This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the challenges and issues concerning the economic valuation of natural resources. The authors present methods and tools that can help in designing policies and frameworks for the sustainable use of natural resources. This is followed by an exploration of the use and non-use values provided by environmental resources, as well as reviewing the current environmental valuation techniques. Furthermore, the authors use meta-analysis to explore a range of South-Asia based case studies, including India and Bangladesh. Using this empirical evidence, they detail the various imperfections, challenges and prospects in the area of management and allocation of environmental resources, conservation of environmental biodiversity and sustainability. This book will serve as a useful reference for academics and analysts in developed and developing countries working in the area of environmental economics, green economics and sustainable development. It is also intended to encourage practitioners and managers in industry to deepen and expand upon their theoretical and practical understanding of the prevailing challenges associated with enhancing ecosystem services, improved solid waste management and restoring biodiversity of environmental resources.

"Provides an overview of different environmental problems in South Asia and examines how economic valuation techniques can be used to assess these problems"--Provided by publisher.

This book is about understanding the value of environmental services in South Asia. It provides an overview of different environmental problems in South Asia and examines how economic valuation techniques can be used to assess these problems. It brings together multiple case studies on valuation undertaken by economists and environmental scientists from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka under the aegis of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE). The book addresses the challenges of valuing environmental changes that are unique to developing countries. Each chapter starts with a description of an environmental problem and the valuation strategy used, followed by a discussion of estimation methods and results. It is designed to serve as a reference book for students, teachers, researchers, non-government organizations and practitioners of environmental valuation. Those interested in development and environmental economics, and natural resource management policies, will also find it useful.

South Asia's developing nations have been enjoying moderate to high growth over the past decade before the global recession began. This new edition provides an up-to-date guide to the growing markets in South Asia. It offers an analysis of the changes and consequences of high sustainable growth, investigating what has been achieved in the region during the last ten years from a macroeconomic viewpoint, identifying new challenges and clearly defining what has driven the boom. The first part of the textbook presents an analysis of how South Asia is rated against Southeast and East Asia in recent decades in economic and social terms. The second part of the text focuses on South Asia's economic development over 1990s and mid-2000s, and the third and final part identifies those major governance issues, which were responsible for South Asia's underperformance both socially and economically. It is widely recognised that globalisation enhanced global trade, and that trade further increased the region’s prosperity. Embracing the view that economists can no longer regard themselves as technocratic guardians of neutral policy advice, the book advocates for a shift in focus from policy reform per se to the more challenging task of implementing institutional reform that will invigorate the capability of the political leadership to bring about rapid, sustained and poverty-reducing growth in South Asia. The central task would be to re-direct the focus of governments in South Asia in order to ensure that the core functions of the state stable, non-distortionary policy climate, a secure foundation of law, investment in basic education, health and infrastructure, protection of the vulnerable and adapting with the climate change are efficiently provided. At the same time, the reform agenda must be sensitive to the goal of ensuring that durable democratic institutions, traditions and values are preserved. This is a fundamental challenge, but one that must be met in order to secure the emergence of a prosperous South Asia in the early part of the twenty-first century. This textbook will be useful for students and researchers in Development Economics, Business Economics, Development Studies and Asian Studies.

This book analyses the current state and potential of economic and financial integration in South Asia, which has emerged as one of the most dynamic regions of the world. It looks at how regional convergences and cooperation would reinforce ties amongst the diverse economies of South Asia in the changing global economic landscape. Drawing on empirical research, the book looks at the degree of economic and financial integration in South Asia, which according to the World Bank includes the least integrated regions in the world, and explores the fundamental factors that drive integration amongst these countries. It offers important insights into the financial landscape of the region, as well as the dynamics of the interlinkages in the banking system, the stock markets, and the debt markets. The book examines the role of bilateral trade in augmenting regional economic ties, the opportunities for growth these will foster, and the major challenges and roadblocks for the leaders of the region. It also provides an overview of China’s role in South Asia’s financial integration and the interdependence of these economies for economic opportunities, macroeconomic and financial stability, jobs, sustainable growth, and inclusive development. Detailed and insightful, this book will be of great interest to investors and regional policymakers. It will also be of interest to researchers and students of economics, public and foreign policy, finance, international relations, and South Asia studies.

This title addresses the recent economic transformation in South Asia. Leading experts in the field look at the major economic achievements and challenges for the region and examine why economic development across the South Asia region has diverged so significantly since the early 1990s.

This book presents an enquiry into the interface between nature, economy and society, which is still in its early stages, notwithstanding the commendable progress and advances made in the field of environmental and natural resource economics within the ever-expanding boundaries of economics as a discipline. It further delineates the evolution of an inter-disciplinary framework for analyzing the status, the future goals, mechanisms and policy instruments that can help move towards a more ecologically sustainable, economically beneficial and socially just future. A pre-requisite for preparing a comprehensive and coherent framework involves unfolding the multiple layers of interconnectedness between the three systems nature, economy and society, each of which has its own internal consistencies as well as externalities. Against this backdrop, the book presents scholarly contributions that focus on four broadly defined building blocks, namely: i) accounting for ecosystems services for life and human well-being; ii) impacts of economic growth on ecosystems; iii) social norms, equity, and governance; and iv) alternative approaches to green and socio-economic systems. The analyses, presented by some of the most eminent national and international scholars, address the major environmental challenges that nations around the world face today and consider which specific policy directions at the international and national level are needed. In particular, the choices India and South Asia now face, as development and environment both need to be addressed adequately, touch on many of these challenges.