TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jha,Raghbendra
AU  - Whalley,John
TI  - The Environmental Regime in Developing Countries
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7305
PY  - 1999
Y2  - August 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7305
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7305.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John Whalley
Department of Economics
Social Science Centre
University of Western Ontario
London, ON N6A 5C2
CANADA
Tel: 519/661-3509
Fax: 519/661-3666
E-Mail: jwhalley@uwo.ca
M1  - published as Raghbendra Jha, John Whalley. "The Environmental Regime in Developing Countries," in Carlo Carraro and Gilbert E. Metcalf, editors, "Behavioral and Distributional Effects of Environmental Policy" University of Chicago Press (2001)

AB  - This paper discusses the environmental externalities that are commonly found in the developing world (the environmental regime) along with the policy responses, if any, commonly used to deal with these.  Included are the effects of industrial emissions, air and water quality impacts of untreated waste (industrial and human waste), congestion effects of traffic, soil erosion, and open access resource problems (including forests).  We note the tendency in much literature of the last few years to equate environmental problems in developing countries with pollutants (or emissions).  The paper argues that to discuss environmental problems in developing countries (or to compare with developed countries) without reference to degradation as well as pollutants is incomplete; the effects of the former are large and pervasive, and their severity and interaction with economic process often differs sharply from that of pollutants.  The paper concludes with a discussion of how environmental policy in developing countries differs from that found in developed countries in light of our focus on degradation effects.
ER  -