Suchergebnisse

Despite favourable ecological and economic results, many developing countries have not yet adopted an integrated pesticide management (IPM). Given rising marginal costs and diminishing marginal benefits from IPM technology transfer, an optimal control framework is used to identify optimal rates of technology transfer. The framework is applied to Nepalese agriculture to illustrate the dynamic adoption process for IPM. The results indicate that public IPM technology transfer programs should be targeted to maintain about 50% of agricultural production in IPM. The benefit-cost ratio is approximately 7.9:1. If the educational program is financed by a tax on chemical inputs the benefit-cost ratio would be 9.1:1.

This paper provides a technical description of GEM-PIA, a recursive-dynamic computable General Equilibrium Model for Poverty Impact Analysis in individual countries. The model combines the optimizing behavior of CGE models with the asset portfolio behavior of macromodels, thereby addressing the role of financial markets. Moreover, the model is linked to household survey information, thereby capturing the socio-economic characteristics of individual households. GEM-PIA can be used for counterfactual analysis of external shocks as well as various policies at the macro and meso level, and to assess their allocational and distributional consequences. The model is calibrated to Bolivian data and its working is illustrated in two scenarios: A permanent rise of gas exports and a temporary devaluation.

There is no doubt that improved hazardous waste management in mining and mineral processing will reduce environmental and health risks in South Africa. However, sceptics fear that waste reduction, appropriate treatment and disposal are not affordable within the current economic circumstances of the country. In particular, it is argued that higher treatment and disposal costs would weaken the country's international competitiveness in important export markets on the one hand, and place heavy adjustment costs on black workers on the other. Thus, improvements in waste management are not enforceable, from either an economic or a social point of view. This article deals mainly with the first aspect and touches upon the second. It investigates the short-term and long-term sectoral impacts of an environmental tax on hazardous waste in South African mining, using an open-economy multisectoral computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The results bear out the expectation that the possibilities for shifting higher production costs are limited in an open economy. Moreover, the results also show that the brunt of the adjustment resulting from an isolated approach towards hazardous waste management will have to be borne by black workers. (Dev South Afr/DÜI)

There is no doubt that an improved hazardous waste management in mining and mineral processing will reduce environmental and health risks in South Africa. However, skeptics fear that waste reduction, appropriate treatment and disposal are not affordable within the current economic circumstances, neither from an economic nor from a social point of view. This paper mainly deals with the first aspect and touches upon the second. It investigates the short-run and long-run sectoral impacts of an environmental tax on hazardous waste in South African mining using an open-economy multisectoral general equilibrium model. The results bear out the expectation that the possibilities for shifting higher production costs are limited in an open economy. Moreover, the results show that the brunt of adjustment of an isolated approach towards hazardous waste management has to be beared by black workers.

The 'deforestation problem' in Brazil consists of a variety of interrelated issues, of which this paper identifies a regional, sectoral and macroeconomic dimension. Using a regionally and sectorally disaggregated general equilibrium model of Brazil, it is shown that macroeconomic reform is complementary to conservation policies. Therefore, if not for other reasons, macroeconomic reform is urgently needed to provide an adequate framework for microeconomic conservation policies to be effective. The analysis also shows that regional land taxes in the Amazon outperform the reduction of fiscal incentives for agriculture, both with regards to ecological effectiveness and efficiency. Finally, the results do not support claims for compensation payments.