Mushkat, Miron; Mushkat, Roda --- "Endemic Institutional Fragility in the Face of Dynamic Economic Integration in Asia: The Case of Transboundary Pollution in Hong Kong" [2011] ELECD 465; in Buckley, P. Ross; Hu, Weixing Richard; Arner, W. Douglas (eds), "East Asian Economic Integration" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: East Asian Economic Integration

Editor(s): Buckley, P. Ross; Hu, Weixing Richard; Arner, W. Douglas

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849808682

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Endemic Institutional Fragility in the Face of Dynamic Economic Integration in Asia: The Case of Transboundary Pollution in Hong Kong

Author(s): Mushkat, Miron; Mushkat, Roda

Number of pages: 32

Extract:

3. Endemic institutional fragility
in the face of dynamic economic
integration in Asia: the case of
transboundary pollution in Hong
Kong*
Miron Mushkat and Roda Mushkat

INTRODUCTION

Environmental degradation poses a serious challenge in Asia, albeit not
in a uniform fashion because of divergences in socio-economic conditions
and variations in policy responses. The problem typically has domestic
origins and manifests itself on the home front. However, it often pos-
sesses an international dimension due to cross-border spillovers and the
difficulties stemming from coordination in circumstances characterized
by conflicting preferences and fragmented authority. The absence of
effective regional institutions and, selectively, the proliferation of semi-
autonomous sub-national power centres aggravate the ecological strains
emanating from that source.1



* Roda Mushkat wishes to thank the Kadoorie Institute for its research
support, but the authors of this chapter are solely responsible for the views
expressed herein.
1 For example see Ian Townsend-Gault, David Vander Zwaag and Robert

Adamson, `Transboundary Ocean and Atmospheric Pollution in Southeast Asia'
in Amitav Acharya and Richard Stubbs (eds), New Challenges for ASEAN:
Energy Policy Issues (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1995);
San-Gon Lee, `Transboundary Pollution in the Yellow Sea' in H. Edward English
and David Runnals (eds), Environment and Development in the Pacific: Problems
and Policy Options (Melbourne: Addison-Wesley Longman in association with
the Australia­Japan Research Centre, the Australian National University,
1997), 117­30; Ben Boer, Ross Ramsey and Donald Rothwell, International
Environmental Law in the Asia Pacific: Problems and ...