Pesticides pose serious threats to both human health and the environment. In Europe, farmers are encouraged to reduce their use, and in France a recent environmental policy fixed a target of halving the pesticide use by 2018. Organic and integrated cropping systems have been proposed as possible solutions for reducing pesticide use, but the effect of reducing pesticide use on crop yield remains...

Traditional methods of risk assessment have provided good service in support of policy, mainly in relation to standard setting and regulation of hazardous chemicals or practices. In recent years, however, it has become apparent that many of the risks facing society are systemic in nature - complex risks, set within wider social, economic and environmental contexts. Reflecting this, policy-makin...

Since World War II, synthetic chemical pollutants have accumulated in the environment and food webs on a global basis, have damaged wildlife populations, and may pose large-scale hazards to human health. Despite the global nature of this problem, the vast majority of environmental regulations focus on preventing local risks using risk assessment of individual compounds, discharge permits, and c...

We study the optimal emission standards under uncertain pollution damages and transaction costs associated with policy changes. We show that in many situations, the authority should avoid or reduce the scale of a policy change in the presence of future transaction costs. Then policy persistence is a rational response of forward-looking policy makers to future transaction costs, rather than a pa...

In this article, we assess ecological, economic and social sustainability impacts of four alternative agricultural policy scenarios relevant to the European perspective. The analysed scenarios are: Prolonged Agenda 2000, On-going CAP reform, Integrated rural and environmental policy, and Liberalised Agricultural Trade. An economic agricultural sector model of Finnish agriculture is used in the ...

Until recently, the interaction between environmental quality, economic activity and growth is predominantly considered in an a-spatial context. Traditional neoclassical growth theor y following Solow/Swan has mainly addressed questions about environmental and resourc e limits to growth. Recently, much attention is also devoted to the environment-growth interface from an endogenous growth persp...

In general equilibrium, Home’s stricter environmental policy can either increase or decrease trading partners’ pollution levels, resulting in positive or negative leakage, respectively. This experiment holds fixed partners’ policies. Home’s stricter policy leads to a reallocation of its factors of production, creating an income and a production effect. These combined effects determine the sign ...

The perception of air quality significantly affects the acceptance of the public of the government's environmental policies. The aim of this research is to explore the relationship between the perception of the air quality of parents and scientific monitoring data and to analyze the factors that affect parents' perceptions. Scientific data of air quality were obtained from Wuhan's environmental...

A third generation of environmental policy making and risk management will increasingly impose environmental measures, which may give rise to analyzing countervailing risks. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of all risks associated with the decision alternatives will aid decision-makers in prioritizing alternatives that effectively reduce both target and countervailing risks. Starting with th...

Food subsidies have the potential to modify ecosystems and affect the provision of goods and services. Predictable Anthropogenic Food Subsidies (PAFS) modify ecosystems by altering ecological processes and food webs. The global concern over the effects of PAFS in ecosystems has led to development of environmental policies aimed at curbing the production or ultimately banning of PAFS. However, t...