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Sustainable Development and International Distribution: Theory and Application to Rainforests
Author(s) -
Mohr Ernst
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
review of international economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.513
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1467-9396
pISSN - 0965-7576
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9396.1996.tb00093.x
Subject(s) - rainforest , economics , incentive , natural resource economics , negotiation , redistribution (election) , sustainable development , distribution (mathematics) , welfare , tropical rainforest , microeconomics , ecology , political science , market economy , mathematical analysis , mathematics , politics , law , biology
A situation is analyzed in which two countries negotiate the financing of costs that accrue if one of them switches onto a sustainable development path. The other country's incentive to pay arises as it benefits from the developing country's environmental resources, but at an ever declining rate as long as development remains nonsustainable. In an application to the protection of tropical rainforests it is shown that North to South redistribution of welfare would be substantial, yet the North would still gain enormously in efficiency terms. An explanation is given of why the Rio Conference failed in terms of rainforest protection.