Environmental concerns are increasingly becoming one of the most difficult challenges society faces during this century. From an economics perspective, this imposes the need to incorporate the environment as a relevant factor in the decision-making pro- cess in order to achieve the necessary efficiency that supports a sustainable future. This dissertation encompasses two essays that tackle environmental economic prob- lems using two different approaches, which ultimately complement each other in their outcomes. First, using a fully theoretical approach, I study how environmental cam- paigns from firms can impact their environmental reputation measured by the belief that consumers have about how clean their production technology is. I found that environmental campaigns can work as effective signals, fully revealing the firm’s type and allowing for novel reputation dynamics. Second, I take an empirical/quantitative approach to study how different types of water rights generate differences in the de- mand for water rights in Colorado. Using the most comprehensive data on water rights transactions in the US West, I can leverage a property of water rights to use the seller’s characteristics as instrumental variables to estimate the demand for water rights differentiated by type of water right. I provide, to the best of my knowledge, the first comparison of different water rights regimes within one overarching water market. I found that, as hypothesized in previous literature, more flexible water rights have higher demand thus moving more water at a given price. Taken together, these two essays show how relevant environmental topics are in a wide range of situations, providing new evidence on the incentives to build reputation once environmental ac- tions are taken into account, and also on how the demand for a natural resource is impacted by the rules that governs its usage and tradability.

Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) continue to contribute heavily to global warming. It is estimated that the international community has only until 2050 to eliminate total carbon emissions or risk irreversible climate change. Arizona, despite its vast solar energy resources, is particularly behind in the global transition to carbon-free energy. This paper looks to explore issues that may be preventing Arizona from an efficient transition to carbon-free generation technologies. Identifiable factors include outdated state energy generation standards, lack of oversight and accountability of Arizona’s electricity industry regulatory body, and the ability for regulated utilities to take advantage of “dark money” campaign contributions. Various recommendations for mitigating the factors preventing Arizona from a carbon-free future are presented. Possibilities such as modernizing state energy generation standards, increasing oversight and accountability of Arizona’s electricity industry regulatory body, and potential market restructuring which would do away with the traditional regulated utility framework are explored. The goal is to inform readers of the issues plaguing the Arizona energy industry and recommend potential solutions moving forward.

After the Salt River Project announced it would be closing the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) by the end of 2019, efforts to keep the plant open and running were immediately undertaken by community members, the Navajo and Hopi Nations, and the supplying mine owner Peabody Energy. With no buyers willing to take on the project, the NGS and the supplying Kayenta Mine will be closing in December 2019. This report focuses on the effects of large coal-fired plant closure on the surrounding community in three comparative cases in an effort to understand what the Coconino County and the Navajo and Hopi Nations might be headed towards in the coming years. By examining economic factors such as poverty and unemployment, communities may be better prepared by knowing what to expect. Then, specific particularities the Navajo and Hopi Nations face in regards to remediation and redevelopment of the NGS area are analyzed and compared to six other cases of coal plants closed and remediated in the past. To continue facilitating a better understanding of a just transition for the communities dependent on the NGS and Kayenta mine for jobs, future studies could focus on remediation options and renewable energy (RE) capacity.
Keywords: coal plant closure, remediation, Navajo Generating Station

This paper looks at factors that drive economic growth and show the correlation between economic growth and economic development and how important economic growth is for a developing country because when there is economic growth then the country has potential to develop. This paper continues to explain why there is economic growth in some countries and not in others with specifically focusing on the effects of having a blessed resource endowment. Having an abundance of resources should be a comparative advantage, however as seen in Latin America, South East Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa that this surprisingly does not lead to high levels of economic growth. This phenomenon is referred to as the Resource Curse and can be fully explained through assumptions derived from the macroeconomic Heckscher-Ohlin model as well as recent trends in emerging economies. Leading to the conclusion that developing countries abundant in resources are very susceptible to the Resource Curse through the increase inequality that ultimately stunts development. Literature suggests that one of the only solutions to overcoming the Resource Curse is the strengthening the effectiveness of the policies in place, which is a subsequent effect of having quality institutions.

Focusing on how to improve institutions there needs to be consideration of the fact that institutions have rent seeking behaviors because both local governments and foreign investors want to acquire a greater share of the production and the benefits. In attempt to find some solution of how countries can overcome the Resource Curse without having to totally reconstruct the political system the goal should be to be to focus on actions from the private sector. The private sector tends to magnify rent seeking behavior and to solidify any solution I performed interviews from industry leaders who have been working in economic development for the past decades. The purpose was to understand what companies are doing now to ensure sustainable development and how that has changed over the past decades.

In the end, the private industry is focusing on regulations that standardize polices for companies pursuing foreign direct investment requiring them to also focus on local economic growth and development. This requires foreign investors to understand the local culture, environment, and institutions leading to overall better choices for long term profitably, thus fulfilling their rent seeking tendencies. One of the biggest proven solutions is the Social License to Operate which is essentially an agreement created by the private investor that requires the local community to be informed and holds the investor accountable. In the end, if the private sector can positively impact a community whilst maintaining their own agenda then a country can overcome the Resource Curse.