In this paper we present an example where a domestic import-competing industry can benefit from a pollution tax borne by its consumers. We show that this pollution tax can be similar to a traditional trade barrier (such as a tariff) and can raise the price received by the domestic industry. Given an open economy, we highlight conditions under which domestic producers prefer a higher consumption-based pollution tax than is socially optimal. In contrast, when the economy is closed, we find that producers prefer a pollution tax that is lower than socially optimal. Domestic producers turn ‘green’ only when faced with import competition.

Continental-scale economic analysis suggests that changes in climate conditions are associated with lower agricultural net revenue in sub-Saharan Africa. Specific locations, however, may not reflect this overall trend due to variation in baseline climate, soils, and socioeconomic factors that are difficult to model at large scales. The economic effect of changes in climate conditions on agricultural revenue in particular places in sub-Saharan Africa remains largely unknown. To test this effect, we study an area of West Africa with high climate variation over a small geographic area. We find that higher temperatures and precipitation lower agricultural revenues in the more important rainy season but increase revenues in the less important cool, dry season.

In this paper we assess the potential economic effects of climate change on Brazilian agriculture scenarios in different regions in a general equilibrium framework, using a detailed regional economic database for the year 2005. Two different climate change impact scenarios are simulated. This paper extends the Brazilian literature in three different ways: by considering detailed shocks by product and region; by highlighting the connections between the potential impacts of climate change on agriculture and the labor market, with an inter-regional focus; and by specifying the links between climate change forecasts for agriculture and household expenditures. Results show that climate change impacts on Brazilian agriculture would have a relatively small economic effect on the Brazilian economy in aggregate terms, but with severe consequences at the regional level, making a strong case for losses that would be concentrated in the poorest regions and for the poorest workers and households in those regions.

This paper analyzes the potential effects of climate change on Brazilian agriculture by considering irrigation as an adaptive strategy. Investigations were performed to determine how climatic variability influences irrigation and whether this adaptive measure actually reduces producers' vulnerability to climate change. We used a simultaneous equations model with endogenous switching to account for the heterogeneity in the decision of whether to use adaptive measures. We compared the expected land values under the actual and counterfactual cases of farm households that either adapt or do not adapt to climate change. Simulation results show that irrigation can be an effective tool for counteracting the harmful effects of climate change. The income of farmers tends to increase on lands where irrigation technologies are practiced. These conclusions confirm the need to invest in adaptation strategies to prepare Brazil for coping with the adverse effects of global climate change.

The provision of environmental services on-farm by the improved fallow (an agroforestry technology) has largely remained empirically untested in sub-Saharan Africa. Where effects of planting trees have been used to estimate the impacts on consumption of fuel wood from public land, actual estimates of the size of fuel wood consumption changes have been lacking. Using data from a survey of 324 households in the Chongwe district of Zambia, we tested the hypothesis that households embracing improved fallows use less fuel wood from public land since the technology provides wood as a by-product. Estimates from ordered probit and matching strategies showed that the technology had a significant causal effect of reducing the consumption of fuel wood from public land. Therefore, in addition to promoting it for soil fertility improvement, the extension messages should explicitly reflect the technology's potential to provide on-farm environmental quality.

During the last 20 years, the mining sector in Peru has been experiencing sustained growth. Using census, administrative, nationally and regionally representative data we compare districts in the Peruvian Highlands with a recent mining development with suitable counterfactuals. We find that the new mining activities attract migration inflows, and have some positive effects over educational indicators, and that these impacts, on average, are smaller in districts with lower levels of corporate social expenditure. However, the results of this study suggest that the local potential welfare impact of the mining boom is largely untapped and corporate social responsibility has had a limited role in improving this effect.

This paper analyzes the effect of reducing pre-harvest burning of sugar cane on the population's respiratory health in Brazil. We collected data for the municipalities in the state of São Paulo for two different periods: 2000, before the state law requiring the gradual elimination of sugar cane area utilizing pre-burning, and 2007. We used panel models for inpatient visits due to respiratory diseases, outpatient visits for inhalation procedures and length of stay for inpatient visits due to respiratory diseases, controlling for the endogeneity between health and pollution. The results show that increasing the area of raw sugar cane harvested reduces the number of inpatient visits and does not affect the number of inhalation procedures or length of stay.