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The Conservation Multiplier

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  • Bård Harstad

Abstract

EvEvery government that controls an exhaustible resource must decide whether to exploit it or to conserve and thereby let the subsequent government decide whether to exploit or conserve. This paper develops a model of this situation and shows when a small probability that some future government will exploit has a multiplier effect on earlier decisions. The multiplier can be taken advantage of by a lobby paying for exploitation, or by a donor compensating for conservation. The analysis also uncovers when compensations are optimally offered to the president, the party in power, the general public, or to the lobby group.

Suggested Citation

  • Bård Harstad, 2020. "The Conservation Multiplier," CESifo Working Paper Series 8283, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8283
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp8283.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Bård Harstad, 2020. "Trade and Trees: How Trade Agreements Can Motivate Conservation Instead of Depletion," CESifo Working Paper Series 8569, CESifo.
    2. Voss, Achim & Schopf, Mark, 2021. "Lobbying over exhaustible-resource extraction," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    dynamic games; exhaustible resources; deforestation; political economy; lobbying; multiple principals; conservation.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

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