Cooperation, Stability and Self-Enforcement in International Environmental Agreements: A Conceptual Discussion

In essence, any international environmental agreement (IEA) implies cooperation of a form or another. The paper seeks for logical foundations of this. It first deals with how the need for cooperation derives from the public good aspect of the externalities involved, as well as with where the source of cooperation lies in cooperative game theory. In either case, the quest for efficiency is claimed to be at the root of cooperation. Next, cooperation is considered from the point of view of stability. After recalling the two competing concepts of stability in use in the IEA literature, new insights on the nature of the gamma core in general are given as well as of the Chander-Tulkens solution within the gamma core. Free riding is also evaluated in relation with the alternative forms of stability under scrutiny. Finally, it is asked whether with the often mentioned virtue of “self enforcement” any conceptual gain is achieved, different from what is meant by efficiency and stability. A skeptical answer is offered, as a reply to Barrett’s (2003) attempt at giving the notion a specific content.International Environmental Agreements, Cooperation, Stability, Self-enforcement

Coalitions in the Uruguay Round: The Extent, Pros and Cons of Developing Country Participation 1,2

This paper both documents the involvement of developing countries in coalitional activity in the current GATT Uruguay round thus far, and provides a rudimenting evaluation of the pros and cons of the different options for them as far as coalitional strategies are concerned. The main conclusions are that much of the coalitional activity involving developing countries thus far in the round has been agenda-moving and joint proposal-making, rather than negotiating involving exchanges of concession. At the same time, however, coalitional activity by a larger group of mid-sized developed and smaller developing countries who see a major interest in preserving the multilateral system has been central to the process.

Equity and economic theory: reflections on methodology and scope

This paper provides an introduction to the recent literature on ordinal distributive justice. Its objetive is to explain the process of the mathematical analysis of fairness and to consider its potential for solving real allocative problems by means of several illustrative examples