Papers by Andrea Baranzini
Environmental Policy and Governance, Jul 1, 2015
Social norms have been included in the theory of collective action to overcome difficulties in ex... more Social norms have been included in the theory of collective action to overcome difficulties in explaining why commons may perform better when self-regulated. The role of trust has been identified in several contexts of local social dilemmas, but only recently has been extended to global commons, based on large descriptive evidence collected by Elinor Ostrom. However, no quantitative evidence was available until now. Using a dataset of 29 European countries over the period 1990-2007, we provide empirical evidence in favor of the role of trust in global dilemmas. We find that trust has a negative impact on greenhouse gas emissions, whose extrapolation to Spain would imply a reduction in emissions of 12.5% if Spaniards would trust each other as Swedish people do.
E3: Energie, Ecologie, Economie, by Gonzague Pillet & Howard Odum. Georg Editeur, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland: xvi + 259 pp., 24 × 16 × 2 cm, illustr., index, English summary, SFrs 48, 1987 Environmental Conservation, 1988
Our use of this term and the derived 'enmergetic' is in deference to earlier attempts in our Jour... more Our use of this term and the derived 'enmergetic' is in deference to earlier attempts in our Journal and elsewhere to escape from confusion of the then-proposed 'emergy' with the common word 'energy' (the latest occasion being on pp. 263-4 of our Autumn issue this year), but we now understand that 'eMergy' has come into common use in this book under review and other recent publications and may well persist.-Ed.
The U.S. Congress established the East-West Center in 1960 to foster mutual understanding and coo... more The U.S. Congress established the East-West Center in 1960 to foster mutual understanding and cooperation among the governments and peoples of the Asia Pacific region including the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, corporations, and Asian and Pacific governments.
Coût et performance des distributeurs d'eau en Suisse
En Suisse, les distributeurs d'eau presentent une grande heterogeneite. Ils different en term... more En Suisse, les distributeurs d'eau presentent une grande heterogeneite. Ils different en termes de taille, de structure ou encore de forme juridique et operent dans des environnements tres divers. Cette disparite se retrouve au niveau des couts. Pour pouvoir au mieux relever les defis futurs, il convient de s'interroger sur les facteurs qui determinent les couts et de proposer des mesures de performance qui permettent de tenir compte de la variete des distributeurs d'eau, notamment au niveau des contraintes environnementales.
IUCN eBooks, 2008
School of Business Administration (HEG-GE); The International Union for Conservation of Nature (I... more School of Business Administration (HEG-GE); The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); United National Environment Programme Economics and Trade Branch (UNEP-ETB) in close collaboration with The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and with the support of Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN) Preface This report is a product of an initiative which is exploring the challenges and opportunities of developing International Payments for Ecosystem Services (IPES), officially launched by IUCN and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in close collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This study focused specifically on one perceived opportunity for developing IPES, namely the concept of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). REDD refers to any conservation or sustainable land-use initiative that effectively mitigates a real deforestation/degradation threat in a given area. Considering that close to 25% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and forest degradation, REDD is currently being considered as a potentially promising climate change mitigation strategy. The main component of this research project is a socio-economic survey of public attitudes and preferences towards REDD (also referred to as avoided deforestation). The survey was carried out as part of a post-graduate course offered by the Geneva School of Business Administration (HEG Geneva), with oversight provided by all of the project partners. The results provided in this report reflect the preliminary findings of a statistical analysis of the information collected through the survey. The report is composed of two main sections. The first one is a literature review by David Huberman, which served as the theoretical foundation for the survey. The second main section is a presentation of the preliminary results obtained through the survey by Anne-Kathrin Faust and Andrea Baranzini. The two questionnaires which were used as part of the survey are attached as an annex.
This paper estimates a translog cost function for Swiss water utilities. From the cost function, ... more This paper estimates a translog cost function for Swiss water utilities. From the cost function, we are able to estimate measures of marginal costs as well as economies of production density, customer density and scale, which are important determinants in water policies, such as planning and water tariffs. In order to explore the determinants of water supply costs, their structure and composition, the translog cost function does not only include output and input prices, but further integrates environmental factors such as the proportion of households among customers and water losses. We find moderate returns to production density, which decrease with the size of the utility.
This paper analyzes sustainable growth in a stochastic environment, with human extinction as a po... more This paper analyzes sustainable growth in a stochastic environment, with human extinction as a possible outcome. The basic constraint of sustainability is that consumption never decreases over an infinite horizon, which requires that the probability of extinction be maintained at zero. We show that this problem can be examined in a standard optimal-growth model. Under certain conditions, the solution of this problem is a corner solution with probability of survival equal to one, at the cost of economic growth. These conditions depend on the initial development level and on the elasticity of utility with respect to consumption. In some circumstances, which depend on the social discount rate, optimal-growth paths do not exist. In these situations, the sustainable-growth concept has a dear autonomy with respect to the usual optimality criterion.
Social Science Research Network, 2003
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has set ... more The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has set legally binding emissions targets for a basket of six greenhouse gases and timetables for industrialised countries. It has also incorporated three international flexibility mechanisms. However, the Articles defining the flexibility mechanisms carry wording that their use must be supplemental to domestic actions. This has led to the open debates on interpretations of these supplementarity provisions. Such debates ended at the resumed sixth Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC,
Sizing the global GHG offset market
Energy Policy, Mar 1, 1999
ABSTRACT By authorising the international exchange of allowances and reduction credits for greenh... more ABSTRACT By authorising the international exchange of allowances and reduction credits for greenhouse gas emissions, the Kyoto Protocol ‘flexibility’ mechanisms will spawn a global market for greenhouse gas emission offsets. If conditions for ‘supplementarity’ – the extent to which countries may use international mechanisms relative to domestic efforts – remain relaxed, market access and liquidity is expected to be high. This scoping paper aims to broadly assess market size and value. By comparing future allowances with varied economic growth-sensitive emissions projections for countries with emissions limitation commitments under the Protocol, we estimate the annual size of this global market offset to be ∼850–1500 MtC/yr during the 2008–2012 commitment peroiod. Further, we find no more than 1/3 of market demand can be satisfied through ‘hot air’ trading, ie, the exchange of certain countries' excess allowances. Variable costs for supply-side options in this global market, and uncertainty on how future supplementarity policies might limit free-market demand-side allocations, render a precise estimation of market value difficult. However, considering two supplementarity cases and cost data consistent with recent studies, we infer total market value to be ∼24–37 $b/yr during the commitment period, of which 9–17 $b/yr would take place through flexible mechanism transactions.
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 2001
We would like to thank Mr. Serge Quarroz from the Swiss National Accident Insurance Company (SUVA... more We would like to thank Mr. Serge Quarroz from the Swiss National Accident Insurance Company (SUVA) for providing us with the data and guidelines. We also wish to thank Jaya Krishnakumar for helpful comments. The usual caveat applies. 1-For instance, the value of health impacts represents between 70 and 90 percent of the external costs of fossil fuel energy cycles as calculated by European Commission (1995) and around 75 percent of the monetary benefits of the Clean Air Act in the US (cf. EPA, 1997). 
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Papers by Andrea Baranzini