Beschreibung:
<jats:p>In many
countries, and particularly in the economies in transition in Central
and Eastern Europe, public environmental funds play an important role in
financing environmental investments. These funds provide subsidized
financing through grants and soft loans in response to market failures
that limit environmental investors' access to capital markets or poorly
account for the benefits of environmental improvements. The principal
question explored in the paper is whether environmental funds are too
generous or too selective in co-financing environmental projects. The
authors conducted a survey of applicants whose applications to Polish
environmental funds were rejected following appraisal by the funds in
1994. Applicants were contacted to determine whether they had been able
to close the financing 'gap' by the end of 1995 that had resulted from
the rejection of their application by the Fund. Survey results indicate
that a large majority of respondents have secured substitute gap
financing and proceeded with their planned investments, suggesting that
the fund's assistance was not essential for these projects to be
implemented. Generally, the financing gap had been closed by financing
from another environmental fund, from own resources, and less frequently
from the same fund (after resubmitting a modified proposal). Only in few
instances have proposed projects been abandoned.</jats:p>