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3331. Population and the Environment

Author:
Joel Cohen
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Humans have influenced environmental changes in the past, and vice versa. The two-way interaction between people and their environments will continue in the future. In the coming half-century, the human population will probably be larger, more slowly growing, more urban, and older than in the twentieth century. No one knows whether humans will be more internationally mobile. These changes, with uncertain environmental consequences, result from human choices, individual and collective, and are therefore subject to influence by programs and policies.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Environment, Human Welfare, Science and Technology, and OPEC

3332. Free Trade and Environmental Protection

Author:
Daniel C. Esty
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
From the protests in the streets of Seattle during the World Trade Organization's 1999 Ministerial Meeting to the chaos surrounding the 2001 G-8 Summit Meeting in Genoa, the backlash against globalization is increasingly evident. One dimension of this backlash centers on environmental concerns. While economic integration and trade liberalization offer the promise of growth and prosperity, environmental advocates fear that freer trade will lead to increased pollution and resource depletion. At the same time, free traders worry that over- reaching environmental policies will obstruct efforts to open markets and integrate economies around the world. They often see environmentalists as blindly anti-free-trade and protectionist. “Trade and environment” tensions have therefore emerged as a major issue in the debate over globalization. This paper explores the contours of these tensions and argues that trade policy and environmental programs can be better integrated and made more mutually supportive.
Topic:
Development, Environment, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology

3333. The State of the Natural World

Author:
Kathryn S. Fuller
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The sad truth is that the natural world is everywhere disappearing before our eyes. More than 6 billion people fill the world, with a predicted 9 billion in the decades ahead. We are simply too many—the large numbers of poor struggling to raise the quality of their lives in any way they can and the fewer affluent who nonetheless consume so much of nature's bounty.
Topic:
Development, Environment, Government, and Science and Technology

3334. Plant Biotechnology and the Environment

Author:
Gordon Conway
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Many people who worry about the environmental effects of plant biotechnology fear that we are dealing with some new threat. I would argue that this is not the case. It is not plant biotechnology that is new and unknown, it is the combination of biotechnology and globalization, and the incredibly fast pace at which the two spread and interact, that should concern us.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Environment, Government, and Science and Technology

3335. Threats to Democracy: Prevention and Response

Author:
Elizabeth Frawley Bagley and Morton H. Halperin
Publication Date:
11-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Threats to democracy—erosions of democracy and democratic institutions and unconstitutional interruptions to the democratic process—continue to plague countries on the path to democracy. Democratic governments, both individually and in their capacity as members of the Community of Democracies, regional and international organizations, and international financial institutions, must secure more effective international action against threats to democracy in states that have chosen the democratic path.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Globalization, and Government

3336. Sustaining a Revolution: A Policy for Crop Engineering

Author:
David Victor and C. Ford Runge
Publication Date:
05-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Controversy, even fear, of new foods is not new. The tomato was widely regarded as poisonous in the United States and northern Europe as late as the 1830s, due to its relationship to the night-shade family of plants. There was such concern that in 1820, the state of New York banned their consumption. Tomatoes even had their own “Frankenfood” label: “wolf 's peaches.”
Topic:
Development, Environment, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

3337. From a Recipient of Aid Towards an Independent Actor: The Impacts of EU Integration on Estonia's Civil Society

Author:
Kristi Raik
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
In recent scholarly and political debates, civil society has often been considered one of the weakest, if not the weakest aspect of democracy in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). Although the Eastern EU applicant states have been fairly successful in establishing democratic institutions and formal procedures, all of them suffer from political apathy and alienation of the citizens, low public trust in state authorities, and general dissatisfaction with the functioning of democracy – even though democracy is valued in principle. In the face of these problems, activation of a sphere of civic initiative and organisation is seen by many analysts as one important means for improving the quality of democracy. Support to the development of civil society has also been an increasingly important aspect of EU policy aimed at strengthening democracy in the Eastern candidate countries. In addition to supporting civic activity in general, the EU has in recent years started to pay attention to the involvement of civil society in the Eastern enlargement process. It has been underlined that in order to guarantee the legitimacy and effectiveness of integration, citizens and nongovernmental actors should play a stronger role in the candidate countries' preparations for EU accession.
Topic:
Democratization and Development
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, and Estonia

3338. French E-Managers: A Generation in the Making

Author:
Mette Zølner
Publication Date:
09-2002
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The article examines French cinematographic policy toward Africa within the context of the shift in control from the French Ministry of Cooperation and Development to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Is francophone West Africa losing its privileged position in French cinematographic policy? During the first two years of the new regime for cinema a dual dynamic was evident, with both transition and historical continuity. In the final months of 2001 a clearer message appears in the politics of African cinema at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Central elements of the film policy under the Ministry of Cooperation are compared to current policy and then situated into French film politics in a more general sense.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Africa

3339. Inflation Persistence and Optimal Monetary Policy in the Euro Area

Author:
Pierpaolo Benigno and J. David Lopez-Salido
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
In this paper we first present supporting evidence of the existence of heterogeneity in inflation dynamics across euro area countries. Based on the estimation of New Phillips Curves for five major countries of the euro area, we find that there is significant inertial (backward looking) behavior in inflation in four of them, while inflation in Germany has a dominant forward looking component. In the second part of the paper we present an optimizing agent model for the euro area emphasizing the heterogeneity in inflation persistence across regions. Allowing for such a backward looking component will affect the evaluation of the degree of nominal rigidities relevant for the monetary policy design. We explore the welfare implications of this circumstance by comparing the adjustment of the economies and the area as a whole in response to terms-of-trade shocks under four monetary policy rules: fully optimal, optimal inflation targeting, HICP targeting and output gap stabilization.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Europe

3340. Monetary Policy and the Financial Accelerator in a Monetary Union

Author:
Simon Gilchrist, Jean-Olivier Hairault, and Hubert Kempf
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
In this paper, we consider the effect of a monetary union in a model with a significant role for financial market imperfections. We do so by introducing a financial accelerator into a stochastic general equilibrium macro model of a two country economy. We show that financial market imperfections introduce important cross-country transmission mechanisms to asymmetric shocks to supply and demand. Within this framework, we study the likely costs and benefits of monetary union. We also consider the effects of cross-country heterogeneity in financial markets. Both the presence of financial frictions and the use of a single currency have significant impacts on the international propagation of exogenous shocks. The introduction of asymmetries in the financial contract widens the difference in cyclical behavior of national economies in a monetary union, but financial integration compensates the loss of policy instruments.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States