Holography in 7D Randall-Sundrum cosmology

We define the 7D Randall-Sundrum (RS) background and construct the corresponding 6D theory via AdS/CFT duality. In simple approximations, the Friedmann equation derived from 7D RS cosmology and the brane view-point results exactly match. Possible cosmologies on the bulk side are also outlined.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, talk given at the Cargese Summer School, May 22 - June 3, 200

A Political Economy Approach to Resource Taxation: Weak Sustainability, Revenue Recycling and Regional Planning

We present conceptual and empirical insights on the issue of resource taxation, an intrinsic regional environmental policy. It deals with the implementation of environmental taxes and environmental planning at regional level, as tools aimed at achieving weak sustainability for non renewable resources like aggregates, extracted for a diverse set of economic aims. We frame the discussion in the spirit of refreshing the need of ecological and resource tax reforms at national and regional level-. We do note and discuss the intrinsic peculiarities of resource taxes with respect to emission taxes, namely the integration with regional planning, the use of revenue for weak sustainability objectives, the different role by played technology and efficiency. Factors that are to be taken into account in any specific implementation. We empirically investigate resource taxation issues by focusing on aggregate extraction management and policy of two large Northern Italian regions, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. We conclude that the possible effects of extraction charges for the aggregate market development in Italy can be very limited. The level of charges is generally too low to be expected to have an effect on demand (through aggregate prices) and supply of aggregates. The environmental objectives of planning are, at least for the moment, other than reducing extraction, and they generally consist of minimising external impacts, to support sustainable management of landscapes, and to provide multi-value public goods within the local area. The evidence shows that even more for resource taxes a political economy analysis that encompasses institutional and planning issues is needed to effectively shape environmental policies. The complementarity of land use planning and economic instruments is a key driver of sustainability performances and witness reciprocal influences. The unintended effects of economic instruments are also a crucial thing for evaluating effectiveness and efficiency. Those include positive effects of ‘institutional kind’ on the governance and organizational performance of the integrated policy-planning framework.Resource tax reforms; aggregates; environmental charges; regional planning; sustainability; ex post compensations; Political economy; unintended effects; environmental federalism

The dynamics of delinking in industrial emissions: The role of productivity, trade and R&D

This paper provides new empirical evidence on delinking / Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) for greenhouse gases and other air pollutant emissions in Italy. We analysed a panel dataset based on the Italian NAMEA for 1990-2005 with a specific focus on industry. We integrated the emission-income NAMEA with data on trade openness and R&D expenditures. The highly disaggregated dataset provides a large heterogeneity and can help to overcome the shortcomings of the usual approach to EKC based on cross-country data. We use in this paper CO2, SOx, NOx and PM10 as objects of investigation. We use as empirical models of reference both a standard EKC model and a STIRPAT/IPAT model. Our results show that looking at sector evidence, both decupling and then eventually re-coupling trends could emerge along the path of economic development. The analysis of how stagnation periods affect environmental performances is also of interest.NAMEA, trade openness, labour productivity, EKC, STIRPAT

Embedding the drivers of emission efficiency at regional level Analyses of NAMEA data

This paper provides new empirical evidence on regional-national disparities in environmental efficiency, based on analyses of NAMEA data referring to Italy and the Lazio region, where Rome is the main city. Shift-share analyses provide evidence on the drivers of environmental efficiency and on sector specificity. This confirms the usefulness of this method, in order to investigate structural and efficiency factors at the level of within country environmental efficiency performance. Our evidence shows that although the region around Rome has achieved higher environmental performance compared to Italy mainly thank to its being less industry based, some critical points in the energy sector and in some services should be taken into account in shaping the future development of the region. In addition, the use of regional NAMEA for econometric investigations of emission efficiency drivers at national level shows that though north south disparities favour northern and richer regions, in accordance with development oriented dynamics, environmental hot spots driven by specialization and efficiency related issues also appear in some northern industrial regions. Further, the role of public ad private R&D is of main relevance in enhancing emission on economic value ratios.