Essays In Environmental And Resource Economics PDF Download

This dissertation is comprised of three chapters. Chapter 1 provides a new explanation for the observed slow growth of resource-rich economies--a slow-growing resource industry. A dual-sector model illustrates that if a natural-resource industry grows more slowly than the rest of the economy, an increase in resource technology necessarily decreases economic growth. This implies that testing for a resource curse by estimating the conditional relationship between economic growth and resource dependence is insufficient. After neutralizing the confounding effect of a slow-growing natural-resource industry, there is little evidence that a resource curse exists at the country level. This methodology is also applied to the U.S.-county level. The results suggest natural resources act as a catalyst for growth at the sub-national level. Chapter 2 considers the extent to which stated preference surveys suffer from social-pressure bias. I develop a model that predicts social pressure creates greater bias in a referendum relative to a dichotomous-choice mechanism. Experimental evidence supports this theory. Social pressure did not significantly affect response rates in the dichotomous-choice mechanism, whereas as it did in the referendum. This result suggests if one elicits preferences in an environment where subjects experience social pressure, the dichotomous-choice device may be the more reliable elicitation mechanism. Motivated in part by the results given in Chapter 1, Chapter 3 explores how natural-resource wealth may stimulate economic growth. A dynamic growth model suggests income tax rates are decreasing in resource wealth. The model further predicts that decreasing income tax rates stimulates economic growth. U.S.-state data is moderately consistent with this theory. Governments in resource-dependent states tend to have lower income tax rates--suggesting local governments treat resource-based revenue as a substitute for other revenue sources. Examining a cross section of the data suggests decreasing income tax rates stimulates growth. However, consistent with existing literature, a panel of data indicates the relationship between income tax rates and growth is insignificant.