Urban Water Restrictions: Attitudes, Information and Willingness to Pay

In most urban cities across Australia, water restrictions remain the dominant policy mechanism to restrict urban water consumption. The extensive adoption of water restrictions over several years means that Australian urban water prices have consistently not reflected the opportunity cost of water (Edwards 2008). Given the generally strong political support for water restrictions and the likelihood that they will persist for some time, there is value in understanding householders’ attitudes in this context. More specifically, identifying the welfare estimate associated with avoiding urban water restrictions entirely would be a non-trivial contribution to our knowledge of the costs that attend them. This paper employs the results from the stated preference technique contingent valuation to investigate consumers’ willingness to pay to avoid urban water restrictions. It also investigates the influence that cognitive and exogenous dimensions have on utility gain associated with avoiding water restrictions. Accordingly, discussion provides some salutary insights into the impact of this policy mechanism on economic welfare.Urban water restrictions, water policy, contingent valuation, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy,

When Europeanization Hits Limited Statehood. The Western Balkans as a Test Case for the Transformative Power of Europe

The EU seeks to transform the domestic structures of the Western Balkan countries in order to foster peace, stability and prosperity in the region ridden by war and ethnic conflict. Unlike in case of the Mediterranean and Newly Independent States, the EU has even offered its South Eastern European neighbors a membership perspective. Whether the golden carrot is big enough, however, to draw the Western Balkans closer to Europe, is still an open question. Croatia has made sufficient progress to successfully conclude accession negotiations in the years to come. The EU rewarded domestic reforms in Macedonia and Montenegro with granting them candidate status, which Serbia is likely to receive in the near future. Albania, by contrast, appears to be more reluctant to engage in the changes necessary to get even with Macedonia and Montenegro. Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo, finally, are seriously lagging behind and have not even applied for membership. Can Europeanization approaches account for the differential impact of the EU in the Western Balkans? The paper argues that problems of limited statehood have seriously curbed the transformative power of the EU in the Western Balkans - despite their membership perspective. Not only has the EU exerted less pressure for adaptation on Western Balkan governments. Weak state capacities and ethnic conflicts have reduced both their willingness and capacity to implement the acquis communautaire. Given its lack of experience in state building, the EU is ill-equipped to address these problems. This results in a serious dilemma. On the one hand, the EU has offered the Western Balkans a membership perspective to stabilize the region and overcome problems caused by weak and contested statehood. On the other hand, it is the limited statehood of Western Balkan countries, which undermines their compliance with EU norms and rules.EU-South-Eastern Europe; EU-South-Eastern Europe; Europeanization; Europeanization

Social factors influencing the decision to pay for the protection of biodiversity: A case study in two national parks of Northern Greece

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of social factors (expressed as social norms, institutional and social trust and social networks) on the decision of individuals to pay for the protection of biodiversity. For this purpose an empirical study was carried out in two National Parks of Northern Greece. Three scenarios were proposed differing on the payment mechanism and the management actors (regulatory, market-based and community-based scenarios). Our empirical results show that social capital variables, especially social norms and social trust, have a strong influence both on the decision of individuals to pay and the specific amount stated. Specifically, we find that social norms have a positive influence for the willingness to pay (WTP) of individuals of a state-tax and an entrance fee (regulatory and market-based scenario respectively). Furthermore, social trust has a positive impact for the WTP through an entrance fee and a community tax (market-based and community-based scenario respectively). We also find a higher WTP of individuals towards the market based scenario where participation of citizens is higher compared to the current management status. Concerning the impact of demographic factors, we find that income does not influence the specific amount stated by individuals.Social factors; willingness to pay; biodiversity; Greece

Lawyers in the Shadow of the Regulatory State: Transnational Governance on Business and Human Rights

Lawyers are beginning to play an important role in strengthening the system of transnational governance that regulates business and human rights. In setting the background to our discussion of lawyers’ role in this context, Part I of this Article provides a general overview of the emergence of the transnational governance regime. Part II then describes some of the governance instruments that attempt to prevent and rectify the adverse human rights impacts of business activities. Part III discusses the extent to which lawyers are advising their business clients on human rights issues, the factors that may inhibit or encourage the provision of such advice, and how the lawyers who are raising these issues are framing these discussions with their clients. Finally, Part IV suggests further areas of inquiry that may enrich our understanding of the role that lawyers can play in helping construct a transnational governance regime on business and human rights

Risky Business

This article is part of an exchange including Anthony Alfieri and William Simon in the Georgetown Law Journal on the implications of law firms\u27 increasing reliance on the concept of risk management as the focus of efforts to ensure ethical conduct by lawyers. A risk management program involves the adoption of various policies and procedures designed to minimize conduct that may lead to individual and firm liability. Conflicts checking procedures, standard terms in engagement letters, and the requirement of a second signature by a disinterested partner on legal opinions are but a few of such measures. On one hand, the risk management paradigm reflects appreciation of the importance of situational incentives and pressures in shaping behavior in organizational settings. This is an advance over conceptions of legal ethics that assume that behavior is principally a function of individual character. Law firms are now major business enterprises, and their systems of rewards and sanctions, as well as their cultures, necessarily influence the conduct of those who work in them. Attending to the ways in which these influences can reinforce or discourage certain types of behavior can help firms establish and maintain environments that enhance the likelihood that lawyers will act ethically. On the other hand, a risk management approach risks inculcating an instrumental view of legal and ethical provisions. To the extent that it conceptualizes ethics as a matter of avoiding liability, risk management may foster the attitude of Holmes\u27s bad man, who cares only for the material consequences which . . . knowledge [of the law] enables him to predict. The bad man wants to avoid punishment, but has no commitment to legal compliance as a good in itself. This can lead to an impoverished view of law and ethics, in which the choice of behavior is contingent on the costs and benefits of a given course of action. This tension in the risk management model has been examined in the context of corporate legal compliance programs, and law firms may draw useful lessons from that research. Social psychologists and management theorists have identified complex connections among program characteristics, group dynamics, individual perceptions and motives, and employee behavior in the business setting. In particular, they have suggested that instrumental and values-based programs proceed on different premises and contribute to compliance in different ways. Instrumental programs can be effective by affecting employee cost-benefit calculations, while values-based programs can foster appropriate behavior because the employee identifies with the values that this behavior expresses. Scholars suggest that compliance programs with both dimensions generally are necessary, but integrating them into a single program requires careful consideration of how they may interact. The article closes by suggesting that this research on corporate programs may offer useful insights for law firms. It cautions, however, that applying this research will need to take account of the ways in which law firms both resemble and are different from typical business corporations

Marijuana Business Attorneys and the Professional Deference Standard

Imagine that you practice as an attorney in the State of Arkansas. A client solicits your advice about opening a marijuana dispensary or cultivation center. The client might want you to assist him in filing a dispensary application with the State. On the other hand, she might want you to negotiate a commercial lease or to provide services to ensure compliance with municipal zoning laws. Although Arkansas voters approved a constitutional amendment permitting medical marijuana sales, you provide a clear warning to your client: possessing, manufacturing, selling, and distributing marijuana remains a federal crime. After these precautions, however, you proceed to business as usual, providing a routine legal service just as you would for any other client

Justifiability of Littering: An Empirical Investigation

The paper investigates the relationship between environmental participation and littering. Previous empirical work in the area of littering is scarce as is evidence regarding the determinants of littering behavior. We address these deficiencies, demonstrating a strong empirical link between environmental participation and reduced public littering using European Values Survey (EVS) data for 30 Western and Eastern European countries. The results suggest that membership in environmental organizations strengthens commitment to anti-littering behaviour, thereby supporting improved environmental quality.littering, environmental participation, environmental preferences, environmental outcomes

Implementing multilateral environmental agreements: an analysis of EU directives.

While a number of different theoretical models have been advanced to explain why states implement—or, indeed, do not implement—multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), very little empirical work has been undertaken to validate their predictions. With a view to narrowing this gap, the present article adopts a large-N, econometric approach to test the explanatory power of four distinct models of compliance—domestic adjustment, reputational, constructivist and managerial—in the context of European Union (EU) environmental policy. Using data on the number of ofıcial infringements received by 15 member states for non-implementation of environmental directives over the period 1979–2000, we ınd that all four models make a statistically signiıcant contribution to explaining spatio-temporal differences in legal implementation. Thus, our results suggest that the implementation of MEAs is shaped by a combination of rational calculations of domestic compliance costs and reputational damage, domestically institutionalized normative obligations, and legal and political constraints. We conclude by suggesting a greater need for multi-causal theoretical models of supranational legal compliance.

Giving in to Group Pressure: The Impact of Socialization and Risk on Perceived Outcomes

The current study applies the perspective of decision theory to understanding how choices are made in an in-group setting involving social pressure and risk. Two hundred sixty-one undergraduate students provided assessments of consequences associated with illegally consuming alcohol in different environments with differing degrees of risk. In addition, size of the social group was varied as three, four, or nine. In order to determine the moderating effects, if any, of susceptibility to social influence, a measure of socialization was included. Results provide strong support for socialization as an explanation for how individuals interpret risk-related social situations