Political Economy of Grant Allocations: The Case of Federal Highway Demonstration Grants

This article examines the political economy of U.S. federal highway demonstration grant allocations. Demonstration grants are a rapidly growing segment of federal highway grants directly earmarked for a congressional district by Congress, unlike the majority of highway grants where Congress determines a formula and allocates funds accordingly to states. Our empirical analysis, considering the period 1983-2003, suggests that a state's ability to attract demonstration project grants is positively influenced by its contributions to the highway trust fund and political variables, and it is not affected by the formula highway aid and vehicle miles traveled in a state. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.

The role of offsets in a post-Kyoto climate agreement: The power sector in China

This paper considers how an offset scheme specific to the electricity generation sector could incentivize emissions cuts while avoiding the problems encountered by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It proposes an approach to project evaluation based on measures of additionality, economic viability and contribution to sustainable development specific to this sector and re-evaluates 460 registered CDM projects in China that generate electricity using wind, natural gas or small hydro. It concludes that many small hydro schemes would be viable without the CDM subsidy. Although these projects have zero emissions from operations, offsets issued to projects that are viable without subsidy permit increased emissions in developed countries and lead to a net increase in global emissions. To provide some indication of the sustainable development benefits that CDM projects bring to their host countries, the paper includes estimates of the projects' benefit to public health due to the reduced use of coal for generation. The paper provides insights into the economics of projects and their value to host countries that are missed by the official CDM methodologies. It contributes to the debate over the design of sector-specific offset schemes that may be part of a new global agreement on combating climate change.Clean Development Mechanism Offset scheme Electricity generation

The State of American Federalism 2010--2011: The Economy, Healthcare Reform and Midterm Elections Shape the Intergovernmental Agenda

The slow and jobless economic recovery, the midterm elections and the passage of healthcare reform legislation dominated the political landscape in 2010. The growing momentum behind federal deficit reduction and budget cuts provided a stark juxtaposition to the previously active federal role in stimulating the economy. Consequently, state and local budgets face significant belt-tightening. The cross-cutting impacts of these and other significant federal and state policy changes are expected to affect future cost sharing in government programs, place a higher burden on state and local governments over the long term and influence the balance of intergovernmental relations. Many of the important developments in politics, policy, and law during 2010--2011 are more notable for their potential future impact as opposed to immediate impact on American federalism. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.

The Health Effects of Coal Electricity Generation in India

To help inform pollution control policies in the Indian electricity sector we estimate the health damages associated with particulate matter, sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from individual coal-fired power plants. We calculate the damages per ton of pollutant for each of 89 plants and compute total damages in 2008, by pollutant, for 63 plants. We estimate health damages by combining data on power plant emissions of particulate matter, SO2 and NOx with reduced-form intake fraction models that link emissions to changes in population-weighted ambient concentrations of fine particles. Concentration-response functions for fine particles from Pope et al. (2002) are used to estimate premature cardiopulmonary deaths associated with air emissions for persons 30 and older. Our results suggest that 75 percent of premature deaths are associated with fine particles that result from SO2 emissions. After characterizing the distribution of premature mortality across plants we calculate the health benefits and cost-per-life saved of the flue-gas desulfurization unit installed at the Dahanu power plant in Maharashtra and the health benefits of coal washing at the Rihand power plant in Uttar Pradesh