Essays on Theoretical Methods for Environmental and Developmental Economics Policy Analysis

Abstract

This dissertation contributes to the fields of environmental, natural resource and development economics. It contains three essays, each tackling related but different sets of questions by developing theoretical, analytical and econometric methods for policy relevant analysis. In the first essay I develop theoretical models to discuss how fossil fuel firms may respond to anticipated climate friendly policies by intensifying resource extraction from existing reserve bases (green paradox) and/or by reducing investments in expansion of the pool of extractable reserves. In the second essay I construct theoretical models to discuss the design of institutions for regulation of novel climate altering geoengineering technologies by first exploring the dangers of a lack of carbon policy commitment and then suggesting institutional solutions that draw from the monetary policy literature. Finally in the third essay, I consider the design of a multiple cut-off regression discontinuity design and show how it can be used to answer policy relevant questions in development economics in situations involving multiple treatments and treatment conditions. Collectively, the studies involve theoretical ideas and concepts that help understand the impact of policy uncertainty, think about the design of institutions for policy governance and estimate the impacts of past implemented policies.