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Water utilities --- Water-supply --- Water utilities --- Sewage disposal --- Sewage disposal --- Deregulation --- Environmental aspects --- Deregulation --- Environmental aspects

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This paper examines empirically whether countries with relatively more lax environmental regimes have a comparative advantage in their competition for foreign direct investment. It seeks to contribute to the literature in several important ways. First, we use a measure of environmental stringency which is based on managers’ perceptions of the stringency in a given country and which gives us the opportunity to analyse a broad sample of both source and host countries. Second, an important strength of the technical analysis is the non-linear modeling of the impact of policy stringency on FDI. Third, we use a ‘state-of-theart’ FDI modelling strategy, which allows us to differentiate between different models of production fragmentation. Support is found for the effect of relative environmental policy stringency on foreign direct investment patterns. However, the effect is relatively small in comparison with other factors, including more general regulatory quality. Moreover, the relationship appears to be non-linear with the effects of increased relative environmental policy stringency in the host country decreasing after a certain threshold.

Environment --- Finance and Investment

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Zonder onderwerpscode: economie

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Most of the projections of the cost of meeting climate change mitigation targets hinge crucially upon assumptions made about the cost and timing of the development of breakthrough technologies. However, very little is known about the conditions which are likely to give rise to breakthrough technologies. This paper seeks to uncover attributes of inventions – as reflected in patent data – which serve as “leading indicators” of subsequent technological and market development in climate change mitigation technologies. The role of industrial generality emerges as being robustly correlated with subsequent technological diffusion, whether measured as subsequent patent counts, commercial applicability, or attractiveness to risk finance. The indicator of closeness to science shows also a positive association with later technological diffusion. Originality and radicalness have more ambiguous results. This work can be seen as a foundation for the future development of a methodology providing guidance to policymakers in the choices made with respect to public support for different technological fields.

Science and Technology --- Industry and Services

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A striking variety of policy instruments are used in Victoria, Australia to achieve conservation objectives. These include highly active voluntary programmes, a variety of conservation grants, and a reverse auction for the provision of ecosystem services, known as EcoTender. An open question regarding such payments for ecosystem services (i.e. grants and tenders) is whether they achieve ‘additionality.’ That is, do they lead to conservation above the status quo? Critics of these instruments allege that the majority of funds for such programmes are merely paying individuals for conservation work they are already doing. A related concern is that monetary incentives for conservation may skew landowners’ motives more towards monetary concerns, and erode nature conservation values. The practical implication of this ‘moral crowding out’ is that, if funding is ever suspended for conservation grants or EcoTenders, then conservation may decline below its original, pre-programme level. To investigate both of these concerns, a telephone survey was conducted with 266 farmers in Victoria. Analysis of the data suggests that there is a strong correlation between stated levels of own-property conservation effort and activity in local volunteer groups, as well as having received a conservation grant or tender. However, this does not address the additionality question, because landowners already engaged in such efforts may be more likely to be awarded grants or tenders. This presents an endogeneity problem. While panel data are ultimately necessary to answer this question definitively, application of instrumental variables methods provides some insight. The methods imply that grants and tenders may achieve ‘additionality’ only when they reach those otherwise uninvolved with conservation programmes, in particular those not volunteering. This suggests that conservation tenders can improve their cost-effectiveness by increasing participation among those not already volunteering in other conservation programmes. Meanwhile, there is fairly strong evidence in the data for the potential for moral-crowding-out; tender or grant receipt appears to shift stated motivations towards more monetary concerns. However, the practical implications of this finding – that is, whether this erosion of attitudes translates in blunted conservation efforts – remain unknown.

Environment --- Australia