A dynamic approach to environmental externalities: structural changes, institutions, and foreign direct investments

The thesis analyses three different, yet interconnected, issues of environmental externalities: how structural changes may deteri- orate natural resources and workers’ welfare, how policy instruments may reduce environmental corruption, and how foreign direct invests may affect pollution level and land owners’ welfare of a local economy. The study of these three issues is crucial in several developing countries characterized by ill-defined property rights on natural resources, on interaction with institutions, on protection against pollution, and high levels of inequality. The tool used is economic dynamics, more specifically, two-sector growth models and evolutionary games.