Cohomology operations and algebraic geometry

The manuscript is an overview of the motivations and foundations lying behind Voevodsky's ideas of constructing categories similar to the ordinary topological homotopy categories. The objects of these categories are strictly related to algebraic varieties and preserve some of their algebraic invariants.Comment: This is the version published by Geometry & Topology Monographs on 29 January 200

Divisibility of characteristic numbers

We use homotopy theory to define certain rational coefficients characteristic numbers with integral values, depending on a given prime number q and positive integer t. We prove the first nontrivial degree formula and use it to show that existence of morphisms between algebraic varieties for which these numbers are not divisible by q give information on the degree of such morphisms or on zero cycles of the target variety.Comment: This is the version published by Geometry & Topology Monographs on 29 January 200

The Environmental Kuznets Curve: a Survey of the Literature

In the last few years, several studies have found an inverted-U relationship between per capita income and environmental degradation. This relationship, known as the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), suggests that environmental degradation increases in the early stages of growth, but it eventually decreases as income exceeds a threshold level. The present paper reviews both early and recent contributions on this subject, discussing whether and to what extent such a curve can be empirically observed, and the policy implications that derive from the empirical evidenceEnvironmental Kuznets Curve, Growth, Pollution

Sustainability for all? a North-South-East-West model

This paper examines whether it is possible for all countries to simultaneously achieve efficient and sustainable allocations of resources even if they do not cooperate in a world with inter-generational and intra-generational externalities. Using a simple model with two governments one for the north- and one for the south- we show that one hemisphere cannot always achieve efficiency and sustainability independently of the other, that is, whatever allocation is chosen by the other hemisphere. However, the north and the south can simultaneously achieve efficiency and sustainability if each government aims separately at these two goals in its own hemisphere

Preserving or escaping? On the welfare effects of environmental self-protective choices

In modern societies individuals often try to alleviate their personal damages from environmental degradation by increasing their consumption of private goods. Although this “self-protective” behavior is very frequent in industrial economies, insufficient attention has been paid to its economic and environmental consequences. In this paper we show that such a behavior can give rise to a self-reinforcing growth process in which environmental degradation increases economic growth and vice-versa, leading the economy on a welfare-reducing path. For this purpose, we first provide several examples of environmental self-protective choices to give a heuristic view of this phenomenon and then examine their effects through a two-islands evolutionary model that leads the reader beyond a purely intuitive understanding of the argument. Although the proposed model is deliberately very simple, it may provide some interesting insights on an aspect that has been mainly ignored in the literature so far.Self-protective choices; defensive expenditures; environmental degradation; negative externalities; economic growth.

GLOBAL HEALTH

The process of globalisation affects more and more the life quality of people around the world. In particular it impinges in different ways upon their health. In its turn the health of people affects the demographic and economic growth as well as their sustainability. However, notwithstanding the fundamental importance of this feedback, the nexus between globalisation, sustainable development and health has been insufficiently analysed. This paper aims to explore the main channels of influence through which the recent process of globalisation has affected the health of people, exerting an important influence on the sustainability of world development. To this end we try to identify the principal, direct and indirect, empirical correlations between the main features of globalisation and different indices of health; we proceed then to a preliminary discussion of their causal contents. The indirect correlations run in both directions. This feature turns out to be particularly important since the feed-back between the main intermediate variables (income growth, income inequality and environmental degradation) and different aspects of health plays a crucial role in determining the sustainability of world development.globalisation; inequality; environmental degradation; economic growth;