Impacts of Macroeconomic Policies on the Environment, Natural Resources and Welfare in Developing Countries

This chapter discusses some relationships between the macro economy, economic policy at the macro level, and the environmental and resource situation in developing countries. We focus on five issues, namely taxes and subsidies directed at energy and resource sectors, investments with particular environmental and resource implications, exchange rate and monetary policy, financial sector issues, and effects of crises and stress situations. Main findings are, first, that while having been reduced somewhat in later years, energy and resource subsidies still contribute to substantial excessive environmental and resource stress.