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

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  • 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.

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  • 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
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    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.
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    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.

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