Message-ID: <8525677E.0079809F.78@WBLN0014.worldbank.org> Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 18:06:21 -0400 From: mailto:Dshaman@WORLDBANK.ORG Subject: NIPR newsletter, May 1999 To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
1 - Simon et. al., "Valuing Mortality Reductions in India: A Study of Compensating-Wage Differentials" http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/wps2078.htm2 - Parry and Bento, "Tax Deductions, Environmental Policy, and the "Double Dividend" Hypothesis" http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/wps2119.htm
3 - U.S. EPA's Compliance Information Project Features Four Papers from NIPR http://es.epa.gov/oeca/oppa/rt.htm
4 - The media reports on the Philippines EcoWatch public information disclosure status http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/comrole.htm#ecowatch
5 - EPAs of the World updated, and more OnTheNet environmental websites http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/epas/index.htm http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/onthenet.htm
Dear Friends:
The NIPR site continues its commitment to provide timely and informative research and analysis of industrial pollution regulation and control issues in the developing world with several additions for May. These include two new research papers and several new Internet-related features. Also of note is a compilation by the U.S. EPA of compliance-related information that prominently highlights the NIPR team's research.
1 - Simon et. al., "Valuing Mortality Reductions in India: A Study of Compensating-Wage Differentials"
Conducting cost-benefit analyses of health and safety regulations requires placing a dollar value on reductions in health risks, including the risk of death. Compensating-wage differentials derived from labor market data are often used to value mortality risks. Nathalie Simon, Maureen Cropper, Anna Alberini, and Seema Arora estimate compensating- wage differentials for risk of fatal and nonfatal injuries in India's manufacturing industry. Their estimates imply a value of statistical life (VSL) in India of 6.4 million to 15 million 1990 rupees (roughly $150,000 to $360,000 at current exchange rates). This number is between 20 and 48 times forgone earnings, larger than in comparable U.S. studies but smaller than the ratio implied by the only other compensating-wage study for India (Shanmugam 1997). The authors caution that in India, as in the United States, compensating-wage differentials in the labor market may overstate what individuals would themselves pay to reduce the risk of death. They suggest using their estimates as an upper bound on willingness to pay to reduce risk of death, and forgone earnings as a lower bound.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/wps2078.htm
2 - Parry and Bento, "Tax Deductions, Environmental Policy, and the "Double Dividend" Hypothesis"
Recent studies find that environmental tax swaps typically exacerbate the costs of the tax system and therefore do not produce a "double dividend". This paper by Ian Parry and Antonio Bento extends previous models by incorporating tax-favored consumption goods. In this setting, the efficiency gains from recycling environmental tax revenues are larger because preexisting taxes distort the consumption bundle, in addition to factor markets. A genuine "double dividend" is then found. The authors find that incorporating tax-favored consumption in models of environmental tax swaps may overturn key results from earlier studies. In particular, a revenue-neutral pollution tax (or auctioned permits) can produce a substantial "double dividend" by reducing both pollution and the costs of the tax system. The second dividend arises becasue the welfare gain from using environmental tax revenues to cut labor taxes is much larger when labor taxes also distort the choice among consumption goods. Indeed (ignoring environmental benefits), the overall costs of a revenue neutral pollution tax are negative in the benchmark simulations, at least for pollution reduction up to 17 percent, and possibly up to 42 percent. In addition, the authors show that the presence of tax-favored consumption may drastically increase the efficiency gain from using (revenue-neutral) emissions taxes (or auctioned emissions permits) rather than grandfathered emissions permits.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/wps2119.htm
Note: This paper may also be received in PDF format via NIPR "mail-back". If you would like a copy of this paper via email, send an email message to mailto:nipr@ForumOne.com with the subject line "wps2119 request". The file will be sent via return email. It is 203Kb large.
3 - U.S. EPA's Compliance Information Project Features Four Papers from NIPR
The U.S. EPA's Office of Planning and Policy Analysis, as part of its Compliance Information Project (CIP), has produced a compendium of journal and research papers examining a range of environmental compliance issues important to all stakeholders. The CIP program seeks to improve the effectiveness of environmental compliance efforts by conducting extensive literary searches on relevant topics. The collection addresses a number of issues such as why firms comply with environmental requirements; the impact of government sanctions on business decisions; and how superior environmental performance promotes enhanced profitability. The recently released Literature Summaries surveyed more than one hundred compliance related documents, but only featured 17 papers, including four found on NIPR. These include: Monitoring and Enforcement of Environmental Policy; Empowering the Community: Information Strategies for Pollution Control; What Improves Environmental Performance? Evidence from Mexican Industry; Regulation in the Information Age: Indonesian Public Information Program for Environmental Management.
http://es.epa.gov/oeca/oppa/rt.htm
4 - The media reports on the Philippines EcoWatch public information disclosure status
With a special thanks to Bebet Gozun, our colleague in Manila who provided us with translations from Philippino to English, we are able to provide recent media accounts of EcoWatch, the Philippine's Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) public information disclosure program. At the end of last year, DENR publicly identified 19 heavy polluters who had not exerted any effort to reduce and treat harmful discharges to be able to meet water quality standards. In addition, one firm had been closed by DENR for consistent violations of the country's Anti-Pollution Law. The translated articles are now available with other information regarding the progress and developments of EcoWatch.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/comrole.htm#ecowatch
5 - EPAs on the 'Net updated, and more OnTheNet environmental websites
We've updated our EPA's on the 'Net feature, which locates interesting items made available by environmental ministry on their websites. For example, daily air pollution reports are now retrievable for Malaysia and Taiwan. Data on annual pollution trends may found for Taiwan, Hungary, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Annual reports for the Philippines and Estonia are online. And Hungary has published a case study which provides a revealing insight into how an agency views and addresses a pressing environmental problem.
NIPR's OnTheNet page has a number of new additions as well. Notable updates include: the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, which compiled U.S. EPA and state government databases to create "Eco-maps" providing precise locations of toxic chemical sources and concentrations, contaminated groundwater areas, Superfund sites and more; the U.S. Geological Survey has an Acute Toxicity Database with information on more than 400 chemicals; and the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, which seeks to help policymakers identify key sustainable development issues, along with potential implications and solutions.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/epas/index.htm http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/onthenet.htm
We hope the new updates on NIPR are useful with regards to your own policy work and research efforts. As always, we welcome your comments and ideas, and we appreciate the thoughts and suggestions many of our readers have shared with us. If you know someone who would be interested in receiving the NIPR newsletter, feel free to let us know or have them contact us directly. If you wish to no longer receive our monthly mailings, please let us know by writing David Shaman at mailto:dshaman@worldbank.org. Best wishes.