ST/ESA/1999/DP.3 Greening the National Accounts: Approach and Policy Use

Green national accounts capture the interaction between environment and economy. The objective is to assess the long-term sustainability of economic performance. The opaque concept of sustainability can be operationalized in terms of produced and non-produced (natural) capital maintenance. Integrated environmental and economic accounts expand therefore the asset boundary of the conventional national accounts. The integrative power of such accounting is based on pricing 'priceless' environmental phenomena. Monetary valuation is thus controversial, and alternative physical accounting is also discussed. The main policy applications are (a) the use of environmentally adjusted 'eco-nomic' variables in macroeconomic policy and (b) the setting of market instruments of cost internalization according to the environmental cost generated by economic agents. Go back to list of papers

ST/ESA/1999/DP.4 Unpaid Work and Policy-Making Towards a Broader Perspective of Work and Employment

While the discussion on the issue of unpaid work which took place at the World Summit for Social Development and at the World Conference on Women focussed mainly on the controversy of including unpaid work in national accounts and other statistics, this paper considers the issue of unpaid work from a policy perspective. It also attempts to clarify the role that unpaid work could or should play in socio-economic policy-making. The paper provides a working definition of unpaid work as well as valuable information on related issues such as: how much unpaid work is done and by whom; why some work go unpaid; the role of unpaid work in the economy; the differences and similarities of unpaid work between developing and developed economies; methods of measuring and imputing the value of unpaid work; the United Nations and the issue of unpaid work; and an assessment of activities carried out on the theme of unpaid work since the World Summit for Social Development and the World Conference on Women. Finally, the paper provides a systematic inventory of policies with respect to unpaid work, including employment and labour market policies. Go back to list of papers

ST/ESA/1999/DP.5 Trends in Consumption and Production: Selected Minerals

Global production of aluminium and copper have steadily increased over recent decades, while lead production has been fairly stable. Recycling has also been increasing, reducing the growth rate of primary production of aluminium and copper, and reducing primary production of lead. Despite depletion of the richest ores and a shift to less concentrated ores, advances in mining technologies have lead to generally declining, though fluctuating, metal prices. Supplies of these metals are sustainable for the foreseeable future. Sustainable development issues relate rather to energy consumption, revenue reductions for exporting countries, and health and environmental impacts. Go back to list of papers

ST/ESA/1999/DP.6 Trends in Consumption and Production: Household Energy Consumption

The household sector accounts for 15 to 25 per cent of primary energy use in developed countries and a higher share in developing countries. A huge gap remains between household energy use in developed and developing countries. Increase in energy-based living standards and more efficient energy use are major opposing trends in developed countries that affect household energy consumption. Diffusion of energy efficient technologies for cooking, heating, lighting, electrical appliances, and building insulation in developing countries has been slow. Governmental policies to influence household energy consumption are often contradictory and have brought mixed results. Go back to list of papers

ST/ESA/1999/DP.7 Promoting Sustainable Production and Consumption: Five Policy Studies

Policy development for promoting sustainable production and consumption has focused in recent years on economic instruments, such as environmental taxes and emission trading systems, often integrated into regulatory regimes. Regulations can ensure that policy objectives are met, while economic incentives can reduce the costs of meeting objectives, generate revenues to facilitate cleaner production and social development, and build political support for the policies. The policy studies include: - Acid rain reduction (United States); - Leaded gasoline phase-out (Slovakia, United States); - Palm oil effluent reduction (Malaysia); - Tradable carbon offset instruments (Costa Rica); - Tradable water rights (Chile). Go back to list of papers

ST/ESA/1999/DP.8 Regulation policies concerning natural monopolies in developing and transition economies

Network industries are often organized as vertically integrated public monopolies. Recent trends indicate the participation of the private sector. Developing and transition economies need to establish adequate regulatory policies and institutions to provide incentives for private sector participation and to protect public interests. New regulatory policies entail the creation of market competition in such industries or alternatively the creation of competition for the market. Natural monopoly sector privatization is a relatively new and still-evolving field, and it would be premature to venture definitive conclusions as to the "best practice" privatization and regulation models for natural monopolies. Nevertheless, we will offer some recommendations concerning natural monopoly privatization and regulation. Go back to list of papers

ST/ESA/1999/DP.9 Tourism development in the Lao People's Democratic Republic

The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) opened its doors to international tourists in 1989 and, since then, the tourism industry has developed rapidly to become one of the country's largest earners of foreign currency. The Lao PDR possesses a beautiful, virtually untouched natural environment and a population that still practices their rich traditional culture - these two characteristics form the basis for the promotion of tourism development in the Lao PDR. The government has taken important first steps to implement social and environmental policies and programmes, particularly in co-operation with various international organizations and non-governmental organizations, in order to promote sustainable tourism development. However, additional measures are needed to achieve sustainable tourism development. Go back to list of papers

ST/ESA/1999/DP.10 Import Elasticities Revisited

Should the long run income elasticity of aggregate import demand be equal to one, as implied by the neoclassical demand theory? Why are many empirical estimates of income elasticities not equal to one, and why are some of them very high? The author addresses these and some other related questions by revisiting the relevant theories and empirical modeling frameworks. Go back to list of papers