NIPR newsletter, February 1999

mailto:Dshaman@WORLDBANK.ORG
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 17:43:20 -0500 

Message-ID:  <8525670E.007D531C.70@WBLN0014.worldbank.org>
Date:         Thu, 4 Feb 1999 17:43:20 -0500
From: mailto:Dshaman@WORLDBANK.ORG
Subject:      NIPR newsletter, February 1999
To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU


1 - "New Frontiers in Environmental Economics", a research paper by Tietenberg
and Wheeler
2 - Original survey data from "Environmental Regulation and Development: A
Cross-Country Empirical Analysis"
3 - Search NIPR!
4 - More Links for OnTheNet
5 - "Environment Information Systems in Sub-Sahara Africa", new from the Bank's
Africa Region Findings


Dear Friends:


We hope that your holidays were happy and healthy.  Now that we've broken our
New Year's resolutions, we can get down to more serious business.  The New Ideas
in Pollution Regulation website (http://www.worldbank.org/nipr) is offering a
new selection of pollution regulation information which we think will be
informative and helpful.


1 - "New Frontiers in Environmental Economics", a research paper by Tietenberg
and Wheeler


Disclosure strategies, which involve public and/or private attempts to increase
the availability of information on pollution, form the basis for what some have
called the third wave in pollution control policy (after legal regulation--the
first wave--and market-based instruments --the second wave). While these
strategies have become commonplace in natural resource settings, they are less
familiar in a pollution control context.  Experience with this approach is
growing in OECD and developing countries, and in their paper, "New Frontiers in
Environmental Economics", Tom Tietenberg and David Wheeler review what is known
about the use of disclosure strategies to control pollution.   The authors
analyze how the policy setting influences the type of information strategy
employed, review examples of innovative strategies in the U.S., Latin America
and Asia, followed by a comprehensive review of empirical research conducted to
date.  The authors offer a number of thoughts on the overall effectiveness of
disclosure strategies, determinants of effective strategies, biases.  Finally,
they conclude with a series of unanswered questions worthy of further research.


               http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/ecoenv/index.htm


2 - Original survey data from "Environmental Regulation and Development: A
Cross-Country Empirical Analysis"


In "Environmental Regulation and Development: A Cross-Country Empirical
Analysis", available on NIPR since early 1997, authors Susmita Dasgupta, Ashoka
Mody, Subhendu Roy, and David Wheeler developed comparative indices for 31
countries of environmental policy and performance.   In cross-country
regressions, the authors found strong associations between the
indicators and the level of economic development.  The results suggest a
characteristic progression in the development process, from protection of
natural resources to regulation of water pollution and, finally, air pollution
control. They also highlight the
importance of institutional development, with significant roles for degree of
private property protection, effectiveness of the legal/judicial system and
efficiency of public administration.  Using reports from United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, 1992), the authors developed a
set of indicators measuring the status of environmental policy
and performance.  From the UNCED reports, they randomly selected countries,
ranging from highly industrialized to extremely poor, and from every region in
the world.  The survey assessment uses twenty five questions to categorize: the
state of environmental awareness; scope of policies adopted; scope of
legislation enacted; control mechanisms in place; and the degree of success in
implementation.  We are now able to make this survey data available.


               http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/data/envperf/index.htm


3 - Search NIPR!


We have rebuilt the NIPR search engine.  You may now search the full texts of
documents on the NIPR site using this powerful and flexible tool.  Try it out.


               http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/search.htm


4 - More Links for OnTheNet


We have updated the NIPR OnTheNet page of environmental and pollution regulation
links.  Some highlights include: The Economic Performance and Environmental
Quality site which provides databases on economic activity matched with data on
a variety of environmental quality indicators, and examples of economic
instruments used for environmental management; The United States Environmental
Training Institute site which provides training programs linking environmental
organizations and professionals with developing countries to provide technical,
financial and policy-oriented information; The Canadian Centre for Pollution
Prevention which enlightens the public on P2 activities through discussion
groups, publications, training courses and seminar; The Air and Waste Management
Association which seeks to provide scientific and technological responses to
environmental problems, and networking opportunities to environmental
professionals in 65 countries.


               http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/onthenet.htm


5 - "Environment Information Systems in Sub-Sahara Africa", new from the Bank's
Africa Region Findings


The Bank's Africa Region Findings produces a series of ongoing reports on its
operational, economic and sector work.  Now available is a report entitled,
"Environmental Information Systems in Sub-Sahara Africa: From Innovation to
Management".  The report discusses the development of EIS's since the 1970's,
reasons behind the exceptional growth of EIS's related projects in Africa during
the 1990's, lessons learned from initial results, data application issues,
impact issues, and structured versus informal approaches.  If you are interested
in receiving a comprehensive Bank report from 1997, "Environmental Information
Systems in Sub-Sahara Africa", please contact Marie-Claude Verlaeten at
mailto:mverlaeten@worldbank.org.


               http://www.worldbank.org/aftdr/findings/english/find128.htm


As always, we welcome your thoughts and ideas on how to make the NIPR more
helpful, and we extend our appreciation to those who have been forthcoming with
comments and suggestions.  Our research team continues to work on a range of
pollution related issues and looks forward to presenting a number of interesting
products through NIPR in the upcoming months.  If you are familiar with someone
who would be interested in research on the economics of pollution regulation and
abatement issues, feel free to let us know and we will forward our newsletter to
them.  If you wish to no longer receive our monthly mailings, please write David
Shaman at mailto:dshaman@worldbank.org. Best wishes.