Americas Program Dissertation Enhancement Award: A Conceptual and Working Framework for Optimal Improvement of Environmental Protection: The Case of Mexico City Air

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9414497 Boland This Americas Program award funds dissertation enhancement research by Mr. John C. Marchelya, under the supervision of Dr. John J. Boland and Dr. M. Patricia Fernandez-Kelly of Johns Hopkins University. The project intends to develop a decision framework for improving environmental protection in an economically optimal manner. Their study will investigate the practice of regulatory enforcement of industrial air pollution in Mexico City and determine the informational, political and social context. The framework is based on decision variables of the two agents considered most responsible for retarding or advancing environmental protection: a profit-maximizing polluter and an environmental enforcement agency. Insight on their interaction, their decision variables and the context in which such interaction is embedded is gained from theory addressing: (1) investment, (2) law enforcement, (3) game theory and (4) economic sociology. This research will provide insights and conclusions important to improved environmental quality in Mexico, which is pertinent to the economic security of the U.S. The differences in environmental standards between the two countries provide a competitive advantage to those industries located in areas that have weak enforcement. Regulatory enforcement thus becomes an important issue that affects the competitive balance between the two countries. ***