well as the existing resources and powers of the state agencies.

This thesis analyzes impact of social trust on environmental regulations stringency. Negative effect is suggested. Thesis documents that, in a cross section of countries, there is no evidence of such an effect. On the other hand, there is evidence of positive impact of GDP per capita and level of education.

The impact of domestic policy regulations and standards on trade has been at the forefront of global policy during the past decade. Every country develops their own policies and standards that differ from country to country. These differences create problems for manufacturing industries, especially in major exporting countries. This study overviews the policy context driving standards in the manufacturing industries. The study consists of three different articles that attempt to examine the role of technical regulations and standards and their relationship with trade using different econometric models In the first article, the standard factor endowment approach is employed to explain the effects of environmental regulatory policy on net exports in different manufacturing industries. The study hypothesizes that a countrys comparative advantage depends on its factor abundance. The regulatory policy increases production costs and, thus, reduces the output level of an industry. The results indicate that each industry is unique in the factors determining net exports and in many instances environmental regulations are important. In the second article, we investigate the impact of competition policy on a countrys production and export competitiveness. Since the impact of competition regulation depends upon the particular circumstances of the industry to which the policy is applied, we examine how competition policy impacts production and exports of a specific sector, in particular the agri-food processing sector. The results suggest that competition policy enhances competition by reducing entry barriers, and causes firms to produce more output with lower prices. Exports for both total and food manufacturing in the post-competition policy period are higher than exports in the pre-competition period. In the third article, we estimate regressions based on an extended gravity model to determine the possible influence of food safety standards on export flows of six Asia-Pacific countries to ten importing countries. We examine the relationship between bilateral exports and importers imposition of food safety standards. The results show that the value of exports in food and food products is negatively affected by food safety standards: the greater the aflatoxin standards, the lower its restrictiveness, and higher the bilateral export flows.

This dissertation consists of three essays in international economics. The first chapter investigates whether opening up to international financial flows improves aggregate productivity in the presence of limited contract enforceability. I present a model of two countries that differ in terms of the degree of contract enforcement and analyze the consequences of financial market integration among those countries. Then, I test the predictions of the model empirically. The model predicts that aggregate productivity improves after financial integration in economies with strong contract enforcement, while it deteriorates in countries with weak enforcement. The empirical analysis confirms that the effect of capital account liberalization on productivity is different in economies with different degrees of contract enforcement. The second chapter addresses whether foreign firms harm the environment in a host country where environmental standards are not as strict as in the source country. The question as to whether strict environmental regulations in developed economies cause the relocation of pollution-intensive production into developing countries has captured the attention of economists. Instead, we ask whether multinational firms, frequently the target of environmentalists, are in fact harmful for a host country's environment. Using plant-level data from Chile, we find that foreign firms are cleaner than domestic plants. We then propose a model that delivers these features of the data. Using the model we get policy implications regarding environmental regulations and multinational production. The last chapter examines the link between producer's productivity and export participation. Empirical work reveals that exporters have substantially higher productivity than non-exporters. The two explanations proposed for the apparent gap are self-selection of firms into competitive export markets and learning by exporting. Knowing the direction of causality between productivity and exporting has important policy implications. If firms become exporters simply because they are more productive and there are no further gains from being an exporter, then policies that aim to increase the number of exporters are not appropriate. I test these hypotheses by applying matching techniques on plant-level data from the Chilean manufacturing sector. I find clear evidence for self-selection, relatively more efficient firms become exporters. However, I do not detect further improvement of productivity following the entry into export markets. / text

This study investigates the impact of nutrient management regulations on pig farms in Ontario, Canada. Using mathematical programming, small, medium and large farrow to finish and finishing pig farms are examined using uniform and crop requirement based manure application. The model scenarios characterize the cost of compliance when nutrient application standards are applied from the Nutrient Management Act and a previously proposed standard from the Clean Water Act. Compliance costs for scenarios with uniform manure application are ≤6.47%; while compliance costs for scenarios with crop requirement based manure application are ≤0.25%. The Nutrient Management Act has two calculations for nutrient application standards, producers must comply with the less binding calculation. Compliance costs for producers under the less binding standard following a uniform manure application strategy are ≤1.53%; while producers following a crop requirement based manure application strategy have no compliance costs. The proposed Clean Water Act standard is more restrictive than the Nutrient Management Act standards. / Ontario Pork, OMAFRA

This study examines the compliance cost of current and proposed environmental and species regulations on Ontario beef cattle farms. A mathematical programming model was used to simulate regulatory scenarios under the Ontario Nutrient Management Act (2002), the Ontario Clean Water Act (2007) and the Ontario Endangered Species Act (2007). Both the feedlot and cow-calf models are examined using a uniform manure application and optimal nutrient management strategy in each scenario. Under the Nutrient Management Act, feedlot operations using a uniform application strategy face compliance costs of up to 3.09%, but can eliminate compliance costs altogether by switching to an optimal nutrient application strategy. Compliance costs for cow-calf farmers are up to 9.57% under a land reduction scenario and 8.68% with a previously proposed land restriction. The Endangered Species Act scenario causes cow-calf farmers to face compliance costs of up to 6.60% due to restricted use of alfalfa and pasture land. / OMAFRA

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