IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v68y2009i12p3052-3059.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Compensation for environmental services and intergovernmental fiscal transfers: The case of India

Author

Listed:
  • Kumar, Surender
  • Managi, Shunsuke

Abstract

This paper studies mechanisms to compensate local government for the public provision of environmental services using the theory of optimal fiscal transfers in India. Especially, we analyzed the role of intergovernmental fiscal transfers in achieving the environmental goal. Simply assigning the functions at appropriate levels does not ensure optimal provision of environmental services. Optimality in resource allocation could be achieved by combining the assignment system with an appropriate compensation mechanism. Intergovernmental fiscal transfers would be a suitable mechanism for compensating the local governments and help in internalizing the spillover effects of providing environmental public goods. Illustrations are also provided for India.

Suggested Citation

  • Kumar, Surender & Managi, Shunsuke, 2009. "Compensation for environmental services and intergovernmental fiscal transfers: The case of India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 3052-3059, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:68:y:2009:i:12:p:3052-3059
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921-8009(09)00294-8
    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. Gray, Wayne B. & Shadbegian, R.J.Ronald J., 2004. "'Optimal' pollution abatement--whose benefits matter, and how much?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 510-534, May.
    2. Quentin Grafton, R. & Jotzo, Frank & Wasson, Merrilyn, 2004. "Financing sustainable development: Country Undertakings and Rights for Environmental Sustainability CURES," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1-2), pages 65-78, November.
    3. Bev Dahlby, 1996. "Fiscal externalities and the design of intergovernmental grants," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 3(3), pages 397-412, July.
    4. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "A Reconsideration of Environmental Federalism," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 7, pages 125-156, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Subrata Mandal & M. Govinda Rao, 2007. "Overlapping Fiscal Domains and the Effectiveness of Environmental Policy in India," Chapters, in: Albert Breton & Giorgio Brosio & Silvana Dalmazzone & Giovanna Garrone (ed.), Environmental Governance and Decentralisation, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Breton,Albert, 1998. "Competitive Governments," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521646284, December.
    7. Shah, Anwar, 2006. "A practitioner's guide to intergovernmental fiscal transfers," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4039, The World Bank.
    8. C. Rangarajan & D. K. Srivastava, 2008. "Reforming India’s Fiscal Transfer System : Resolving Vertical and Horizontal Imbalances," Finance Working Papers 22509, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    9. Ring, Irene, 2002. "Ecological public functions and fiscal equalisation at the local level in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 415-427, September.
    10. Dur, Robert & Staal, Klaas, 2008. "Local public good provision, municipal consolidation, and national transfers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 160-173, March.
    11. repec:npf:wpaper:25 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. List, John A & Bulte, Erwin H & Shogren, Jason F, 2002. ""Beggar Thy Neighbor": Testing for Free Riding in State-Level Endangered Species Expenditures," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 111(3-4), pages 303-315, June.
    13. Hajkowicz, Stefan, 2007. "Allocating scarce financial resources across regions for environmental management in Queensland, Australia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 208-216, March.
    14. A. B. Atkinson & N. H. Stern, 1974. "Pigou, Taxation and Public Goods," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(1), pages 119-128.
    15. Helland, Eric & Whitford, Andrew B., 2003. "Pollution incidence and political jurisdiction: evidence from the TRI," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 403-424, November.
    16. Sigman, Hilary, 2005. "Transboundary spillovers and decentralization of environmental policies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 82-101, July.
    17. Engel, Stefanie & Pagiola, Stefano & Wunder, Sven, 2008. "Designing payments for environmental services in theory and practice: An overview of the issues," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 663-674, May.
    18. Barton, D.N. & Rusch, G. & May, P. & Ring, I. & Unnerstall, H. & Santos, R. & Antunes, P. & Brouwer, R. & Grieg-Gran, M. & Similä, J. & Primmer, E. & Romeiro, A. & DeClerck, F. & Ibrahim, M., 2009. "Assessing the role of economic instruments in a policy mix for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision: a review of some methodological challenges," MPRA Paper 15554, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Bird, Richard M. & Smart, Michael, 2002. "Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers: International Lessons for Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 899-912, June.
    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. Mumbunan, Sonny & Ring, Irene & Lenk, Thomas, 2012. "Ecological fiscal transfers at the provincial level in Indonesia," UFZ Discussion Papers 06/2012, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    2. Sridhar, Kala S. & Kumar, Surender, 2012. "India’s urban environment: air and water pollution and pollution abatement," MPRA Paper 43810, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Droste, N. & Ring, I. & Santos, R. & Kettunen, M., 2018. "Ecological Fiscal Transfers in Europe – Evidence-Based Design Options for a Transnational Scheme," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 373-382.
    4. Pinaki Chakraborty & Shatakshi Garg, 2018. "Fiscal pressure of migration & horizontal fiscal inequality: Evidence from Indian experience," WIDER Working Paper Series 004, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Laxmi Dutt Bhatta & Arati Khadgi & Rajesh Kumar Rai & Bikram Tamang & Kiran Timalsina & Shahriar Wahid, 2018. "Designing community-based payment scheme for ecosystem services: a case from Koshi Hills, Nepal," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1831-1848, August.
    6. Jonah Busch & Irene Ring & Monique Akullo & Oyut Amarjargal & Maud Borie & Rodrigo S. Cassola & Annabelle Cruz-Trinidad & Nils Droste & Joko Tri Haryanto & Ulan Kasymov & Nataliia Viktorivna Kotenko &, 2021. "A global review of ecological fiscal transfers," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 4(9), pages 756-765, September.
    7. Nurfatriani, Fitri & Darusman, Dudung & Nurrochmat, Dodik Ridho & Yustika, Ahmad Erani & Muttaqin, Muhammad Zahrul, 2015. "Redesigning Indonesian forest fiscal policy to support forest conservation," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 39-50.
    8. Purnamita Dasgupta & Kavitha Srikanth, 2021. "Achieving the climate goal with intergovernmental transfers to the forestry sector: insights from the Indian experience," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1-24, February.
    9. Farley, Josh & Aquino, André & Daniels, Amy & Moulaert, Azur & Lee, Dan & Krause, Abby, 2010. "Global mechanisms for sustaining and enhancing PES schemes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 2075-2084, September.
    10. Pinaki Chakraborty & Shatakshi Garg, 2018. "Fiscal pressure of migration and horizontal fiscal inequality: Evidence from Indian experience," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-4, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Assad Ullah & Xinshun Zhao & Muhammad Abdul Kamal & Jiajia Zheng, 2022. "Environmental regulations and inward FDI in China: Fresh evidence from the asymmetric autoregressive distributed lag approach," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 1340-1356, January.
    12. Alexandre Sauquet & Sébastien Marchand & José Gustavo Feres, 2012. "Ecological Fiscal Incentives and Spatial Strategic Interactions: the Case of the ICMS-E in the Brazilian state of Paraná," CERDI Working papers halshs-00700474, HAL.
    13. Xiaojie Chen & Jing Wang, 2021. "Quantitatively Determining the Priorities of Regional Ecological Compensation for Cultivated Land in Different Main Functional Areas: A Case Study of Hubei Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    14. Luca Tacconi & Sango Mahanty & Helen Suich (ed.), 2010. "Payments for Environmental Services, Forest Conservation and Climate Change," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14052.
    15. Giannetti, B.F. & Ogura, Y. & Bonilla, S.H. & Almeida, C.M.V.B., 2011. "Emergy assessment of a coffee farm in Brazilian Cerrado considering in a broad form the environmental services, negative externalities and fair price," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(9), pages 679-688.
    16. François Bareille & Matteo Zavalloni, 2020. "Decentralisation of agri-environmental policy design," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics, vol. 47(4), pages 1502-1530.
    17. Sauquet, Alexandre & Marchand, Sébastien & Féres, José Gustavo, 2014. "Protected areas, local governments, and strategic interactions: The case of the ICMS-Ecológico in the Brazilian state of Paraná," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 249-258.
    18. Rajesh K. Rai & Mani Nepal & Laxmi D. Bhatta & Saudamini Das & Madan S. Khadayat & E. Somanathan & Kedar Baral, 2019. "Ensuring Water Availability to Water Users through Incentive Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme: A Case Study in a Small Hilly Town of Nepal," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(04), pages 1-26, October.
    19. Nils Droste & Claudia Becker & Irene Ring & Rui Santos, 2018. "Decentralization Effects in Ecological Fiscal Transfers: A Bayesian Structural Time Series Analysis for Portugal," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(4), pages 1027-1051, December.
    20. Tacconi, Luca & Muttaqin, Muhammad Zahrul, 2019. "Reducing emissions from land use change in Indonesia: An overview," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-1.
    21. Xin Yang & Fan Zhang & Cheng Luo & Anlu Zhang, 2019. "Farmland Ecological Compensation Zoning and Horizontal Fiscal Payment Mechanism in Wuhan Agglomeration, China, From the Perspective of Ecological Footprint," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-15, April.
    22. Beeju Poudyal & Suraj Upadhaya & Suman Acharya & Bir Bahadur Khanal Chhetri, 2021. "Assessing Socio-Economic Factors Affecting the Implementation of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) Mechanism," World, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-11, February.
    23. Farley, Joshua, 2012. "Ecosystem services: The economics debate," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 40-49.
    24. Alexeev, Alexander & Good, David H. & Krutilla, Kerry, 2016. "Environmental taxation and the double dividend in decentralized jurisdictions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 90-100.

    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. Sauquet, Alexandre & Marchand, Sébastien & Féres, José Gustavo, 2014. "Protected areas, local governments, and strategic interactions: The case of the ICMS-Ecológico in the Brazilian state of Paraná," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 249-258.
    2. Hilary Sigman, 2007. "Decentralization and Environmental Quality: An International Analysis of Water Pollution," NBER Working Papers 13098, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Dietrich Earnhart & Lana Friesen, 2021. "Enforcement Federalism: Comparing the Effectiveness of Federal Punishment versus State Punishment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 78(2), pages 227-255, February.
    4. Hang XIONG & Chloé DUVIVIER, 2011. "Transboundary Pollution in China: A Study of Polluting Firms' Location Choices in Hebei Province," Working Papers 201117, CERDI.
    5. Matthew E. Kahn & Pei Li & Daxuan Zhao, 2013. "Pollution Control Effort at China's River Borders: When Does Free Riding Cease?," NBER Working Papers 19620, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Millimet, Daniel L., 2013. "Environmental Federalism: A Survey of the Empirical Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 7831, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Mumbunan, Sonny & Ring, Irene & Lenk, Thomas, 2012. "Ecological fiscal transfers at the provincial level in Indonesia," UFZ Discussion Papers 06/2012, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    8. Hutchinson, Emma & Kennedy, Peter W., 2008. "State enforcement of federal standards: Implications for interstate pollution," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 316-344, August.
    9. James E. Monogan & David M. Konisky & Neal D. Woods, 2017. "Gone with the Wind: Federalism and the Strategic Location of Air Polluters," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(2), pages 257-270, April.
    10. James Alm & H. Spencer Banzhaf, 2012. "Designing Economic Instruments For The Environment In A Decentralized Fiscal System," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 177-202, April.
    11. Fredriksson, Per G. & Matschke, Xenia & Minier, Jenny, 2010. "Environmental policy in majoritarian systems," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 177-191, March.
    12. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan & Tim Mennel, 2012. "Fiscal decentralization and Pollution: Institutions Matter," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201222, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    13. Divya Datt & Meeta Keswani Mehra, 2016. "Environmental Policy in a Federation with Special Interest Politics and Inter-Governmental Grants," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(4), pages 575-595, August.
    14. Wayne B. Gray & Ronald J. Shadbegian, 2007. "The Environmental Performance Of Polluting Plants: A Spatial Analysis," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 63-84, February.
    15. Sigman, Hilary, 2003. "Letting States Do the Dirty Work: State Responsibility for Federal Environmental Regulation," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(1), pages 107-122, March.
    16. Sheila M. Olmstead & Hilary Sigman, 2015. "Damming the Commons: An Empirical Analysis of International Cooperation and Conflict in Dam Location," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(4), pages 497-526.
    17. Sailian Xia & Daming You & Zhihua Tang & Bo Yang, 2021. "Analysis of the Spatial Effect of Fiscal Decentralization and Environmental Decentralization on Carbon Emissions under the Pressure of Officials’ Promotion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, March.
    18. Sigman, Hilary, 2005. "Transboundary spillovers and decentralization of environmental policies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 82-101, July.
    19. Boucekkine, Raouf & Fabbri, Giorgio & Federico, Salvatore & Gozzi, Fausto, 2022. "A dynamic theory of spatial externalities," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 133-165.
    20. Bernd Huber & Marco Runkel, 2006. "Optimal Design of Intergovernmental Grants Under Asymmetric Information," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 13(1), pages 25-41, January.

    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:ecolec:v:68:y:2009:i:12:p:3052-3059. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    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/ecolecon .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.