IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v34y2009i4p195-204.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mercury: The good, the bad, and the export ban

Author

Listed:
  • Balistreri, Edward J.
  • Worley, Christopher M.

Abstract

We analyze the bipartisan call to ban US exports of commodity mercury. An export ban can generate positive environmental benefits by increasing the scarcity of mercury in developing economies where significant toxic releases occur. We show, however, that a direct mercury purchase and retirement policy can achieve the same foreign environmental goals without adverse impacts on domestic environmental quality. We present qualitative and quantitative evidence that highlight the potential inefficiencies of a mercury export ban as a method of achieving environmental objectives.

Suggested Citation

  • Balistreri, Edward J. & Worley, Christopher M., 2009. "Mercury: The good, the bad, and the export ban," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 195-204, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:34:y:2009:i:4:p:195-204
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4207(09)00033-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fischer, Carolyn, 2004. "The complex interactions of markets for endangered species products," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 926-953, September.
    2. Heltberg, Rasmus, 2001. "Impact of the ivory trade ban on poaching incentives: a numerical example," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 189-195, February.
    3. Bev Dahlby, 2008. "The Marginal Cost of Public Funds: Theory and Applications," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262042509, December.
    4. Rutherford, Thomas F., 1995. "Extension of GAMS for complementarity problems arising in applied economic analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1299-1324, November.
    5. Markusen, James R. & Melvin, James R. & Maskus, Keith E. & Kaempfer, William, 1995. "International trade: theory and evidence," MPRA Paper 21989, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Erwin H. Bulte & G. Cornelis van Kooten, 1999. "Economics of Antipoaching Enforcement and the Ivory Trade Ban," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(2), pages 453-466.
    7. Bulte, Erwin H. & van Kooten, G. Cornelis, 1999. "Economic efficiency, resource conservation and the ivory trade ban," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 171-181, February.
    8. Hilson, Gavin, 2009. "Small-scale mining, poverty and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: An overview," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 1-5.
    9. Khanna, Jyoti & Harford, Jon, 1996. "The ivory trade ban: Is it effective?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 147-155, November.
    10. Barnes, J. I., 1996. "Changes in the economic use value of elephant in Botswana: the effect of international trade prohibition," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 215-230, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Holzer, Kateryna & Karapinar, Baris, 2012. "Legal Implications of the Use of Export Taxes in Addressing Carbon Leakage: Competing Border Adjustment Measures," Papers 215, World Trade Institute.
    2. Gulley, Andrew L., 2017. "Valuing environmental impacts of mercury emissions from gold mining: Dollar per troy ounce estimates for twelve open-pit, small-scale, and artisanal mining sites," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 266-272.
    3. Jacob R. Fooks & Steven J. Dundas & Titus O. Awokuse, 2013. "Are There Efficiency Gains from the Removal of Natural Resource Export Restrictions? Evidence from British Columbia," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(8), pages 1098-1114, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heid, Benedikt & Márquez-Ramos, Laura, 2023. "International environmental agreements and imperfect enforcement: Evidence from CITES," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    2. Brennan, Andrew John & Kalsi, Jaslin Kaur, 2015. "Elephant poaching & ivory trafficking problems in Sub-Saharan Africa: An application of O'Hara's principles of political economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 312-337.
    3. Messer, Kent D., 2010. "Protecting endangered species: When are shoot-on-sight policies the only viable option to stop poaching?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 2334-2340, October.
    4. Alexander, Robert R., 2000. "Modelling species extinction: the case for non-consumptive values," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 259-269, November.
    5. Heltberg, Rasmus, 2001. "Impact of the ivory trade ban on poaching incentives: a numerical example," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 189-195, February.
    6. Chen, Frederick, 2017. "The Economics of Synthetic Rhino Horns," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 180-189.
    7. Robert Innes & George Frisvold, 2009. "The Economics of Endangered Species," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 485-512, September.
    8. Fischer, Carolyn, 2004. "The complex interactions of markets for endangered species products," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 926-953, September.
    9. Bulte, Erwin H., 2003. "Open access harvesting of wildlife: the poaching pit and conservation of endangered species," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 27-37, January.
    10. Böhringer, Christoph & Rutherford, Thomas Fox & Wiegard, Wolfgang, 2003. "Computable general equilibrium analysis: Opening a black box," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-56, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Damania, Richard & Bulte, Erwin H., 2007. "The economics of wildlife farming and endangered species conservation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3-4), pages 461-472, May.
    12. Robalino, Juan & Herrera, Luis Diego, 2010. "Trade and deforestation: A literature review," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2010-04, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    13. Fiona M Underwood & Robert W Burn & Tom Milliken, 2013. "Dissecting the Illegal Ivory Trade: An Analysis of Ivory Seizures Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(10), pages 1-12, October.
    14. Conrad, Jon M. & Lopes, Adrian A., 2017. "Poaching and the dynamics of a protected species," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 55-67.
    15. Solomon Hsiang & Nitin Sekar, 2016. "Does Legalization Reduce Black Market Activity? Evidence from a Global Ivory Experiment and Elephant Poaching Data," NBER Working Papers 22314, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Abbott, Brant & van Kooten, G. Cornelis, 2011. "Can domestication of wildlife lead to conservation? The economics of tiger farming in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 721-728, February.
    17. Burton, Michael, 1999. "An assessment of alternative methods of estimating the effect of the ivory trade ban on poaching effort," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 93-106, July.
    18. Bulte, Erwin H. & van Kooten, G. Cornelis, 1999. "Economic efficiency, resource conservation and the ivory trade ban," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 171-181, February.
    19. Ferrier, Peyton Michael, 2009. "The Economics of Agricultural and Wildlife Smuggling," Economic Research Report 55951, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    20. Horan, Richard D. & Bulte, Erwin H., 2001. "Resource Or Nuisance? Managing African Elephants As A Multi-Use Species," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20440, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:34:y:2009:i:4:p:195-204. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.