http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/20891/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39064/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z Despite its widely recognized importance, electricity is not yet available everywhere, and there are many areas of the globe which still depend on alternative sources of energy such as wood, charcoal and kerosene. In contrast, the USA was the first country to be fully electrified. This article explores the current challenges faced by developing countries, presents the historical evidence from the USA and compares these experiences discussing the policy relevance of the comparison. Far from being a smooth process, the electrification process in the USA was a long and complex transition. The article analyses the challenges and policy responses that characterized the US electrification process. One of the outstanding features of these policies is that they are quite comprehensive and include subsidies and credit schemes, house ownership policies, mass media campaigns, the provision of adequate repair service and the direct involvement of women. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38577/ 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z This article focuses on participation in the main planning documents produced in Bolivia in the first decade of the 2000s: the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the National Development Plan (PND). We analyze how these planning instruments have been able to capture popular participation through diverse mechanisms and how these practices fit in the current mainstream participation discourse. Special attention is paid to natural resources because of the predominant role they have in the Bolivian economy and because of their substantial contribution to the state budget. The Bolivian experience reflects an apparent paradox: While the process leading to the PRSP followed participatory guidelines and the PND did not, the resulting PRSP failed to include the most pressing demands of social movements, while the PND succeeded in including them. This case shows how the articulation of political processes escapes simplistic characterizations and how the application of "out of the textbook" participation may result in highly exclusionary outcomes. It also shows that the voice of social movements can take unexpected paths and have a profound influence on political events that go well beyond the possibility of standardized participatory processes. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34778/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Joan Martinez-Alier has been Professor of Economic History and Institutions at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona since 1975. He was Director of the Doctoral Programme in Environmental Sciences at ICTA-UAB between 1997 and 2009, where he helped to create a strong international group on ecological economics and political ecology. He studied economics as an undergraduate at the Universitat de Barcelona and agricultural economics as a graduate student at the University of Oxford. He received his PhD from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. During his career, he has been Research Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and has held visiting positions at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Sao Paulo), Freie Universit¨at Berlin, Stanford University, the University of California (Davis), FLACSO (Ecuador) and Yale University. He was a founding member, member of the board and president of the International Society for Ecological Economics. Professor Martinez-Alier is member of the editorial board of Ecological Economics, Environmental Values, Journal of Agrarian Change and Journal of Peasant Studies. He is the author of numerous renowned books and articles (see the selected list below) that have contributed to illuminating the relationship between economic systems, resources (materials and energy) and social issues. A foundational contributor to the development of ecological economics, he has also engaged with social movements at the local and international scale. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34779/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38557/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract Bolivia is part of the left-turn that Latin America has seen since the end of the 1990s. The country was traditionally ruled by a conservative establishment and political instability characterized a decade of conflicts that culminated in the ascendency of the Movement towards Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS) and, in 2006, of the first indigenous president -Evo Morales. The election of Morales and the subsequent changes to the Bolivian state have been praised by some scholars as revolutionary, while others have argued that these changes essentially consist of a continuation and re-constitution of neo-liberal regimes. This paper highlights the changes in compensation and redistribution policies that have accompanied the nationalization of hydrocarbons and the institutionalization of consultation processes for indigenous peoples affected by hydrocarbons activities. In this context, we analyse an oil exploration project that took place in the north of the La Paz Department. In particular, focus is on how the compensation and consultation frameworks debilitated opposition to the project. We conclude that the government's priorities are intertwined with the continuation of the extractive economic model. In these circumstances questioning extractive projects is not an option. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32961/ 2011-10-01T00:00:00Z In this paper, we focus on participation in the main planning documents produced in Bolivia in the first decade of the 2000s: the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the National Development Plan (PND). We analyze how these planning instruments have been able to capture popular participation through diverse mechanisms and how these practices fit in the current mainstream participation discourse. Special attention is paid to natural resources because of the predominant role they have in the Bolivian economy and because of their substantial contribution to the state budget. The Bolivian experience shows an apparent paradox: while the process leading to the PRSP followed participatory guidelines and the PND did not, the resulting PRSP failed to include the most pressing demands of social movements, while the PND succeeded in including them. This case shows how the articulation of political processes escapes simplistic characterizations and the application of ‘out of the textbook’ participation might result in highly exclusionary outcomes. It also shows that the voice of social movements can take unexpected paths and have a profound influence on political events that go well beyond the possibility of standardized participatory processes. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22224/ 2011-03-01T00:00:00Z The book analyses the influence of corruption on economic growth and environmental protection, examining corruption from different perspectives. It contributes to several streams of the literature and assembles evidence of the influence of corruption on two important variables in human welfare: income and environmental policies. The material evinces the detrimental effect that corruption has on economic growth and on the stringency of environmental policies. It also shows that standard techniques for fighting corruption are often based either on simplistic definitions or on strong assumptions that do not apply in many countries blighted by corruption. From a methodological standpoint, this work combines a number of approaches including a theoretical discussion of corruption and of its definition (often omitted in economic studies), together with econometrics, case studies and policy discussions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31180/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract In this paper we discuss forestry issues related to land reform in Bolivia. We find that although the current land reform satisfies most of the conditions necessary for adequately addressing development issues in the agrarian sector, it does not deal with many challenges related to forest management, and in fact contains provisions conflicting with the objectives of sustainable forest management. Given that a large part of the land being titled is actually forest land, omissions of, and conflicts with, the objectives of sustainable forest management are critical, and may have harmful ramifications for the preservation of forest resources as well as poverty reduction within forest-dependent communities. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22226/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z This study is a policy assessment contrasting forestry reforms and their intended objectives against the state of the forestry sector in Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua. The study finds that there is a gap between policy objectives and the state of forestry in the three countries, and that the policy frameworks are characterized by lack of policy implementation and intrinsically flawed design. In other words, reform failure matched by failure to reform is present in each country. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers followed, and possibly reinforced, existing policy trends but they were unable to solve the implementation problems and lack of coherence that mark the policies of the sector. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22227/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z This study is a policy assessment contrasting forestry reforms and their intended objectives against the state of the forestry sector in Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua. The study finds that there is a gap between policy objectives and the state of forestry in the three countries, and that the policy frameworks are characterized by lack of policy implementation and intrinsically flawed design. In other words, reform failure matched by failure to reform is present in each country. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers followed, and possibly reinforced, existing policy trends but they were unable to solve the implementation problems and lack of coherence that mark the policies of the sector. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22343/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract: In this paper we discuss forestry issues related to land reform in Bolivia. We find that although the current land reform satisfies most of the necessary conditions for adequately addressing development issues in the agrarian sector, it does not deal with many challenges related to forest management and actually contains provisions conflicting with the objectives of sustainable forest management. Given that a large part of the land being titled is actually forest land, omissions and conflicts with the objectives of sustainable forest management are critical and may have harmful ramifications for the preservation of forest resources as well as poverty reduction within forest-dependent communities. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17439/ 2009-12-01T00:00:00Z In this paper, we analyse the impact of tenancy reform in the Indian state of West Bengal on consumption expenditure of tenants. We use a difference-in-difference methodology with data from a household survey (the National Sample Survey) to compare the growth of consumption expenditure of tenants with that of non-tenants. Contrary to the conclusions of other authors, we do not find indications of substantial improvements in the living standards of the reform’s beneficiaries. Finally, we analyse possible reasons for the discrepancy between our results and the rest of the literature. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18713/ 2009-09-01T00:00:00Z In this paper we discuss forestry issues related to land reform in Bolivia. We find that although the current land reform satisfies most of the conditions that are necessary for adequately addressing development issues in the agrarian sector, it does not deal with many of the challenges related to forest management and actually contains provisions that come in conflict with the objectives of sustainable forest management. Given that a large part of the land that is being titled is actually forest land, the above mentioned omission and conflict with the objectives of sustainable forest management is critical and may have harmful ramifications for the preservation of forest resources as well as poverty alleviation of forest-dependent communities. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18499/ 2009-06-29T00:00:00Z SUMMARY In this paper we analyze the Bolivian land reform within the general context of land reforms and then we look at how the Bolivian case could be better understood as a forest reform. First we discuss the ‘standard’ conditions for a successful land reform. Second we highlight that ‘special’ conditions apply to Bolivia. Next, we provide a synthesis of the discussion of the Bolivian government –in light of the points highlighted above– and show how the focus of the national authorities is centred on the standard conditions of land reform and how the issue of forest management is being neglected. We find that if land reform is carried out neglecting the forestry issue it might not solve the structural inequalities that characterize the Bolivian countryside and it is going to contribute to the problem of deforestation. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18719/ 2009-05-01T00:00:00Z In this study we contrast forestry reforms and their stated objectives against the state of the forestry sector in Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua. Once we look at the policy failures that underlie the gap between policy objectives and the state of forestry, we find that stated policies are not implemented and their design is marked by intrinsic flaws. We conclude that there is a reform failure matched by a failure to reform. The Poverty Reduction Strategies of the three countries followed –and possibly reinforced– existing policy trends but they were unable to solve implementation problems and lack of coherence that mark the policies of the sector. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19209/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z