Use Of Economic Incentives Research Articles

Wetlands policy crisis: United States and United Kingdom

Drainage of interior, freshwater wetlands for conversion to crop production accounts for most of the destruction of natural wetlands in the contiguous United States and in the grazing marshes or wet meadows of the United Kingdom. Past efforts at wetlands conservation in the U.K. and the greater depletion of British wetlands provide a useful lesson for U.S. conservationists trying to strike an equitable balance between the interests of agriculture and conservation. A policy crisis exists in both countries, resulting from contradictory incentives of the central government to both drain and preserve wetlands. This conflict is worsened by the emergence of a conservative political climate that opposes government regulation, particularly in remote rural environments. Massive budget deficits discourage public spending for wetlands acquisition and public ownership. An anti-regulatory, anti-spending position favors the use of economic incentives to induce voluntary private action to conserve wetlands. This new posture follows a decade that raised public expectations of environmental conservation, reflected in progressive legislation such as the U.S. Clean Water Act of 1977 and the U.K. Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981. The basis of the policy crisis and the dominant issues in the agricultural and conservation communities of both countries are delineated and compared. Issues that concern the farming sector, for example, include the level of financial returns available from preserving private wetlands, the level of government inducements to voluntary preservation and the degree of government interference in rural or countryside land use. Issues focusing the interests of the conservation sector include: government grants; subsidies and tax incentives that promote wetland conversions to agriculture; government arterial drainage schemes that create private wetland drainage opportunities; the level of commitment of public funds to wetlands protection; the mix of voluntary and compulsory measures for protection; and tailoring protection to the different kinds of wetlands or wetland activities. A general prescription for ameliorating the policy crisis is to eliminate the competition between drainage and preservation incentives of government agencies, particularly between the Departments of Agriculture and Interior in the U.S.A. and between the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Nature Conservancy Council in the U.K. This strategy should make it possible to offer adequate but affordable economic inducements to wetlands protection.

Assessing the Viability of Marketable Permit Systems: An Application in Hazardous Waste Management

An assessment of the use of economic incentives for pollution control first evaluates a strategy that allows flexible response by firms in terms of efficiency benefits, then examines the distribution of cost savings among types of firms in order to determine the political pressure industry will exert in response to proposals for marketable permit schemes. The case of a Rhode Island jewelry industry supports the concept of cost savings through flexible response. However, industry will likely oppose a scheme with no initial allocation of permits because larger firms have already invested in pollution control technology to meet existing standards. It may be necessary to modify the permit system to gain industry support. 12 references, 6 tables.

THE PUBLIC LIFE OF ECONOMIC INCENTIVES

ABSTRACTMany current proposals for policy reform call for the use of economic incentives. The growing application of economic incentives in a number of policy areas necessitates continuing critical examination of the claims for and the criticisms of their use. Early empirical evidence on the implementation of incentive schemes serves to shed light on the validity of some of the supporting and opposing arguments. By continuing the assessment of the viability of economic incentives, this study reveals that incentive alternatives face obstacles to use stemming from implementation problems, but political and philosophical issues pose greater threats. Nevertheless, the use of incentives can best be defended on political and moral grounds. Political resistance can be overcome and incentives can be employed effectively, if incentive schemes are understood as fostering one form of social interaction in a mixed regime.

An approach to evaluate incentive policies for energy development

The federal energy agencies are continuously seeking new energy resources to make the U.S. self-sufficient in its energy requirements. Geopressured resources have been identified for quite some time as possible candidates. However, the fundamental barriers to commercializing this source of energy are the excessive capital investments necessary and high uncertainty. This study proposes a methodology for exploring the use of economic incentives as instruments to stimulate the growth of geopressured resource development in the United States. It also identifies how incentive policy options are related to the fundamental barriers against a U.S. geopressured gas capability. The study models the geopressured development project as a Monte Carlo simulation. The geopressured system model simulates the production from a known geopressured resource. The profitability of the geopressured resource development project under alternate incentive policy options is evaluated as to their impact on two base case scenarios of potential investors in such development projects. The evaluations concern the policy impacts on improving project economics and risks. Results indicate that economic incentive policies are effective tools for improving the profitability of geopressured resource development projects. Each incentive serves different purposes with regard to inherent economics, project risks, marketplace uncertainties, and developers' access to capital. The effectiveness of the incentive policies depends on the developer's attitudes and attributes.

The Use of Liability Rules in Controlling Hazardous Waste Accidents: Theory and Practice

Economists since Pigou have advocated the use of economic incentives for controlling environmental degradation. In a similar vein, environmental economists have long lamented a near unanimous reliance of environmental policy on the use of direct regulation. However, several pieces of legislation, as well as common law doctrine, provide strict liability for damages from a variety of pollution incidents. The term strict liability means that a polluter is liable for the penalty imposed for a pollution incident irrespective of intent, fault, or even knowledge of the pollution incident. Negligence need not be proved, thus strict liability allows for no defense of due care or conformance with common practice.

The Use of Economic Incentives and Education to Modify Safety Belt Use Behavior of High School Students

The Use of Economic Incentives and Education to Modify Safety Belt Use Behavior of High School Students

Money Circulation and the Role of Money Under Socialism

The Twenty-fifth Congress of the CPSU posed the problem of securing the more skillful use of economic incentives and levers. Money is one of the most important among these levers.

Economic Interests and the Economic Mechanism

The Twenty-fifth Party Congress pointed to need for more skillful use of economic incentives and levers: cost accounting, profits, prices, and bonuses. In other words, Report of Central Committee of Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) stated, the entire system of indicators that are used to evaluate performance of ministries, associations, and enterprises, especially effectiveness and quality of their work, requires improvement. These indicators are designed to unify interests of personnel with interests of enterprise, and interests of enterprise with interests of state. They are intended to inspire adoption (and fulfillment) of intensive plans, saving of resources, lowering of enterprise cost of production. At same time, they should result in more rapid development of new products and production of high-quality products in required assortment.