International trade in wildlife is one contributing factor to zoonotic disease risk. Using descriptive statistics, this paper shows that in the last decades, the volume and pattern of internationally traded wildlife has changed considerably and, with it, the zoonotic pathogens that are traded. In an econometric analysis, we give evidence that an international environmental trade agreement could be used to limit the spread of zoonotic pathogens and disease. More specifically, combining zoonotic disease data with wildlife trade data from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife and Fauna (CITES), we show that making trade requirements more stringent leads to a decrease in the number of animals traded and, incidentally, also the number of zoonotic diseases that are traded. Our results contribute to the discussion of policy measures that manage the spread of zoonotic diseases.

The level of corruption differs not only between countries, but also between subnations within countries. In this paper we analyze spatial interdependencies in corruption levels for a large sample of 1,232 subnations in 81 countries. Based on a spatial autoregressive model, which additionally corrects for spatial autocorrelation in the error term, we find that a subnation's corruption level is positively affected by neighboring subnations' corruption levels. This suggests that subnational corruption levels are strategic complements. Extending the core model and allowing for heterogeneous spatial interdependencies our results indicate that in particular high income subnations and subnations with a relative low corruption level tend to spill in space. This is due to their high degree of connectivity in terms of economic, sociocultural and political exchange with other subnations. Our findings underline the importance to consider not only a subnation's own characteristics but also their degree of connectivity with other subnations when implementing efficient anti-corruption policies on a local level.

The aim of this paper is to assess to what extent producers' participation in fair trade can increase their adaptive capacity and make them more resilient to climate change. Based on the adaptation deficit framework of Fankhauser and McDermott (2014) and an expert interview with 39 producer organizations from Latin America, Asia and Africa, we first determine the perception and the impacts of climate change on fair trade producers' organizations. We then analyze how fair trade is helping producers to increase their adaptive capacity. Our results suggest that fair trade affects the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers in developing countries in two ways. First, it can work as a growth policy and affects the disposable income, which is then partly spent on adaptation measures. Second, by increased knowledge exchange, a higher degree of social capital and a better access to the international community, it makes the supply of adaptation more efficient.

No abstract

In this paper, we analyze the phosphorus balance as a result of manure application on the parish level for Denmark and investigate its local geographic distribution. For our analysis, we determine phosphorus loads for the five main animal groups and the phosphorus demand of the fifteen major crop categories. Our results show that there is a large variability in the phosphorus balance within Denmark. Due to industry agglomeration statistically significant hot spots appear mainly along the west coast, while cold spots are predominantly present on southern and eastern coasts towards the Baltic Sea. The proximity of oversupply areas to water bodies and other environmentally sensitive areas reinforces the need for further phosphorus regulation. Our findings show the importance of a combined spatially targeted regulation, which allows different levels of phosphorus application depending on local economic and environmental circumstances in combination with subsidizing manure processing technologies in phosphorus hot spots.