Public Environmental Expenditure Research Articles

Accounting for Environmental Activity: Measuring Public Environmental Expenditures and the Environmental Goods and Services Sector in the Us

Accounting for Environmental Activity: Measuring Public Environmental Expenditures and the Environmental Goods and Services Sector in the Us

Has Fiscal Decentralization Promoted or Restricted Public Environmental Expenditure ?

Public environmental expenditures are the crucial means to achieve ecological protection and environmental governance, while fiscal decentralization system is the key factor which affects the preferences of expenditures by local government. In order to further identify whether fiscal decentralization has negative incentives for the behavior of public environmental governance by local government, this paper applies provincial panel data of China from 2007 to 2015, to explore the effect of Chinese-styled fiscal decentralization on public environmental expenditures from the two dimensions of income and expenditure decentralization. The research results show that both income and expenditure decentralization have significant negative correlations with public environmental expenditures, which confirms that current fiscal decentralization system has strong incentive distortions and insufficient constraints on the behavior of public environmental governance by local government. Therefore, in order to promote green development and build a beautiful China, improvements should be made in terms of institutional environment, the relationship of financial authority and powers between central and local government, transfer payment systems, the governance models of regional linkage and collaboration, and environmental protection concepts, etc.

Has Fiscal Decentralization Promoted or Restricted Public Environmental Expenditure ?

Public environmental expenditures are the crucial means to achieve ecological protection and environmental governance, while fiscal decentralization system is the key factor which affects the preferences of expenditures by local government. In order to further identify whether fiscal decentralization has negative incentives for the behavior of public environmental governance by local government, this paper applies provincial panel data of China from 2007 to 2015, to explore the effect of Chinese-styled fiscal decentralization on public environmental expenditures from the two dimensions of income and expenditure decentralization. The research results show that both income and expenditure decentralization have significant negative correlations with public environmental expenditures, which confirms that current fiscal decentralization system has strong incentive distortions and insufficient constraints on the behavior of public environmental governance by local government. Therefore, in order to promote green development and build a beautiful China, improvements should be made in terms of institutional environment, the relationship of financial authority and powers between central and local government, transfer payment systems, the governance models of regional linkage and collaboration, and environmental protection concepts, etc.

How fiscal policies affect energy systems: the importance of an ‘environmental social wage’

ABSTRACT We employ a regional computable general equilibrium model to measure the impact on CO2 emissions of a balanced-budget increase in public environmental expenditure. We identify conditions under which an economic stimulus accompanied by a reduction in emissions could occur. Our results suggest that this is conceivable if the population values the environmental amenity funded by the increase in public expenditure, and if this is reflected in wage-bargaining behaviour. Given increasing concerns over climate change, public spending on environmental improvement could attract support together with the establishment of an ‘environmental social wage’, where workers accept lower pay in return for that improvement.

Data and Transparency Key for China's Pollution Clean-up

In the last few years, China released national cross-sector action plans to address its air, water, and soil pollution. These action plans establish targets and timelines for pollution reduction, taking aim at high-polluting sectors and articulating strategies for controlling emissions. In this perspective, we demonstrate the need for transparent, accurate methods and data appraising the financial expenditures and investments required to fund these plans. Applying a unique dataset on project-specific abatement costs derived from official but largely non-public Chinese data sources, we calculate the cost of China's pollution clean-up to be $1.1 trillion USD. Given slowing economic growth, we assess a roughly $900 billion USD shortfall based on analysis of existing public environmental expenditure and local government investment, necessitating private sector funds and new finance mechanisms if the plans' benefits are to be fully realized. To spur these new approaches, we argue that additional data disclosure and transparency regarding cost calculations are needed. We identify key questions and next steps for further research and policy discussion on what data are needed to underpin these improved estimates of China's pollution clean-up costs.

Analysis of Public Environmental Expenditure: The Case Study of Jakarta Province

The national struggle for sustainable development influenced the sub-national governments level in composing their policy directions especially public budget policy. Nonetheless, although the environmental protection function is important, it tends to be marginalized in the national budgetary debates. This study, therefore, attempts to analyse the ‘green budget’ allocation and utilization within the Regional Medium-term Development Plan 2013 – 2017 of Jakarta Province. The methodology draws on descriptive analysis of derived data from annual provincial budget documents, and in-depth interview analysis explored potential barriers and drivers give rise to gaps in budget between the allocation and realization stage. Results show that the allocated ‘green budget’ posture of Jakarta Province was 6.1% in the five years average, significantly higher when compared to the national level at 0.8 – 1 percent. However, the realization was low with average actual spending at 47.1% of the total allocated budget. In addition, based on COFOG, the biggest function/purpose supported by the environmental affairs budget was biodiversity and land protection which are responsible for green open space provision in Jakarta Province. The interviews point to the collaboration aspect among the profound drivers to support environmental affairs policy. Meanwhile, the aspects of staff capacity, public awareness, and policy alignment are believed to be significant barriers that the government is recommended to take into consideration.

Impacts of local public expenditure on CO2 emissions in Chinese cities: A spatial cluster decomposition analysis

Differentiated policies are key to improving the CO2 emissions reduction efficiency of cities, which are vital in mitigating climate change. The K-means cluster method and spatial logarithmic Divisia index decomposition method were used on the data of 279 cities in China to examine the impacts of local public expenditure on CO2 emissions in the context of socio-economic conditions. The results show emission differences in cities with similar socio-economic conditions. The impacts of the carbon intensity of local public expenditure and other public expenditures on the emission differences of city groups, which have different socio-economic conditions, were largest, followed by the local public expenditure scale and public environmental expenditure. The impacts of the proportions of public environmental expenditure and other expenditures were limited. Insights gained can provide feasible implications for Chinese cities, and enable policymakers to focus on the impact of different fiscal policies on CO2 emissions differences between cities.

Life Expectancy at Birth in Europe: An Econometric Approach Based on Random Forests Methodology

The objective of this work is to identify and classify the relative importance of several socioeconomic factors which explain life expectancy at birth in the European Union (EU) countries in the period 2008–2017, paying special attention to greenhouse gas emissions and public environmental expenditures. Methods: The Random Forests methodology was employed, which allows classification of the socioeconomic variables considered in the analysis according to their relative importance to explain health outcomes. Results: Per capita income, the educational level of the population, and the variable AREA (which reflects the subdivision of Europe into four relatively homogeneous areas), followed by the public expenditures on environmental and social protection, are the variables with the highest relevance in explaining life expectancy at birth in Europe over the perip.1 he peusto el correo e inciod 2008–2017. Conclusions: We have identified seven sectors as the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions: Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply; manufacturing; transportation and storage; agriculture, forestry, and fishing; construction; wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; and mining and quarrying. Therefore, any public intervention related to environmental policy should be aimed at these economic sectors. Furthermore, it will be more effective to focus on public programs with higher relevance to the health status of the population, such as environmental and social protection expenditures.

Variáveis socioeconômicas e gastos públicos ambientais dos municípios brasileiros: uma análise no período de 2005 - 2015

The objective of this article was to analyze the relation between some socioeconomic variables and the public environmental expenditures of Brazilian municipalities with more than 100 thousand inhabitants, between 2005 and 2015. To this end, multiple linear regression was used with public environmental expenditures and socioeconomic data of the 303 municipalities with population greater than 100 thousand inhabitants. In addition to the Environmental Expenditure, the following variables were also analyzed: Total Expenditures, Income per capita, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Expenditure per capita, Green Expenditure Performance, Environmental Performance of GDP, Environmental Expenditure per Territorial Area and Environmental Expenditure per Inhabitant. The analysis indicated that socioeconomic issues seem to determine, to a greater extent, municipal environmental expenditures since regression confirmed that 8 variables were significant (Environmental Performance of GDP was not significant). The results suggest that these socioeconomic variables present a strong influence of about 85% on the environmental expenditure performed by Brazilian municipalities in the investigated period. This research is an additional contribution related to the theme, presenting a quantitative analysis of environmental spending in the municipal context, and may become an important tool to public managers that contributes to debate, planning and execution of environmental public policy.

Environmental Protection in Italian regions: North-Centre vs. South?

In this paper an econometric analysis of determinants of Italian regional public environmental expenditure is performed. Results from the whole sample show the presence of industrial pressure for environmental services, and that richer regions increase local environmental expenditure. When only North-Central regions are considered, econometric estimation evidences an interest of public opinion for environmental policies, and a positive relationship between per capita income and environmental expenditure. Pressure from population and industrial employees for the supply of environmental services is, also, found. In richer industries, the supply of regional environmental services is lower. In the Southern regions, only the aim of the local administration to maintain social stability is evident.

Output-orientated Data Envelopment Analysis for measuring recycling efficiency: an application at Italian regional level

Pro-environmental behaviours associated with reducing, reusing and recycling have become increasingly matters of public policy concern. However, the existing literature on waste management rarely considers the cultural factors associated with predictors and enablers of recycling behaviours, nor has it deeply explored the relation between cultural access and such behaviours. Mindful of the relationship between cultural participation and learning, the main objective of this paper is to examine which Italian regions are ranked among the most ‘efficient’ in recycling, taking into account the variable of cultural participation. Using a Data Envelopment Analysis method applied to Italian regions for the period 2002–2007, we provide a measure of ‘efficiency’ that considers cultural consumptions (as input) and recycling (as output). Public data are drawn from two sources: the Italian Institute of Statistics database, ‘Cultura in cifre’, and the survey ‘Noi Italia – Environment section’. The results from the empirical analysis rank efficient and non-efficient regions in terms of connection between pro-environmental behaviour and cultural participation. The results also indicate a benchmark for ‘inefficient’ regions. The findings add to the discussion of cultural considerations for designing and implementing preventative pro-environmental strategies, that seek to reduce environmental costs and public environmental expenditure by factoring in – rather than out – the importance, role and impact of cultural access and participation.

El gasto público ambiental de la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina (1997-2012)

The article contributes to the discussion on public environmental issues in the province of Buenos Aires; in particular, it focuses on the analysis of public environmental expenditure during 1997-2012. It considers the estimation of expenditure, identifying the actors who execute and implement programs that allow you to have a reference to the relevance of the issue tacked by the provincial agenda. The work was done from the budgetary information produced by the General accounting of BAP, which is dependant of the Ministry of Finance, through classifiers used by the province. Firstly it presents the estimation and evolution of environmental expense according to the provincial classification, then it widens with the Classification of Environmental Protection Activities (CEPA 2000). Secondly it characterizes state actors that implement environmental expense and the financed program types. Finally it is presented some preliminary conclusions. The central input refers that environmental public expenses, later in one decade of increase after politic, social and economic crisis in 2001, does not achieve the convertibility participation levels. Also it emphasizes in the water and sanitation engineering; it has a strong component of participation of centralized agencies in detriment of those that agglutinates the main environmental functions; it is not observed instances of civil society participation in execution; and it adjudge a low relevance to the promotion and education activities in environmental matters.

Public Environmental Expenditures in Estonia During 1995-2011

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of earmarking on central government environment protection expenditure. Since central government spending for the environment relies on earmarked revenues, which is not the case of the local government, it is expected that central government expenditure is to a lesser degree affected by macroeconomic developments. The analysis indicates that this is the case because correlation between GDP change and the change in central government expenditure for environment protection is smaller than that of the local government. It is also found that increasing revenues from earmarked environmental charges have contributed to growing expenditure. However, the analysis also suggests that the main driver of this growth is the expansion is EU funds. Reliance on EU expenditure was further reinforced by changes in earmarking rules in 2008-2009.

Philippine Public Environmental Expenditure Review at National and Local Levels

This study is a component of the Philippine Poverty Environment Initiative (PPEI), a project that links environmental management to poverty alleviation. The PPEI supports the target of both the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Program to integrate pro-poor climate and environmental concerns into development planning and economic-decision making. In pursuing such target, this study sought to analyze the allocation and management of public expenditures in the Philippines to provide key guidance to strategic planning and budget preparation and to identify ways in which to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of resource allocations. The study seeks to review the public environmental expenditures at national and local levels and analyze how they contribute to environmental and poverty outcomes. It also aims to explore the manner by which the level of environmental expenditure data could be incorporated in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTDF).