Environmental Mechanism Designs in a New Order of Regulatory Capitalism

Complexity of environmental programs is most apparent with information asymmetries, making the design of efficient mechanisms particularly challenging. As developed theoretically in this paper, a new regulatory capitalism paradigm mating voluntary agreements with environmental education can produce outcomes at least as efficient as voluntary agreements alone. Such a design exploits a key difference between voluntary agreements versus educational programs in terms of their impact on agents' incentive compatibilities. Specifically, in a principal-agent model, voluntary agreements are associated with an incentive-compatibility constraint, whereas educational programs are not. The efficient bundle will likely consist of a set of education programs and voluntary agreements. With the new order of regulatory capitalism, it is time to concentrate on removing barriers yielding inefficient mono-mechanism design and start constructing multidimensional incentives to efficiently allocate effort toward environmental and economic goals.Command and control, environmental education, environmental policy, voluntary agreements, Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Pre-K Pinch: Early Education and the Middle Class

Reviews evidence on the benefits of pre-K programs and the difficulties families that do not qualify for state programs face in paying for early education. Calls for high-quality, voluntary, state-funded programs for all. Includes state-level analyses

Retrospective Examination of Demand-side Energy-efficiency Policies

Energy efficiency policies are a primary avenue for reducing carbon emissions, with potential additional benefits from improved air quality and energy security. We review literature on a broad range of existing non-transportation energy efficiency policies covering appliance standards, financial incentives, information and voluntary programs, and government energy use (building and professional codes are not included). Estimates indicate these programs are likely to have collectively saved up to 4 quads of energy annually, with appliance standards and utility demand-side management likely making up at least half these savings. Energy Star, Climate Challenge, and 1605b voluntary emissions reductions may also contribute significantly to aggregate energy savings, but how much of these savings would have occurred absent these programs is less clear. Although even more uncertain, reductions in CO2, NOX, SO2, and PM-10 associated with energy savings may contribute about 10% more to the value of energy savings.energy efficiency policy, appliance standards, information, incentives, voluntary programs

Determinants and Effects on Property Values of Participation in Voluntary Cleanup Programs: The Case of Colorado

State Voluntary Cleanup Programs (VCPs) were established starting in the 1990s to encourage the environmental remediation and redevelopment of contaminated properties. These programs typically offer liability relief, subsidies and other regulatory incentives in exchange for site cleanup. This paper asks three questions: First, what type of properties are attracted to voluntary cleanup programs? Second, what is the interaction between these state programs and other incentives for remediation and economic development, such as Enterprise Zone and Brownfield Zone designations? Third, what is the effect of participation in the VCP on property values? We use data from Colorado’s VCP to answer these questions. We find that most of the properties enrolled in this program were not previously listed on EPA’s contaminated site registries, and that most applicants seek to obtain directly a “no further action” determination without undergoing remediation. The main determinants of participation are the size of the parcel and whether the surrounding land use is primarily residential, while other incentives have little effect. Properties with confirmed contamination sell at a 47% discount relative to comparable uncontaminated parcels, and participation tends to raise the property price, but this latter effect is not statistically significant. Taken together, these findings suggest that the participating properties are those with high development potential, and hint at the possibility that owners or developers may be seeking to obtain a clean bill of health from the State with only minimal or no cleanup efforts. Were these findings confirmed with data from other states, they would raise doubts about the effectiveness of voluntary programs in encouraging remediation and their usefulness in reversing some of the undesired effects of the Superfund legislation.Brownfields, Contaminated sites, Voluntary cleanup programs, Incentives

Strategic Aspects of Voluntary Disclosure Programs for Corruption Offences - Towards a Design of Good Practice -

Even though high penalties for corruption offences have a deterrent and preventive effect, they also entrap bribe-takers and bribe-givers in their corrupt relationship. Moreover, pending penalties can be misused to make threats against opportunistic behavior and can thus stabilize risky bribe agreements. This paper shows how voluntary disclosure programs can be strategically applied to break the ‘pact of silence’ and to promote opportunism in a targeted way. Against this background the paper studies the leniency provisions in the penal codes of 56 countries. The analysis reveals deficiencies in the utilization and in the design of voluntary disclosure programs for corruption offences.Corruption, Criminal Law, Leniency, Self-Reporting, Voluntary Disclosure Program

Evaluating Voluntary Climate Programs in the United States

Despite serving as the principal basis of U.S. climate policy over the past two decades, corporate voluntary environmental programs have been subject to quite limited evaluation. The self-selection of participants—an essential element of such initiatives—poses particular challenges to researchers because the decision to participate may not be random and, in fact, may be correlated with the outcomes. The present study is designed to overcome these problems by gauging the environmental effectiveness of two early voluntary climate change programs with established track records, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Wise program and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program, or 1605(b). Both programs provide quite flexible criteria for firms to participate. Particular attention is paid to the participation decision and how various assumptions affect estimates of program outcomes using propensity score matching methods applied to plant-level Census data. Overall, we find quite modest effects: the reductions in fuel and electricity expenditures from Climate Wise and 1605(b) are no more than 10 percent and probably less than 5 percent. Virtually no evidence suggests a statistically significant effect of either Climate Wise or 1605(b) on fuel costs. Some evidence indicates that participation in Climate Wise led to a slight (3–5 percent) increase in electricity costs that vanished after two years. Stronger evidence suggests that participation in 1605(b) led to a slight (4–8 percent) decrease in electricity costs that persisted for at least three years.voluntary, regulation, energy, climate change

First Nations Child and Family Services and Indigenous Knowledge as a Framework for Research, Policy and Practice

This paper provides an overview of the exciting national developments in First Nations child and family service delivery in Canada with a focus on progressive research, policy and practice. Examples of how traditional concepts of interdependence and the holistic worldview inform program design and delivery within First Nations communities are reviewed. In addition, the paper introduces the mandate, strategic directions and services of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. This national organization brings together the 105 First Nations Child and Family Service Agencies in Canada to share best practices, develop professional development programs and conduct research. Emerging policy and research programs within the society are highlighted. FNCFCS, with the generous support of the Voluntary Sector Initiative, will be developing resources and programs to foster effective policy making and program design between First Nations child and family service programs, the public, private and voluntary sectors. These programs are intended to enhance interdisciplinary cooperation and practice in order to meet the needs of First Nations children, families and communities. Special emphasis is also be placed on the First Nations research agenda and the associated steps to increase research capacity within First Nations communities through the Health Canada Child Welfare Centre of Excellence First Nations Research Site in Winnipeg Manitoba

Involuntary unemployment: getting to the heart of the problem

Bill Mitchell and Joan Muysken explore the evolution of economic theory from a construction of unemployment as a voluntary optimal state to the 1930s conception as a systemic failure (involuntary) to the resurgence in current times to a belief that all unemployment is voluntary. This evolution has allowed policy makers to abandon full employment and replace it with the diminished goal of full employability and waste money on a raft of ineffective supply-side programs that coerce and humiliate the victims - the involuntary unemployed

Measuring the Impact of Youth Voluntary Service Programs

Summary and Conclusions of a meeting of international experts hosted by the World Bank and Innovations in Civic Participation to discuss evaluation of the impact of youth civic engagement on development

Optimizing Voluntary Deforestation Policy in the Face of Adverse Selection and Costly Transfers

As part of international climate change policy, voluntary opt-in programs to reduce emissions in unregulated sectors or countries have spurred considerable discussion. Since any regulator will make errors in predicting baselines, adverse selection will reduce efficiency since participants will self-select into the program. In contrast, pure subsidies lead to full participation but require large financial transfers; this is a particular challenge across countries. A global social planner facing costless transfers would choose such a subsidy to maximize efficiency. However, any actual policy needs to be individually rational for both the buying (industrialized) and selling (developing) country. We present a simple model to analyze this trade-off between adverse selection and infra-marginal transfers. The model leads to the following findings. First, extending the scale of voluntary programs both improves efficiency and reduces transfers. Second, the set of individually rational and Pareto efficient policies typically features a combination of credit discounting and stringent assigned baselines which reduce efficiency. Third, if the industrialized countries can be persuaded to be more generous, the feasible policy set can come close to the globally efficient policy to avoid deforestation..Voluntary opt-in; adverse selection; deforestation; offsets; emissions trading; REDD