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on Environmental Economics |
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Issue of 2016‒06‒14
ninety-two papers chosen by Francisco S. Ramos Universidade Federal de Pernambuco |
| By: | Klepacka, Anna M.; Florkowski, Wojciech J.; Revoredo-Giha, Cesar |
| Abstract: | This study examines the performance of the forested land ownership by farmers in Poland this paper compares the efficiency of farms reporting a portion of their operated land as a forest with those that do not own any forested land. Using FADN data, the study focuses first on cost efficiency, which was estimated using the fixed effects stochastic cost frontier model (Kumbakhar and Knox Lovell, 2003). A generalized multiproduct translog cost function (Caves, Christensen, and Tretheway, 1980) was selected to represent the deterministic part of the cost function because it imposes fewer a-priori restrictions than other functional forms commonly used for the task. The efficiency scores (i.e., the fixed effects) were subject to further analysis, to establish the differences between farms with and without forest land (where forest land was measured as the proportion of the total farm area that was under forest land). The results strongly indicated, both in aggregate and considering estimates by farm type, that most of the farms with forest land were relatively less efficient than farms without them. Because the average farm size has been steadily increasing (although it remains relatively small) in response to a decreasing farm numbers in Poland, while the commercial agricultural production contracts in some peripheral areas without creating a shortage of food or agricultural commodities, there is an opportunity to reallocate land from its current uses to reforestation on farms already managing small groves. The speed of reallocating land will, however, depend greatly on ability of forested land to generate a stream of income. Given the FADN data, the transfer of all remaining agricultural land operated by farms with forested acreage to reforestation would add about 170 thousand hectares of privately owned forests in Poland. Additionally, the transition of farms owing woodlands may lead to their new role in the national environmental policy and efforts to cut the greenhouse gas emissions. |
| Keywords: | Cost efficiency, FADN data, forest ownership, renewable energy policy, reforestation, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q15, Q23, D24, Q59, |
| Date: | 2016–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235740&r=env |
| By: | Thomassin, Paul J. |
| Abstract: | Economic Incentives, Transaction Costs and Carbon Trading: The Economics of Alberta’s Reduced Age to Harvest Protocol. Climate change is a global problem that requires individual countries to take action to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Canada’s GHG emissions have increased from 613 megatonnes (Mt) in 1990 to 726Mt in 2013; an 18 percent increase (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2015). The agriculture sector produces approximately 10 percent of the GHG emissions in Canada and methane and nitrous oxide are the two largest sources of emissions (AAFC, 2015). The main sources of methane emissions are from cattle and sheep production and animal manure. The amount of methane produced during the production process can be reduced by changing the animal’s diet, the age at harvest and the addition of various agents and compounds to the feed (AAFC, 2014a). GHG emissions in the province of Alberta increased from 175Mt in 1990 to 267 Mt in 2013 (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2015). To address this increase in GHG emissions, Alberta introduced a carbon traded system where large emitters of GHG emissions are regulated (Boyle, 2008-09). Regulated firms can satisfied their required reductions by: (1) reducing their GHG emission intensity, (2) purchasing Emission Performance Credits from other regulated firms, (3) purchasing Technical Fund Credits or (4) purchasing Carbon Offset Credits. The province of Alberta has been active in the development of agricultural protocols that can be used to produce Carbon Offset Credits. However, agricultural producers will only undertake these management changes if there are economic incentives to do so. This paper investigates the transaction costs that will be incurred in generating Carbon Offset Credits from the Reduce Age to Harvest protocol and the economic incentives that will be generated for the aggregator and the feedlot operator. The Reduce Age to Harvest (RAH) Protocol was designed to quantify the GHG emissions that result from reducing the age of cattle when harvested. The protocol is designed to measure the GHG emissions per kilogram of carcass weight of beef. The RAH protocol includes the GHG emissions from the pasture, backgrounding, and feedlot operation as well as manure storage and handling. When the age to harvest is decreased the amount of GHG emissions also decreases (AESRD, 2011). A greenhouse gas calculator that was specifically designed for the feedlot industry was used to estimate the impact of decreasing the age of harvest from 19 months to 15 months. The change in management required bringing steer or heifer calves into the feedlot instead of yearling animals. This change in management resulted in a reduction of 2.3 tCO2e per head for steers and 2.49 tCO2e for heifers. The transaction costs of developing Carbon Offset Credits plays an important role in estimating the economic incentives of the RAH protocol. The RAH protocol will require the services of an aggregator who will manage the transaction costs of generating the Carbon Offset Credits from the feedlot operator to selling the Offset Credits on the market. In order to estimate the costs of the aggregation function, a series of semi structured and structured surveys and interviews were undertaken with aggregators who worked with feedlot operators as project developers. The semi-structure survey was an open discussion with one aggregator to define the types of costs that would be associated with developing a project using the RAH protocol. These costs were broken down into three categories. The first category was fixed costs that would be required no-matter the number of credits that would be generated and included: legal costs, accounting costs, office space, project planning, website development, computer software development, computer storage, etc. The second category of costs varied with the number of carbon offset credits that are generated. These included data collecting costs, de-listing costs, registration costs, and insurance costs. The third set of costs was based on the number of projects in the aggregator’s portfolio. These included the project listing costs and the verification costs. Once these detailed costs were identified a group of aggregators were surveyed to provide estimates of the various costs. Once these estimates were received, a consensus group of estimates were developed. These were then reviewed by the aggregators to provide an indication of the accuracy of the estimates. Once these costs were deemed acceptable a net present value calculation was undertaken to determine the economic feasibility of providing project development services for a RAH project. This analysis includes a sensitivity analyses on the variables that had an impact on the economic feasibility of being an aggregator. The economic incentive for the feedlot operator was also investigated. This included variations in the carbon price, the share of carbon revenue between the aggregator and the feedlot operator and the change in the cost of production from the change in management. This study estimated the benefits and costs for the aggregator and the feedlot operator of generating Carbon Offset Credits using the RAH protocol in the Alberta Carbon Market. Three carbon price scenarios were investigated and a sensitivity analysis was undertaken on some of the key variables that would impact the results. The analysis indicated that there are economic incentives for aggregators to get involved in the Carbon Offset Market with the RAH protocol. The economic incentives change with the carbon price, quantity of offset credits generated and the share of carbon revenue going to the aggregator. There are also favourable economic incentives for the feedlot operator. These results are sensitive to the carbon offset price, the share of offset revenue received and the change in the cost of production. The analysis indicated that the economics from carbon offset generation is positive, however, the revenue generated is substantially less significant than the revenue from the cattle production. |
| Keywords: | Transaction Cost, GHG Emissions, Carbon Offset Protocol, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q18, Q54, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235910&r=env |
| By: | Eriksson, Mathilda (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University); Vesterberg, Anders (CERE and the Department of Economics, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | It is argued that the forest can provide low-cost options to reduce the atmospheric CO2 concentration. However, many dimensions of the future dynamics of the forest, and its interactions with climate change are still not well understood. This paper provides new insights into how these types of uncertainties affect the optimal climate policy. We model uncertainty over several key forest parameters by using the novel state-contingent approach. Our main results show that the importance of including optimal forest controls in climate policy increases when the dynamics of the forest are uncertain. Ignoring uncertainties concerning the forest will lead to biased estimates of the social costs of carbon and be misleading when evaluating climate policies. Conversely, recognizing forest uncertainties and its potential to mitigate climate change will lead to a robust policy where the cost of uncertainty to a large extent can be avoided. |
| Keywords: | Keywords: Climate change; Integrated assessment; Uncertainty; Carbon sequestration |
| JEL: | C61 D81 Q23 Q54 |
| Date: | 2016–03–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2016_004&r=env |
| By: | Yang, Wei |
| Abstract: | Purpose: It is undeniable that the NZ economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, especially dairy sector, but the increasing nutrient pollution discharged from dairy farms is a threat to the water quality of lakes, stream and rivers. Therefore, the dairy industry is under increasing pressure to make a commitment to improving the environmental performance of farming practices to protect water quality in waterways. Hence, farmer’s choice should be considered as one of the most important determinants of the success of policy aimed at water quality protection. It is therefore the aim of this paper to explore determinants of dairy farmers’ willingness to adopt Best manamgment practices (BMPs) for water quality protection. In addition, except for testing the commonly used determinants, such as farm characteristics, it will test for the hypothesis that spatial effects influence farmers’ choices. Design/methodology: Bayesian spatial Durbin (SDM) probit models are applied to survey data collected from dairy farmers in the Waikato Region of New Zealand. Specifically, this paper will verify the above hypothesis from two aspects. Firstly, spatial effects will be modelled according to the distance from farm to the nearest water bodies. It is assumed that dairy farmers whose farms are located close to water bodies are more inclined to be willing to adopt BMPs. Secondly, spatial effects will be presented as the existence of spatial interdependency in dairy farmers’ decision-making. It is hypothesised that dairy farmers observe or learn from nearby farmers thereby reducing the uncertainty of the performance of BMPs since BMPs are information-intensive farming techniques. Data were obtained from survey of 171 farms in the Waikato region of New Zealand; socioeconomic data were drawn from the 2013 Census. The advantage of the SDM probit model is that it allows for the inclusion of both the spatially lagged dependent variable and spatially lagged independent variables, which takes account the impact of neighbouring farmers’ decisions as well as of neighbouring farmers’ characteristics. Therefore, different from non-spatial probit models, the SDM probit model accounts for both direct and indirect effects. Significantly, the indirect effects (spatial spillovers) help to measure to what extent a change in the neighbouring farmers’ characteristics affect the adoption probability of a dairy farmer.Findings: Results show that farmers located in close proximity to each other exhibit similar choice behaviour indicating that access to industry information is an influential determinants of dairy farmers’ adoption of BMPs. In addition, these findings address the importance of farmer interactions in adoption decisions as participation in dairy-related activities are identified as an extension of information acquisition. Financial problems are considered a significant barrier to adopting BMPs. Overall, the study highlights the importance of accounting for interdependence in farmers’ decisions, which emerges as important in the formulation of agricultural-enviornmental policy. Originality/value: This paper is the first empirical study to examine the determinants of farmer’s adoption of BMPs in NZ by using spatial econometrics methods, which considers various determinants, including drivers and barriers for farmers to adopt the practices, farm and household characteristics as well as spatial issues. The results contribute to assist policy makers to specify water protection strategies. An understanding of dairy farmers’ drivers and barriers to adopting BMPs could assist policy makers to deliver support to solve the problems that are badly in the need of help. Besides, the importance of information availability in the neighbourhood network and social activities for the farmer's decision-making suggests that extension activities that address the whole community may be more efficient than targeting individual farmers to induce behavioural changes in adoption of BMPs. |
| Keywords: | Spatial dependence, Dairy farmers, Best management practices, Bayesian spatial Durbin probit model, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235434&r=env |
| By: | Valeria Costantini; Francesco Crespi; Giovanni Marin; Elena Paglialunga |
| Abstract: | The introduction and adoption of green technologies are considered the most cost effective way to reduce environmental pressure without compromising economic competitiveness. The scientific literature has emphasized the crucial role played by diffusion pathways of green technologies along the supply value chain, but empirical quantitative findings on the effectiveness of green technologies in improving environmental performance are scarce. The objective of this paper is to highlight the role of inter-sectoral linkages in shaping the influence played by eco-innovations on sectoral environmental performance. Empirical findings show that both the direct and indirect effects of eco-innovations help reduce environmental stress and that the strength of these impacts varies across the value chain depending on the technology adopted and the type of pollutant under scrutiny. The main implications we can deduce are that, first both corporate and policy governance strategies should specifically address the goal of maximizing environmental gains that can be achieved through the development and adoption of clean technologies along the supply chain, and second both strategies should be coordinated in order to minimize the costs for reducing environmental pressures. |
| Keywords: | eco-innovation, environmental performance, inter-sectoral linkages, international spillovers, value chain, sustainable production, governance systems |
| Date: | 2016–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2016/19&r=env |
| By: | Caillavet, France; Fadhuile, Adelaide; Nichèle, Véronique |
| Abstract: | Climate change is in the agenda of food policy. Livestock is recognized to be by far the biggest contributor to food-related greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE). This article examines the potential impact of an environmental tax at the consumption level on GHGE mitigation and its nutritional consequences on diet quality and the balance between plant based and animal proteins. We consider a carbon taxation policy proportional to emissions, with a focus on methodological aspects by introducing the use of different functional units for environmental taxation: the usual tax rate per weight of product, and a tax rate according to the nutritional unit of per animal protein. We use scanner data on food purchases of French households from 1998 to 2010. Using price elasticities allows to study substitutions and complementarities between 21 food groups clearly identified according to their environmental and nutritional content. Our results indicate that taxation according to the emissions potential of the animal protein reaches a higher reduction of GHGE than on a per weight basis. Moreover, nutritional adequacy to guidelines is overall maintained. However animal protein replacement by vegetal proteins is not achieved by such taxation policies. This debate can be crucial for the efficiency of food taxation to improve sustainability. |
| Keywords: | carbon tax, food policy, functional unit, environment, nutrition, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, H23, D12, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235982&r=env |
| By: | Misato Sato; Marta Ciszawska; Timothy Laing |
| Abstract: | International carbon offsetting can help reduce compliance costs in emissions trading schemes and at the same time support carbon mitigation projects in developing countries. A surprising observation from the European Union Emissions Trading System’s experience with offsetting is that companies do not fully utilise offsetting for compliance despite the cost advantage in doing so. However, so far there has been limited research evaluating what factors influence companies’ decisions to utilise offsets. This paper fills this gap by investigating the demand for carbon offsets in tradable permit emissions markets. To do so, we use detailed firm-level data on 279 companies regulated under the EU ETS during 2008-2012. Our findings suggest that there are clear sectoral differences and that, contrary to expectations, transaction costs and over-allocation of free allowances are not the key determining factors. We find some evidence to support the existence of ‘insetting’, that is, companies with subsidiaries in key offset countries are more likely to use a larger share of their offset allowance for compliance. Semi-structured interviews with companies supported these findings. |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp237&r=env |
| By: | Gramig, Benjamin M.; Yun, Seong Do |
| Abstract: | Days suitable for field work (DSFW) is an important piece of data for production agriculture and agricultural extension focused on practical decision making about investment in farm machinery and cropping systems management. It is, however, noteworthy that there has been limited attention paid to DSFW. To fill this gap, this study tries to answer two research questions: (1) what is the trend in DSFW during the planting and harvest period from 1980-2010? (2) what is the accuracy of a predictive econometric model of DSFW based on agro-environmental data? To tackle the economic dimensions of DSFW, we model DSFW consistent with two major approaches in climate change impacts on agriculture: the Ricardian approach and the panel estimation approach. We first specify the regression model of DSFW in panel model from two conceptual approaches: the response function and the factor demand function of cost minimization. Both approaches provide consistent regression specification of fixed and random effects models. We construct an unbalanced panel of weekly DSFW observations, historic weather data, and soil data in five Corn Belt States for 1980-2010 at the Crop Reporting District (CRD) level to implement out-of-sample and in-sample prediction analysis. The results show that the random effects model is the most suitable model to perform climate change response analysis for our data. This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, the analytical derivation of two econometric interpretations of DSFW and link them to econometric model specification strategies are easily extended to other agro-environmental analysis. Second, the estimation results for panel models empirically demonstrate that random effects model could be proper model specification taking into account soil effects. Lastly, we discuss that DSFW could be an important constraints for policy corresponding to climate change and its adaptation. |
| Keywords: | Days Suitable for Fieldwork, Soil Trafficability, Heterogeneity, Panel Estimation Approach, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Q10, Q15, Q54, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235726&r=env |
| By: | Pena-Levano, Luis M; Taheripour, Farzad; Tyner, Wallace E |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impacts of using carbon taxes and forest carbon sequestration to achieve 50% emission reductions. We consider four cases – carbon tax-only, combination of a carbon tax and equivalent sequestration subsidy, and the inclusion of crop yield shocks due to climate change in both policies (with 50% emissions reduction). We developed a new version of a computable general equilibrium model to do the analysis. We find that the tax/subsidy case causes substantial increases in food prices because of land competition between forest sequestration and crop production. When the climate induced yield shocks are added, the food price increases are huge – so large that it is clear this approach could not be adopted in the real world. We also compare a case with no mitigation and crop yield shocks appropriate for that case. The results suggest economic well-being falls more in that case than with 50% emission reductions. |
| Keywords: | Forestry, carbon sequestration, food security, general equilibrium, climate change, crop yield, mitigation methods, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use, Q15, R52, Q54, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235771&r=env |
| By: | Bertone Oehninger, Ernst; Lin Lawell, C.-Y. Cynthia; Sanchirico, James; Springborn, Michael |
| Abstract: | Climate change has the potential to impact groundwater availability in several ways. For example, it may cause farmers to change the crops they plant or the amount of water they apply, both of which have implications for water availability. Climate change also affect water availability directly by changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration patterns. In this paper, we analyze the effects of changes in temperature, precipitation, and humidity on groundwater extraction for agriculture using an econometric model of a farmer’s irrigation water pumping decision that accounts for both the intensive (water use) and extensive margins (crop acreage). Our research focuses on the groundwater used for agriculture in the High Plains (Ogallala) Aquifer system of the Midwestern United States. We find that changes in climate variables will influence crop selection decisions, crop acreage allocation decisions, technology adoption, and the demand for water by farmers. We also find that such changes in behavior can affect the diversity of crops planted, potentially impacting agricultural biodiversity. |
| Keywords: | groundwater, agriculture, climate change, land-use change, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Q15, Q54, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235724&r=env |
| By: | Kovacs, Kent; Popp, Michael; Xu, Ying; West, Grant |
| Abstract: | Groundwater overdraft has long-run consequences for the crops grown, the economic viability of the agricultural community, and the ecosystem services from the landscape. We investigate how groundwater scarcity affects the tradeoff of economic returns and ecosystem services (namely, groundwater supply, surface water quality, and greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions) in the Mississippi Delta farm production region of Arkansas, USA. As groundwater is more depleted, farmers are turning to conjunctive water management with on-farm reservoirs and tail water recovery. Distinct objectives either for economic returns and for ecosystem service guide whether on-farm reservoirs are built amidst a backdrop of cropping and irrigation decisions. Reservoirs enable the landscape to sustain a higher level of economic returns and ecosystem services. This is done through a synergy of economic returns, groundwater conservation, and GHG reductions that lowers irrigation costs and reduces the fuel combustion and associated GHGs from groundwater pumping. |
| Keywords: | Ecosystem services, Conjunctive water management, Spatial-dynamic optimization, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Q15, Q24, Q25, Q28, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235357&r=env |
| By: | Heerman, Kari E.R.; Sheldon, Ian |
| Abstract: | Following a modern Ricardian approach, trade in environmental products with eco‐labelling is modelled. Based on the model, expressions are derived for the share of products an importer purchases from a specific exporter for low‐cost and environmentally‐friendly technologies. It is then shown that, using bilateral trade and production data, the share equation for low‐cost‐technologies can be estimated, from which parameters describing trade costs and average productivity can then be retrieved. Using the latter parameters, it is also shown how the share equation for environmentally‐friendly technologies can then be used to retrieve a parameter describing eco‐labelling costs. The consumer and environmental gains from eco‐labelling are also analyzed, along with a discussion and comparison of the effects of mutual recognition versus harmonization of countries’ eco‐labelling regimes. |
| Keywords: | trade, trade costs, eco-labeling, trade liberalization, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, F11, F14, F15, Q17, Q56, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235973&r=env |
| By: | Van Dop, Molly; Gramig, Benjamin M.; Sesmero, Juan P. |
| Abstract: | Climate change across the U.S. Corn Belt will significantly increase precipitation variability and temperatures by midcentury. Corn and soybean producers will seek to find strategies that may help to mitigate the potentially negative effects on yield. The adoption of irrigation technology has increased over the last several decades to improve yields in areas with insufficient rainfall, and is currently being adopted by producers who are choosing to minimize risk due to weather variability. To see if this trend in irrigation adoption has the potential to expand in the wake of climate change, this study uses weather data, crop yields, and water use from four General Circulation Models (GCMs) under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 and crop models to evaluate the profitability of the irrigation investment. The data drives Net Present Value and internal rate of return calculations of investment in irrigation equipment for the present (1980-2005) and midcentury (2040-2070). The Net Present Value of irrigation investment for midcentury producers is largely driven by the yield response to irrigation by soybeans under future climate conditions. While the irrigation of corn is profitable in some locations, namely the western Corn Belt, the locations where irrigating corn in the future is largely the same as in the contemporary period. Under future weather conditions, the area where irrigating soybeans becomes profitable is greatly expanded, likely due to CO2 fertilization effects and higher temperatures in the northern Corn Belt. Projected irrigation water demand increases across the entire Corn Belt, both from a relative increase in applications from current irrigators, and an increase in the total number of irrigators across the central and eastern Corn Belt. The increase in profitability for irrigation, and the potential increases in water demanded has important policy implications for the future, in order to mitigate the potential impacts of climate change while ensuring water supplies are available and safe for the future. |
| Keywords: | Irrigation, Climate Change, Investment, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235661&r=env |
| By: | Debnath, Deepayan; Jarrett, Whistance |
| Abstract: | The biofuels policy in the U.S. and Brazil lead to a situation in which both the countries are exporting to each other. A structural economic model as well as a greenhouse gas (GHG) saving table is developed and exploited to determine the consequences of the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and Brazil Gasoline C price control scenarios. Results shows that ethanol and feedstock prices decrease in the scenario without the US RFS, while the GHG savings decrease. In the case of Brazil without state control Gasoline C Price both the ethanol and feedstock price increases. GHG savings decreases because of reduction in anhydrous ethanol use. Before implementing any biofuels policy, the government should take into account negative environmental impacts. |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235824&r=env |
| By: | Leppänen, Simo; Solanko, Laura; Kosonen, Riitta |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the implications of climate change for government expenditures. Using a rich sub-national dataset for Russia covering 1995–2009, we estimate the impacts of changes in climatic conditions through short-term variation and medium-term changes in average regional temperatures and precipitation. We show a strong and robust negative (but non-linear) relation between regional budget expenditures and population-weighted temperature. The results indicate that an increase in temperature results in a decrease in public expenditures and that the magnitude of this effect diminishes the warmer the region. Further, our results suggest that the benefits from warming accumulate and that adaptation measures could help leverage those benefits. The estimated decreases in regional government expenditure are, however, quite small. It should be noted that our results are estimated for a scenario of mild temperature increase (1–2 °C). Larger temperature increases are likely to have dramatic consequences e.g. from loss of permafrost and methane release that are impossible to predict with available historical data. |
| Keywords: | climate change, public expenditures, adaptation, non-linearity, Russia |
| JEL: | Q54 Q58 H72 R59 C50 P20 |
| Date: | 2015–09–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bof:bofitp:2015_027&r=env |
| By: | Liu, Wan Yu |
| Abstract: | The Kyoto Protocol has clearly specified various methods and measures of reducing greenhouse gases, and the reduction of emissions using the land-use change and forestry (LUCF) methods has become legally enforced as well. Countries all over the world are actively developing their local emission trading mechanisms in hopes of aligning with those international standards. Among them, the carbon trading mechanism has been widely perceived by the world as an important economic instrument for reducing greenhouse gases. In this study, we first established a theoretical economic model of supply and demand for four carbon trading mechanisms, and then derived the optimal conditions to decide the optimal trading price and trading duration of carbon contract with endogenous and exogenous carbon prices. |
| Keywords: | carbon trading contract, afforestation, carbon sequestration, afforestation on agricultural land, forest management, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–08–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235461&r=env |
| By: | Pena-Levano, Luis M; Rasetti, Michele; Melo, Grace |
| Abstract: | The European Union is putting a lot of effort in mitigating climate change effects and lessen the dependence of fossil fuels. Several policies are being proposed in the Renewable Energy Directives (RED), such as increasing the share of renewable sources in fuel mix, specific increases in fuel production? and anti-dumping strategies. However, these policies raise concerns with respect to competition with food production, and indirect increases GHG emissions caused by land use change. Our study evaluates the RED policies together with additional climate mitigation policies using a computable general equilibrium modeling. Our results suggest that, for the case of the European Union (EU), an increase in biofuel production does not represent a threat in food security. In addition, we found that the land use change in the EU are modest compared to previous studies in developing regions. Our findings illustrate how the imposition of a regime can vary depending on the economic development of a region. |
| Keywords: | European biofuel policy, Biodiesel, GTAP-BIO-FCS, Land use change, GHG emissions, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Development, Land Economics/Use, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, D58, Q16, Q58, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236075&r=env |
| By: | Hubacek, Klaus |
| Abstract: | To tackle global climate change, it is desirable to reduce CO2 emissions associated with household consumption in particular in developed countries, which tend to have much higher per capita household carbon footprints than less developed countries. Our results show that carbon intensity of different consumption categories in the U.S. varies significantly. The carbon footprint tends to increase with increasing income but at a decreasing rate due to additional income being spent on less carbon intensive consumption items. This general tendency is frequently compensated by higher frequency of international trips and higher housing related carbon emissions (larger houses and more space for consumption items). Our results also show that more than 30% of CO2 emissions associated with household consumption in the U.S. occur outside of the U.S. Given these facts, the design of carbon mitigation policies should take changing household consumption patterns and international trade into account. |
| Keywords: | Environmental problems, Household, CO2 emissions, Household consumption, Income group, Carbon intensity |
| JEL: | C67 E01 F18 H23 F64 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper593&r=env |
| By: | Michael G. Pollitt |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the prospects for a global carbon market as the centrepiece of any serious attempt to reach the ambitious goal for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions set by climate scientists. My aim is to clarify the extent to which we know what policy might best support global decarbonisation. I begin by discussing what we might mean by a global carbon market and its theoretical properties. I proceed to discuss the EU Emissions Trading System experience and the recent experience with the Australian carbon tax. Next, I assess the evolving carbon market initiatives in the US and in China. In the conclusion, I apply some principles of ‘good’ energy policy making to the prospects for a successful global carbon market. |
| Keywords: | carbon market, carbon tax, EU ETS |
| JEL: | Q54 |
| Date: | 2016–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1615&r=env |
| By: | Raymond Gradus (VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands); Rick van Koppen (PricewaterhouseCoopers); Elbert Dijkgraaf (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands); Paul Nillesen (PricewaterhouseCoopers) |
| Abstract: | The cost-effectiveness of plastic recycling is compared to energy recovery from plastic incineration in a waste-to-energy plant using data for the Netherlands. Both options have specific benefits and costs. The benefits of recycling are the avoidance of both CO2 that otherwise would be emitted during incineration and the production of virgin (new) material. There are significant costs, such as collection costs and recycling costs involved for plastic recycling by municipalities. The benefits of energy recovery from plastic are heat and electricity production leading to fewer emissions in the regular energy production sector, but this requires a waste-to-energy plant with the associated capital investments. Summing all the costs and benefits results in an implicit CO2 abatement price of 172 Euro per tonne of CO2 in case of plastic recycling. In general, this implicit price is much higher than current (or historic) ETS prices, the estimated external costs of CO2 emissions, or alternatives to reduce CO2 emissions (e.g. renewable energy). A sensitivity analysis shows that this conclusion is robust. |
| Keywords: | recycling; incineration; plastics; cost-effectiveness analysis |
| JEL: | H43 Q38 Q42 |
| Date: | 2016–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20160039&r=env |
| By: | Braun, Carola; Rehdanz, Katrin; Schmidt, Ulrich |
| Abstract: | Public opinion has a substantial impact on political actions. However, public opinion might be driven by temporary emotions. If these emotions cool off over time, public opinion might change as well. This paper analyses how emotions drive public opinion over time for the case of an environmental climate engineering technology, namely solar radiation management (SRM). SRM is a possible strategy to fight climate change by injection of sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere. Its potential implementation involves major risks and faces strong public opposition. Using panel survey data, we show that most respondents initially show strong negative emotions towards SRM and reject the technology. However, emotions cool off over time and acceptance increases. The increase in acceptance is larger, the longer the cooling-off period between two surveys is. |
| Keywords: | Public perception,social movements,Climate engineering,Cooling-off |
| JEL: | Q54 D19 C93 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2027&r=env |
| By: | Zhang, Yuquan W.; Mu, Jianhong E.; Musumba, Mark |
| Abstract: | Climate change (CC) can influence farmers’ crop choices and result in changes in the regionally varying crop mixes. Using a data set including sown area shares for each crop at province level over the most recent time period of 2000 through 2013 in China, this study employed a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) system to investigate the effects of climate variables on regional crop mixes. The influence of economic and land use intensity on crop area shares were also examined. Results show that winter temperature appears to be a more determining factor than growing season temperature for a region’s crop mix. Also regions with comparatively high farming values tend to see larger percentages of vegetables and orchards. As temperature rises, grains and soybeans that are linked to traditional food security may encounter compromises in production, whereas tubers, small oil crops, vegetables, and orchards would very likely see increases in area shares. Nonetheless, vegetables and orchards may not necessarily step in under future CC due to cost and land use intensity reasons. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Crop Mix, Seeming Unrelated Regression, Multi-Cropping Index, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235387&r=env |
| By: | Gori Maia, Alexandre; Cesano, Daniele; Miyamoto, Bruno C.B.; Eusébio, Gabriela dos Santos; Andrade, Patricia |
| Abstract: | The Brazilian Sertão is the most populous semiarid region in the world, and faces the highest rates of poverty and food insecurity in Brazil. Irregular rainfall and climate variability make these social constraints even more difficult to be solved in the short term, since basic economic activities in the region, as dairy farming and subsistence agriculture, tend to be mainly affected by recurrent and prolonged droughts. This study analyzes the impacts of climate conditions on the agricultural production and how adaptative strategies may alleviate such effects. First, it analyzes the dynamics of climate variables between 1974 and 2013 in the semi-arid region of the State of Bahia, the largest and most populous State of Sertão. Secondly, based on a panel with climatic and production data, it assesses the ex-poste impacts of these climate variables on the agricultural production of the municipalities in the region. Thirdly, it estimates the relation between several adaptive strategies and the agricultural family farmers’ production, based on microdata of the Brazilian Agricultural Census for small farmers in the region. The study evaluates four main agricultural productions: milk, cattle, goat, sheep and corn. The final and general aim of this study is to discuss the effectiveness of strategies for small farmers which would create climate resilience and attenuate the negative impacts of climate change on agricultural production of this vulnerable region. |
| Keywords: | natural resource economics, environmental policy, rural development, caatinga, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, Q18, Q51, Q54, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236255&r=env |
| By: | Liu, Jing; Hertel, Thomas; Lammers, Richard; Prusevich, Alexander; Baldos, Uris; Grogan, Danielle; Frolking, Steve |
| Abstract: | Human activities are increasingly leading to overuse of surface water and nonrenewable groundwater, challenging the capacity of water resources to ensure food security and continuous growth of the economy. Adaptation policies targeting specifically water security can easily overlook its interaction with other sustainability metrics and unanticipated local responses to the larger-scale policy interventions. Using a recently developed global partial equilibrium, grid-resolving model, nick-named SIMPLE-on-a-Grid and coupling it with the global Water Balance Model, we simulate the impacts of reducing unsustainable irrigation water withdrawals on land use change and food supply, under a variety of future (2050) scenarios with and without adaptations. Comparisons are made among three policy interventions: inter-basin water transfers, investments in agricultural productivity-enhancing technologies, and the promotion of virtual water trade. Although each of these scenarios affects regional food supply in a similar fashion, their implications for land cover change, carbon emissions and global food security are quite different. By allowing for a systematic comparison of these alternative adaptations to future scarcity, the global gridded modeling approach offers unique insights into the multiscale nature of the water scarcity challenge. |
| Keywords: | sustainable development, irrigation scarcity, land use change, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, O13, Q18, Q25, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235503&r=env |
| By: | Giannini, Valentina; Bellucci, Alessio; Torresan, Silvia |
| Abstract: | The need to cope with the expected impacts of climate change on socio-ecological systems calls for a closer dialogue between climate scientists and the community of climate information users (e.g. decision makers belonging to public institutions). We describe an interactive process designed to bridge this gap by establishing a two-way communication, based on mutual learning. We analyse the need of climate information for the integrated assessment of climate change impacts on the coastal zone of the Northern Adriatic Sea, which is considered to be particularly vulnerable to several climate-related phenomena, e.g. heavy rainfall events, pluvial flood, and sea-level rise, causing potentially high damages to coastal eco-systems and urban areas (e.g. acqua alta in the Venice Lagoon). A participatory process is designed engaging representatives from both the scientific and local stakeholders communities, and facilitated by a boundary organization, embodied by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change. |
| Keywords: | Decision Making, Climate Products, Climate Services, Risk Assessment, Northern Adriatic, Participatory Process, CLIM-RUN, Environmental Economics and Policy, O1, Q2, R5, |
| Date: | 2016–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemei:236240&r=env |
| By: | Palm-Forster, Leah H.; Suter, Jordan F.; Messer, Kent D. |
| Abstract: | Conservation compliance rules are designed to reduce soil erosion by requiring farmers to comply with specific conservation standards in order to maintain their eligibility for federal assistance programs, such as subsidized crop insurance. Conservation compliance requirements are typically connected to farmers’ individual management actions and not the resulting outcomes (e.g., nutrient loading in watersheds). In this research, we develop policies to reduce nonpoint source (NPS) pollution that link access to agricultural subsidies to ambient levels of pollution and compliance with conservation goals. Four policy environments (treatments) are tested including: 1) no-policy control, 2) linear ambient tax, 3) subsidy reduction if ambient pollution exceeds an announced threshold, and 4) subsidy reduction based on ambient pollution that individuals can avoid by adopting a costly, pollution-reducing technology. Policies are tested using laboratory experiments in which undergraduate student subjects (n=156) act as firm managers. Each manager is assigned to a group comprised of six firms and asked to make production and technology decisions that affect the profitability of his/her firm and ambient water pollution for the group. Preliminary results suggest that participants are significantly more likely to adopt a costly, pollution-reducing technology and accept lower profits when adoption provides assurance that those individuals will not be penalized for ambient pollution levels. By merging a conservation compliance framework with a penalty for ambient pollution, this work contributes to the literature on innovative NPS policies. |
| Keywords: | conservation compliance, ambient tax, nonpoint source pollution, water quality, agri-enivironmental policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Q58, Q25, Q53, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235943&r=env |
| By: | Kim, Moon Joon |
| Abstract: | South Korea has suffered from high levels of air pollution in recent years. South Korea experiences sand storms originating from deserts in west China and Inner Mongolia every spring for over 2,000 years. Over the last decade, as the coal-based Chinese economy continues to grow explosively, air pollutants from industrial zones and coal-combusting power plants started blowing over on the prevailing westerly wind to the nearby countries, Korea and Japan. Further, the problem gets more severe when more fossil fuels are burned for winter heating in China. The Chinese government also acknowledges that a part of emissions generated in their mainland may travel long distances and affect air quality in neighboring countries, however, the level of contribution is still a subject of considerable debate. The long-range transport of air pollutants from China accounts for roughly 26-50% of annual contributions of PM_10 in Korea (Korean Government 2013, Li et al. 2014, Park and Han 2014). In this study, I attempt to econometrically identify the role of wind in the local air quality as a transport of air pollution. The regression models analyze the marginal effects of long-range transport and determines which specific wind directions have the greatest effects each season on South Korean ambient air quality. This paper uses two sets of panel data: daily average concentrations of PM_10 and weather monitoring data (precipitation, temperature, wind speed, and wind direction). The data are collected from seven metropolitan cities and nine provinces in South Korea for nine years (2006-2014). I find that westerly wind increases PM_10 concentrations in South Korea. The marginal effect of the westerlies on annual PM_10 is 0.883 μg/m^3 higher than the east wind, accounting for 3.38% with the annual mean wind speed. Seasonally, the effect of westerlies peaks in winter (8.13%) when more pollutants are generated in China, followed by summer (7.55%), spring (5.99%), and fall (3.21%). More specifically, the northwest (NW) wind has the greatest effects in summer (13.75%) and winter (11.11%) and is in the direction from Beijing to South Korea. Furthermore, the west-southwest (WSW) shows the largest impacts in spring (8.36%) and fall (7.71%), and southwest wind (SW) is the greatest year-round, accounting for 12.26% of the annual mean PM_10. These winds correspond to the direction from Shanghai to South Korea. This is important because it not only shows the effects of transboundary air pollution from China, but also informs us about the air pollutants’ likely main contributing sources, Beijing and Shanghai in China. Based on the results, the average effects of the transboundary air pollution are estimated to account for 7.71-13.75% of the mean PM_10 concentrations depending on season. This brings about a sharp contrast with that of previous studies that estimate the Chinese contribution on PM_10 in South Korea of approximately 26-50%. |
| Keywords: | Transboundary air pollution, particulate matter, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, O13, P28, Q53, |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235714&r=env |
| By: | Meng, Xianwei; Wei, Xuan |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a dynamic general equilibrium model to analyze the effects of changes in trade and environmental policies on firms' production location choices and clean technology adoptions to reduce emission. During this process, the equilibrium worker's wages and environmental quality of related countries are determined. In addition, this model is applied to the trade and production relocation issues between the United States and China over 1999-2013 to quantify the pollution haven effects and the total production offshoring directly and indirectly from the U.S. to China. Further, the long-run predictions on offshoring and emission levels in both countries and counterfactual policy analysis are discussed in this paper. |
| Keywords: | offshoring, technology adoption, trade policy, environment, Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, International Relations/Trade, Labor and Human Capital, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, F18, F23, D21, J31, Q52, Q56, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236064&r=env |
| By: | Li, Yi |
| Abstract: | I analyze a green product market in which eco-labeling programs compete—programs certifying the environmental quality of the product to their respective standards. Specifically, I examine the strategic competition between an industry-sponsored program and a program sponsored by nongovernmental organization (NGO) in a duopoly product market where eco-labels are strategic variables for firms. In particular, I analyze the effects of such eco-label competition on environmental benefit and social welfare. I show that the eco-label competition may generate the same environmental benefit and generally increase social welfare relative to a single NGO label. |
| Keywords: | Label-competition, Duopoly, Credence goods, Vertical product differentiation, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, Public Economics, Q18, Q58, L13, L15, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235389&r=env |
| By: | Kimberly Burnett (University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa); Christopher Wada (University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa); Aiko Endo (Research Department, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature); Makoto Taniguchi (Research Department, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature) |
| Abstract: | 1. Study Region Obama City has a population of 33,000 and is located in the central Wakasa district, in southwest Fukui Prefecture, Japan. Obama’s groundwater resources are supported by the Kitagawa (38 km2) and Miniamigawa (17 km2) river basins. Groundwater is used aboveground year round for commercial and domestic purposes and during winter months to melt snow. Submarine groundwater discharge along the coast supports a nearshore fishery in the region. 2. Study Focus Results from a choice-based analysis suggest that residents are willing to pay on average JPY 565 per month to maintain the drinking water function and aquatic resource function of groundwater in the Fukui region. However, the static approach is not appropriate for estimating the net present value of the resource, i.e. the discounted net benefit aggregated over time. We therefore develop and propose a dynamic framework capable of assessing tradeoffs between the various water uses as scarcity increases or decreases in the future. 3. New Hydrological Insights for the Region Marginal willingness to pay for water in Obama is currently low because freshwater is abundant. We expect that future optimal water extraction patterns will depend most on trends in energy costs, climate change and demand growth. |
| Keywords: | groundwater, economic value, optimization framework, Obama City, Japan |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hae:wpaper:2016-8&r=env |
| By: | Udomsak Seenprachawong (School of Economics, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University) |
| Abstract: | The focus of this study is the valuation of coral reefs and how this information can be used to improve planning for coral reef management in Thailand. The site analysed, Phi Phi Islands, is rich in reef systems and is envisioned as an eco-tourism destination by government planners. Phi Phi can generate large economic values through recreation. The consumer surplus estimated by the travel cost method reveals an annual value of 8,216.4 million Baht (US$205.41 million). This study also utilised the contingent valuation method to estimate both the use and non-use values of Phi Phi’s coral reefs, representing an annual value of 19,895 million Baht (US$497.38 million). It is apparent from this analysis that both local and national levels of government in Thailand can justify larger annual budget allocations for managing coastal resources. At present, the economic benefits from coastal resource management in Phi Phi are mostly due to the local residents and businesses. One of the economic instrument options to capture the net benefit values of Phi Phi is to directly target the consumers. Tourists could be charged fees for physically using the environment, such as participating in offshore water sports (specifically including snorkelling boats and dive operations), swimming and beach activities. The contingent valuation method provided information regarding the extent of the domestic consumer surplus. It estimated the consumer’s willingness to pay to increase biodiversity at Phi Phi as 287 Baht (US$7.18) per visit. |
| Keywords: | Economic Analysis,Coral Reefs,Andaman Sea |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eep:report:rr2016055&r=env |
| By: | Wani, Mr. Nassir Ul Haq; Dhami, Dr. Jasdeep Kaur |
| Abstract: | Business world, subject to typical changes evolve as a result of innovations. Innovations alter the economy and society fundamentally. To be innovative means to provide organizational and technical improvements that can be sold successfully in the marketplace. But the market systems have adversely affected the environment by: (a) failing to deal with negative environmental externalities and (b) undervaluing natural resources, leading to their over exploitation and depletion. In addition, imperfect market conditions, unclear definition of property rights and misplaced government policies (such as subsidies in various forms for exploitation of natural resources) have often led to the under-valuation of natural resources and to unsustainable exploitation. These market failures have caused irreparable damage to ecosystems and threaten to destroy life-support systems. In dealing such situations the potent weapon is ecopreneurship, which refers to a process by which entrepreneurs introduce eco-friendly (or relatively more eco-friendly) products and process into the marketplace. |
| Keywords: | Ecopreneurship: Ecofriendly: Go-green |
| JEL: | Q5 Q55 |
| Date: | 2016–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71384&r=env |
| By: | Tomas Ekvall (IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute); Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers (Ecologic Institut gemeinnuetzige GmbH); Fabio Eboli (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)); Aleksander Sniegocki (Warszawski Instytut Studiów Ekonomicznych (WISE)) |
| Abstract: | Increasing material use efficiency is important to mitigate future supply risks and minimize environmental impacts associated with the production of the materials. The policy mix presented in this paper aims to reduce the use of virgin metals in the EU by 80% by 2050. We used a heuristic framework and a systems perspective for designing the policy mix that combines primary instruments (aimed to achieve the 80% reduction target – e.g. a materials tax, technical regulations and removal of environmentally harmful subsidies) and supportive instruments (aimed to reduce barriers to implementing the primary instruments and to contribute towards the policy objectives – e.g. research & development support, and advanced recycling centers). Furthermore, instruments were designed so as to increase political feasibility: e.g. taxes were gradually increased as part of a green fiscal reform, and border-tax adjustments were introduced to reduce impacts on competitiveness. However, even in such a policy mix design ongoing ex-ante assessments indicate that the policy mix will be politically difficult to implement – and also fall short of achieving the 80% reduction target. Nonetheless, we suggest combining primary and supportive instruments into coherent and dynamic policy mixes as a promising step towards system reconfigurations for sustainability. |
| Keywords: | Policy Mix, Policy Development, Resource Efficiency, Material Efficiency, Recycling, European Union, Sensitivity Model |
| JEL: | L72 Q32 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2016.28&r=env |
| By: | Ramsey, Steven M.; Bergtold, Jason S.; Canales, Elizabeth; Williams, Jeff R. |
| Abstract: | Risk plays an important role in agricultural production decisions. When installation of new or intensification of existing conservation practices are under consideration, each farmer will have a unique, subjective view of the associated risks. The individualistic nature of risk perceptions could have important implications for conservation adoption or intensification. Thus, a more complete understanding of the factors influencing farmer risk perceptions is needed to increase the effectiveness of education, extension, outreach and programmatic efforts. The purpose of this study is to examine farmers’ risk perceptions regarding a bundle of in-field practices which could be used to intensify conservation efforts on farms in the Midwest. We present a conceptual model of perceived yield risk for four conservation practices: continuous no-till, conservation crop rotations, cover crops, and variable rate application of inputs. Bivariate probit models are estimated using survey response data from Kansas farmers. |
| Keywords: | Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236276&r=env |
| By: | Liu, Qing; Zhou, Jiehong; Yan, Zhen |
| Abstract: | The present study attempts to separate the environmental motivation and healthy motivation of consumers' choice for pro-environmental products through choice experiment and latent class model. Moreover, the different motives behind pro-environmental purchase and its impact on heterogeneity of consumer preferences needs to be further examined. Data are collected by means of face-to-face interview in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong of China with a total sample size of 477 consumers. The results reveal that the consumers who are willing to buy pro-environmental products are motivated by health benefits as well as environmental considerations due to the higher consciousness of food safety and eco-environment in China. However, the healthy attributes tend to prevail in consumers' motivations. Consumers who have stronger environmental motivation will show higher preferences for pro-environmental products. It is also found that these consumers have the following characteristics: higher perception and knowledge of pro-environmental products，lower income , convenient purchase and female. Our results have implications for the improvement of government's consumption policies and the precision marketing of producers to induce consumers' participation to buy pro-environmental products, which in turn do a great benefit to environmental-friendly production and sustainable environment. |
| Keywords: | pro-environmental purchase motives, consumer preference, choice experiment, latent class model, Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236261&r=env |
| By: | Lucas Bretschger (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | By adopting the Paris Agreement on climate change the world community has agreed on global goals for climate policy. However, by relying on voluntary contributions and respecting "national circumstances" it does not ensure efficient and equitable country policies. To derive guidelines for a fair burden sharing between countries the paper applies welfare theory and combines it with general equity principles. The procedure selects those "national circum- stances" which are suitable for internationally acceptable policies. The concept is then compared to policies formulated by purely selfish countries. A convergence process closing the gap between country contributions and the optimum international climate policy is developed. It is argued that equity-based signals can be a forceful means supporting this process. |
| Keywords: | Climate policy, equity, climate agreements, social welfare |
| JEL: | Q54 Q56 D63 H40 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:16-246&r=env |
| By: | Thiel, Kristen; Cho, Seonghoon; Armsworth, Paul |
| Abstract: | Conservation return on investment (ROI), for all spatial scales, varies according to a wide range of characteristics. One feature that makes conservation ROI at the parcel level different from larger scale ROI is the impact of parcel size variation on ecological and economic effectiveness. Protected area size maintains an important role in both the benefit and cost associated with conservation. However, few studies have explicitly focused on the role of protected area size on conservation ROI specifically at the parcel level. Therefore, conservation ROI has been limited in its effectiveness in prioritizing parcels for conservation. The objective of our research is to examine how protected area size influences a parcel’s ecological and economic effectiveness through conservation ROI. This objective is accomplished by analyzing the parcel-level acquisition cost and the conservation benefit of protected areas acquired by a conservation organization, The Nature Conservancy (TNC). We develop an empirical model to examine how differences in protected area size influence conservation benefit, and how differences in the conservation benefit subsequently alter conservation cost. By assessing the sequential relationship in a spatial econometric modeling framework, we first examine the consequence of the size variation on conservation ROI and then we calculate and rank the ROI for each protected area with and without consideration of spatial spillovers of conservation benefit and acquisition cost. We found that (1) protected areas acquired by TNC create a more connected habitat, thereby improving species protection and mobility in the existing protected area network that exists prior to the TNC acquisition, and subsequently, such improvement is a major impetus to determine acquisition cost, (2) the increase in effective mesh size on a dollar invested to acquire a parcel is greater for smaller parcels than larger parcels, implying that the overall efficiency of protected areas that sums up the ecological and economic efficiencies is higher in protecting smaller areas relative to larger areas, and (3) the inclusion of spillovers of both conservation benefit and cost in the decision making tool of ROI scoring provides information as to which parcels’ locations affect conservation benefit and cost in their neighboring parcels and to what degrees. |
| Keywords: | Return on Investment, protected area size, spatial spillover, protected area, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235767&r=env |
| By: | Ward, Patrick S.; Bell, Andrew R.; Droppelmann, Klaus; Benton, Tim |
| Abstract: | Land degradation and soil erosion have emerged as serious challenges to smallholder farmers throughout Southern Africa. To combat these challenges, conservation agriculture (CA) is widely promoted as a “sustainable” package of agricultural practices. Despite the many potential benefits of CA, however, adoption remains low. Yet relatively little is known about the decisionmaking process in choosing to adopt CA. This article attempts to fill this important knowledge gap by studying CA adoption in southern Malawi. Unlike what is implicitly assumed when these packages of practices are introduced, farmers view adoption as a series of independent decisions, rather than a single decision. Yet the adoption decisions are not wholly independent. We find strong evidence of interrelated decisions, particularly among mulching crop residues and practicing zero tillage, suggesting that mulching residues and intercropping or rotating with legumes introduces a multiplier effect on the adoption of zero tillage. |
| Keywords: | conservation agriculture, Malawi, technology adoption, multivariate probit, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235610&r=env |
| By: | Chalak, Morteza; Burton, Michael |
| Abstract: | Invasion of gamba grass in Northern Territory increases fire fuel and bushfire smoke. Increase in bushfire smoke decreases air quality and have negative health impacts. The aim of this study is to assess people’s willingness pay in order to control bushfire smoke and reduce its health risks. We also aim to assess what part of their willingness to pay is derived from altruism. To do this, we form two versions of a survey. The first version aims to assess willingness to pay which may consist of both altruism and personal benefits. The framing tells the respondents to assume that increases in bushfire smoke will affect their own personal health. In the second version of the survey that aims to assess only altruism, respondents will be limited to those who do not have asthma. We tell these respondents that increase in bushfire smoke will only affect people with asthma. Visual aides were used to enhance risk comprehension. Results showed that analysing altruistic value is important when valuing environmental assets. Altruistic value of statistical life is calculated at $5000,000. We showed that distinguishing paternalistic and non-paternalistic altruism is important.48% of WTP was non-paternalistic altruism. Paternalistic altruism is estimated at $2600,000. |
| Keywords: | Willingness to pay, altruism, paternalistic, bushfire smoke, health, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q51, |
| Date: | 2016–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235364&r=env |
| By: | Tsiboe, Francis; Nalley, Lawton L.; Dixon, Bruce L.; Shew, Aaron M.; Tack, Jesse B.; Barkley, Andrew; Brye, Kristofor R. |
| Abstract: | This study estimates average county/parish and state-level CH4 emissions per hectare (kg CH4 ha-1) as well as CH4 efficiency levels (kg rice/kg CH4 ha-1) in rice production for Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi in order to meassure spatial differences in CH4 emissions. This study focuses on existing rice production practices, specifically, variety selection, crop rotation, and soil texture, which directly affect CH4 emissions. Historical data on varietal selection, crop rotations, and soil texture maps are used to estimate CH4 emissions from 2003-2014. Our findings suggest that on average Mississippi was the most efficient at converting CH4 into rice (267.46 kg rice/kg CH4 ha-1), followed by Arkansas (189.92) and Louisiana (178.80). Specifically, Louisiana was negatively impacted by its large ratoon crop in terms of CH4 use efficiency, with 38% of its primary rice crop being ratooned. Overall, these results provide rice buyers, producers and consumers with important information about the spatial aspects of sustainability in rice production. Furthermore, it gives insight to producers and policy makers about which production practices and locations could benefit from increased demand for sustainable products and more restrictive environmental policies. |
| Keywords: | Greenhouse Gas, Methane, Rice, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235248&r=env |
| By: | Khanna, Madhu; Wang, Weiwei; Hudiburg, Tara; DeLucia, Evan |
| Keywords: | biofuels, indirect land use change, welfare costs, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235774&r=env |
| By: | Fan, Xiaoli; Gómez, Miguel; Atallah, Shadi |
| Abstract: | Spotted wing drosophila (SWD) is an invasive pest having a devastating effect on soft-skinned fruits such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and cherries. Due to zero tolerance of SWD infested fruit in both fresh and frozen markets, current SWD management strategies consist mainly of preventive broad-spectrum insecticide sprays. Extension services across the United States are calling for management strategies that incorporate monitoring to reduce unnecessary insecticide sprays. Nonetheless, little is known about the economic benefits of these management strategies over the broad-spectrum insecticide sprays. In this paper, we develop a dynamic bioeconomic model to identify the cost-minimizing mix of SWD management strategies. We employ Bayesian methods in a dynamic simulation setting to evaluate the economic outcomes of alternative strategies involving insecticide sprays and monitoring combinations. We apply this model to a blueberry farmer making decisions to control SWD infestation. We find that the economic impacts of different SWD control strategies depend on the efficacy of the insecticide applied, the efficiency of monitoring traps, and also the action threshold selected. Overall, as the efficiency of monitoring traps improves, the management strategies which include monitoring are superior to the spray-only strategy. Also, growers can choose more liberal action thresholds when using monitoring traps with higher efficiency. In addition, monitor-to-initiate spray strategies perform better than the monitor-to-guide spray strategies in general. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236042&r=env |
| By: | Colombelli, Alessandra; Quatraro, Francesco (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | There is wide consensus about the importance of green technologies for achieving superior economic and environmental performances. The literature on their determinants has neglected the creation of green start-ups as a channel to bring about green technologies in the market. Drawing upon the knowledge spillovers theory of entrepreneurship, we test the relevance of local knowledge stocks, distinguishing between clean and dirty stocks, for the creation of green start-ups. Moreover, the effects of the technological composition of local stocks is investigated, by focusing on technological variety, both related and unrelated, as well as on coherence. Consistently with recent literature, green start-ups are associated to higher levels of variety, pointing to the relevance of diverse and heterogeneous knowledge sources, but in related and complementary technological fields. |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201606&r=env |
| By: | Markel, Evan; English, Burton C.; Lambert, Dayton |
| Abstract: | The coupling of RIN prices appears to be the result of an ethanol market subject to RFS mandates that exceed the blend wall and non-binding mandates in the biodiesel market. It is thought that the ethanol mandate is binding beyond the market absorption ability, and thus the primary drivers of D6 ethanol RIN price are unobserved thresholds in renewable volume obligations, and deterministic variables such as corn price and ethanol blend margins. In regard to the market for biodiesel, the hypothesis is that biodiesel producers are over-complying with the RFS biodiesel mandates to meet an ethanol mandate which has crossed some threshold in proximity to the ethanol blend wall. Therefore biodiesel mandates are essentially non-binding. Nonlinear threshold models are applied to address nonlinearities occurring in the prices. These types of models are well suited to handling nonlinearities and regime changes, such as those which occur with RFS revisions. A candidate set of models are fitted to the data and model selection techniques are carried out to determine the most appropriate fit. |
| Keywords: | Nonlinear Time Series, Threshold Autoregressive, Self-Exciting Autoregressive, Smooth Transition Autoregressive, Renewable Identification Numbers, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C22, Q48, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236037&r=env |
| By: | Kimberly Burnett (University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa); Christopher Wada (University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa); Aiko Endo (Research Department, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature); Makoto Taniguchi (Research Department, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature) |
| Abstract: | Disaster management problems often pose the same types of challenges that environmental governance problems do; they involve decision-makers at various levels and can transcend political boundaries. We conduct a benefit-cost analysis of a disaster adaptation strategy in Otsuchi, which was undertaken shortly after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami devastated the region. Results indicate that present value net benefits from the planned seawall are positive, even if expected damages are low, provided that the wall is capable of reducing damage by at least 50%. A hybrid method of governance may, however, be effective at increasing the benefit-cost ratio. |
| Keywords: | tsunami, benefit-cost analysis, Otsuchi, seawall, Tohoku, governance |
| JEL: | D61 Q5 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hae:wpaper:2016-5&r=env |
| By: | TERCIANE SABADINI CARVALHO; EDSON PAULO DOMINGUES |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2015:192&r=env |
| By: | Roman Frigg; Leonard A. Smith; David A. Stainforth |
| Abstract: | The United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme’s UKCP09 project makes highresolution projections of the climate out to 2100 by post-processing the outputs of a large-scale global climate model. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the methodology used and then urge some caution. Given the acknowledged systematic, shared shortcomings in all current climate models, treating model outputs as decision relevant projections can be significantly misleading. In extrapolatory situations, such as projections of future climate change impacts, there is little reason to expect that postprocessing of model outputs can correct for the consequences of such errors. This casts doubt on our ability, today, to make trustworthy, high-resolution probabilistic projections out to the end of this century. |
| Keywords: | climate change; prediction; projection; simulation; model; probability; reliability; emulation; systematic error; decision-making; |
| JEL: | C1 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:61635&r=env |
| By: | Agustin L. Arcenas (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the climate-change related factors that affect the incidence of dengue in the Philippines. Dengue, one of the most high-profile public health problems in Southeast Asia, has been estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars in the Philippines and worldwide in terms of treatment, surveillance and control, lost income and other indirect costs per year. The disease has been a burden on the public, especially the poor who are less able to access funds for treatment and more heavily affected by the loss in income due to illness. The findings indicate that temperature, precipitation and the incidence of La Niña significantly contribute to the cases of dengue in the Philippines by enhancing the breeding, growth and development of the Aedis aegypti, the dengue-carrying mosquito variety. The econometric results also indicate that better household sanitation practices also reduce dengue cases, indicating that investments to enhance the public’s adoption of hygienic and other health practices do lessen the transmission of diseases such as dengue. The results of the study are consistent with the findings of studies regarding dengue in other parts of the world, and contribute to the growing awareness about the health impacts of climate change. This study should provide Philippine policy-makers some guidance in addressing the dengue problem as regional climate change becomes more pronounced. |
| Keywords: | Dengue, climate change La Niña |
| JEL: | Q54 I18 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phs:dpaper:201601&r=env |
| By: | Agyekum, Michael; Donovan, Cynthia; Lupi, Frank |
| Abstract: | Cowpeas are a critical crop for food and income security for millions of people in Africa. Insect pests, however, are a major production constraint causing over 50% yield losses. Farmers indiscriminately apply expensive synthetic pesticides in spite of attendant health and environmental risks. Recognizing that current chemical control methods are costly and unsustainable for resource-poor farmers, an innovative integrated pest management strategy based on biocontrol agents is being explored for West Africa. Therefore, the objective of this study was to predict potential adoption of the innovative biocontrol strategy by determining important factors that explain farmers’ pest control decisions. To this end, we designed a choice experiment survey for 505 cowpea farmers in Benin. A conditional logit model was estimated. Survey findings indicate that farmers are aware of health hazards but persistently apply chemical pesticides out of necessity. Also, model results reveal that important factors driving pest control decisions include costs, labor, and potential yield losses. Finally, we show that social norms could be leveraged to enhance adoption of the biocontrol method. These findings have promising implications for on-going efforts to develop and disseminate sustainable biocontrol strategies that are eco-friendly and cost effective for smallholder farmers. |
| Keywords: | discrete choice experiment, IPM, biological control, cowpea, West Africa, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, D12, D60, Q12, Q50, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235993&r=env |
| By: | Akhundjanov, Sherzod |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes a common property resource (such as oil field or water reservoir) shared by two countries in the presence of two forms of bilateral externalities: the tragedy of the commons, and the environmental damage resulting from the exploitation of the resource. We demonstrate that both cooperative and non-cooperative forms of regulation produce a negative effect on firms' profits, as they increase firms' unit production costs. However, regulation can also entail a positive effect on profits, given that it mitigates industry overproduction. We show that the magnitude of these two effects depends not only on the type of regulatory instrument, but also on the rate of resource extraction and the environmental damage in each country. We identify conditions under which the positive effect of regulation dominates its negative effect, thus increasing firms' profits and ultimately incentivizing them to support the introduction of regulation, either at the national or international level. |
| Keywords: | Common property resource, Bilateral externalities, Transboundary externalities, Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, H23, Q38, C71, C72, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235534&r=env |
| By: | Taheripour, Farzad; Hertel, Thomas; Sahin, Sebnem |
| Abstract: | This paper uses an advanced computable general equilibrium model coupled with biophysical data on land and water resources by Agro-ecological zone at a river basin level to examine: 1) the economy-wide consequences of improvement in water use efficiency (WUE) in irrigation in South Asia; 2) the extent to which enhanced WUE can increase food production and improve food security in South Asia; and 3) how WUE in irrigation alters demand for water and affects land use across South Asia. Given that the extent to which the economies of South Asia can actually improve water use efficiency in irrigation is uncertain, it tests four different levels of efficiency gains in irrigation: 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%. It examines improvement in WUE under two alternative cost assumptions: 1) improvement in WUE is costless and 2) improvement in WUE needs additional investment. With a 10 percent improvement in WUE, the overall respective increases in food production during the time period 2008-2030 in India, Bangladesh and the rest of South Asia would be about $50.5 billion, $3.5 billion and $29.6 billion at 2007 constant prices. Improvement in WUE in irrigation reduces the rain-fed harvested areas and increases irrigated areas. A 10 percent improvement in WUE increases the areas of irrigated cropland by 6.1 million hectares, 296,000 hectares and 1.9 million hectares in India, Bangladesh and the rest of South Asia. When improvement in WUE is costless, the net present values of gains due to a 10 percent improvement in WUE (with a 3 percent social discount rate) are about $45.6 billion for India, $3.6 billion for Bangladesh, and $21.8 billion for rest of South Asia at 2007 constant prices for the time period of 2007-2030. Gains grow as the level of improvement in WUE increases. When improvement in WUE needs additional investments, welfare gains drop but gains in food production remain high. |
| Keywords: | South Asia, Agriculture, Water Use Efficiency, Irrigation, General Equilibrium, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Political Economy, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236063&r=env |
| By: | Hrozencik, Robert Aaron; Manning, Dale |
| Abstract: | Groundwater resources provide an important input to agricultural production in many semi-arid regions of the world. However, groundwater extraction rates that exceed natural recharge cause aquifer depletions and threaten the sustainability of this vital input for irrigated agriculture. The common property nature of aquifers means that individual irrigators do not always use groundwater in a way that maximizes its value to society. Groundwater management policies are a means to address aquifer depletion concerns and maximize groundwater’s value to society through time. In practice, water resource managers seek cost effective policies that incentivize more efficient and sustainable water use. |
| Keywords: | Groundwater policy, Ogallala, Irrigated Agriculture, Integrated Hydrologic Modelling, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236116&r=env |
| By: | Shouro Dasgupta, Shouro; De Cian, Enrica; Verdolini, Elena |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates the effects of environmental policy, institutions, political orientation, and lobbying on energy innovation and finds that they significantly affect the incentives to innovate and create cleaner energy efficient technologies. We conclude that political economy factors may act as barriers even in the presence of stringent environmental policy, implying that, to move towards a greener economy, countries should combine environmental policy with a general strengthening of institutional quality, consider the influence of government’s political orientation on environmental policies, and the implications of the size of energy intensive sectors in the economy. |
| Keywords: | Energy Innovation, Environmental Policy, Patents, Political Economy, Political Economy, C23, D02, O30, Q58, |
| Date: | 2016–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemmi:234939&r=env |
| By: | Tyagi, Ashish |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Carbon Tax, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235565&r=env |
| By: | Melstrom, Richard T.; Lee, Kangil; Byl, Jacob P. |
| Abstract: | The U.S. Endangered Species Act is often criticized as pitting people against species by conserving habitat at the cost of jobs. Critics of current conservation policies argue that the protection of species is stripping landowners of their property rights and putting people in industries tied to resource extraction out of jobs. While changes in employment are important measures of the public costs of endangered species protection, relatively little is known about the labor market impacts of listing a species under the Endangered Species Act. We examine changes in employment associated with the lesser prairie chicken, an imperiled bird that was listed as threatened in May 2014. Using monthly county-level employment data and variation in potential prairie chicken habitat, we apply a di erencein- di erences strategy to measure the employment impacts of the listing decision. We nd evidence that employment declined after the listing by about 1% in counties with habitat relative to non-habitat areas. We also nd that the impact is proportional to habitat, so counties with the most prairie-chicken habitat experienced the largest impacts on employment. |
| Keywords: | Conservation, habitat, growth, Endangered Species Act, Labor and Human Capital, E24, J21, Q24, Q52, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236254&r=env |
| By: | Graham McIntosh |
| Abstract: | Energy and resource companies have a crucial role in achieving future sustainable economies. We investigate the performance of international Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) energy and resource companies on the stock market over a 10-year period (February 2005-January 2015). We select portfolios of established energy and resource stocks with substantial environmental and social responsibility activities. Our findings demonstrate that the annual average performance of the energy and resource SRI portfolio was superior to returns of different benchmark indices. The energy and resource SRI stock investments were also more profitable on the risk-adjusted basis. Additionally, we applied Fama-French and Carhart four factor models and found that the returns of our portfolios are more consistently explained by the market factor than by other factors. We also show that oil price has a statistically significant influence on the returns of the SRI energy and resource stocks. However, the performance of the energy and resource SRI portfolio was no longer superior when dividends were excluded from the calculation of total returns. Indeed, the performance of portfolios without dividends was poor compared to the benchmark indices in most sub-periods, in the sub-samples of bullish and bearish markets and in the full sample. This finding demonstrates the importance of dividends in the investment performance of the energy and resource SRI stocks. |
| Keywords: | Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), SRI Stocks, Energy Stocks, Stock Market Returns, Dividends |
| JEL: | G10 Q40 Q56 |
| Date: | 2016–02–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1609&r=env |
| By: | - |
| Abstract: | Le monde traverse un changement d’époque. Face aux déséquilibres économiques, distributifs et environnementaux du mode de développement prédominant, la communauté internationale vient d’adopter le Programme de développement durable à l’horizon 2030 et ses 17 objectifs. Le document que la Commission économique pour l’Amérique latine et les Caraïbes (CEPALC) présente aux états membres à l’occasion de sa trente-sixième session a pour but d’apporter un complément analytique à ce Programme dans la perspective structuraliste du développement et de l’optique des pays d’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes. Les propositions contenues dans ce document sont centrées sur la nécessité de promouvoir un changement structurel progressif qui favorise l’incorporation du savoir à la production, garantisse l’inclusion sociale et combatte les effets néfastes du changement climatique. Les réflexions et les propositions visant à avancer sur la voie d’un nouveau mode de développement sont axées sur la promotion de l’égalité et de la pérennité de l’environnement. La création de biens publics mondiaux et leurs équivalents à l’échelle régionale, ainsi que l’application de politiques nationales sont au coeur d’une vision structuraliste qui est appelée à évoluer vers un keynésianisme mondial et une stratégie de développement centrée sur un élan majeur pour l’environnement. |
| Keywords: | AGENDA 2030 PARA EL DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE, DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE, CONDICIONES ECONOMICAS, COMERCIO INTERNACIONAL, MEDIO AMBIENTE, CRISIS ECONOMICA, PRODUCTIVIDAD, POBREZA, DISTRIBUCION DEL INGRESO, IGUALDAD DE GENERO, DESARROLLO ECONOMICO, DESARROLLO SOCIAL, IGUALDAD, MODELOS DE DESARROLLO, 2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMIC CONDITIONS, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMIC CRISIS, PRODUCTIVITY, POVERTY, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, GENDER EQUALITY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, EQUALITY, DEVELOPMENT MODELS |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:c39025:40119&r=env |
| By: | Lynes, Melissa; Brewer, Brady; Featherstone, Allen |
| Abstract: | Nonparametric DEA models were ran to estimate cost and production frontiers of 503 electric generation plans in 2012. Preliminary results show that the relaxation of the greenhouse gas emission constraint for the constrained electric generation plants would reduce the cost for all greenhouse gas emissions in the study. However, it was found that when the model accounts for these greenhouse gas emissions as a bad output, the electric generation plants that were constrained were more efficient by most of the efficiency measures. This shows that the inclusion of a pollutant, in this case the greenhouse gas emissions of an electric generation plant, are accounted for in the production process, the efficiency scores and the frontier curves of the plant are affected and must be accounted for. |
| Keywords: | production, electricity, greenhouse gas emissions, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, Q41, D24, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235890&r=env |
| By: | Richard Akresh (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the evidence linking climate variability to conflict, broadly defined, and the subsequent short and long-term implications of children’s exposure to conflict. Evidence generally supports strong links between hotter temperatures, reduced rainfall, and more conflict, defined to include violence ranging from intergroup to interpersonal to intrapersonal. Individuals exposed to conflicts while in utero or childhood suffer negative health and education effects. There is less evidence about long-term impacts or how conflict exposure beyond early childhood affects children. In contrast with other types of negative shocks experienced by children, exposure to conflict is not always correlated with significant gender bias against girls, as many studies show impacts on all children. Much less is known about the mechanisms through which conflict impacts child health and education, how households cope with conflict shocks, or the impacts of conflict on other outcomes including intergenerational transmission of the shock. |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:221&r=env |
| By: | Zaveri, Esha; Wrenn, Douglas H.; Fisher-Vanden, Karen |
| Abstract: | Investments in water infrastructure remain key to climate change adaptation plans in many countries, and rank high in adaptation costs for developing countries (Narain et al., 2011). In this paper, we use district-level panel data from 1970-2005 across India’s major agricultural states to investigate the role played by subsidized access to electricity, groundwater wells, tank and dam projects in mediating the vulnerabilities associated with monsoonal variation. We focus on wheat, a staple of India’s food supply, as it requires irrigation and represents a significant portion of India’s total agricultural output. Results show that the impact of negative precipitation shocks is significantly dampened when a particular district has access to a more reliable source of irrigation – e.g., access to tubewells helps to dampen the impact of negative precipitation shocks on irrigation decisions associated with wheat, while upstream dams do not significantly contribute to this dampening effect. In contrast, having access to dugwells exacerbates the impact of a fall in monsoon precipitation curtailing irrigation of wheat. Our results suggest that historical agricultural policies that increased access to tubewells and the subsequent electrification of regions naturally endowed with more groundwater have equipped farmers with the ability to withstand monsoonal shocks and fluctuations. |
| Keywords: | Water infrastructure, Adaptation, Agriculture, Irrigation, Indian Monsoon, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, O13, Q15, Q25, Q54, Q56, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236216&r=env |
| By: | Eskander, Shaikh; Barbier, Edward |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects of natural disaster exposure on agricultural households who simultaneously make rent-in and rent-out decisions in the land rental market. Our econometric approach accounts for the effects of disaster exposure both on the adjustments in the quantity of operated land (i.e. extensive margin) and agricultural yield conditional on the land quantity adjustments (i.e. intensive margin), based on selectivity-corrected samples of rental market participants. Employing a household survey dataset from Bangladesh, we find that farmers were able to ameliorate their losses from exposure to disasters by optimizing their operational farm size through participation in the land rental market. These results are robust to alternative specifications. This suggests that the land rental market may be an effective instrument reducing disaster risk, and post-disaster policies should take into account this role more systematically. |
| Keywords: | Bangladesh, Natural Disasters, Extensive and Intensive Margins, Land Rental Market., Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Risk and Uncertainty, Q24, Q54, D13, D64, Q15, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235648&r=env |
| By: | Canning, Patrick; Rehkamp, Sarah |
| Keywords: | CO2 tax, climate change, diet, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235928&r=env |
| By: | Reeling, Carson; Verdier, Valentin; Lupi, Frank |
| Abstract: | "Preference point" lotteries, under which the probability an applicant is drawn increase with their stock of preference points earned over time, are widely used to allocate access to many economically important natural resources (e.g., big game hunting opportunities). Lotteries form a natural choice experiment: by observing the opportunities for which an individual applies, the alternatives not chosen, the associated costs, the probability of winning a permit, etc., statistical inferences can be made about how individuals trade off site characteristics for cost. Knowledge of these trade-o ffs can then be used to estimate applicants' willingness to pay for site quality characteristics and site access. Two key features of recreationalists' choices under preference point lottery are (i) forward-looking behavior (since the odds of winning a permit depend on the accumulated stock of preference points) and (ii) equilibrium sorting (whereby individuals decide where to apply based on their expectations of others' choices and vice versa). We develop a novel revealed preference method for estimating individuals' willingness to pay for access to recreational opportunities allocated by preference point lottery that accounts for these two features. We apply our model to the case study of black bear hunting in Michigan. We estimate total willingness to pay for access to a small site to be nearly $200,000. |
| Keywords: | dynamic discrete choice model, equilibrium sorting, lottery, preference points, revealed preference, travel cost, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C2, C5, D9, Q26, Q51, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235673&r=env |
| By: | Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) |
| Abstract: | Subsidized energy is provided to all Indonesian citizens as a public service obligation. This study measures the size of fossil fuel subsidies such as underpricing of petroleum products and electricity, tax exemptions, and subsidized credit; examines the potential economic, energy, and environmental impacts of reducing them; and discusses options for social safety nets to mitigate the impacts of the reforms. It shows that the short-term adverse impacts of subsidy reform turn positive in the long term as households and industry respond to changing market realities by adjusting energy demand, supply, and production capacity. Policy options for sustainable energy use are provided to aid policymakers in their current subsidy reform process. |
| Keywords: | indonesia, fossil fuel, energy, fossil fuel subsidies, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, economic impacts, social programs, developing asia |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:asd:wpaper:rpt157694-2&r=env |
| By: | TERCIANE SABADINI CARVALHO; EDSON PAULO DOMINGUES |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2014:183&r=env |
| By: | Zhang, Jun |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a model based on the general equilibrium framework to evaluate Household’s excess burden of carbon tax levied on energy goods (electricity and natural gas). The model accounts for tax distortion on labor market and cross-price effects between energy goods. With data from the U.S. Residential Energy Consumption Survey, own price and cross-price elasticities of energy goods are estimated. Substitution effects are found between electricity and natural gas, and omitting such effects will overestimate the excess burden of carbon tax. The results indicate that carbon tax performs differently on affecting excess burden of low, middle and high income households. With a low pre-set labor tax rate, higher income households have lower excess burden comparing to lower income households, but with a high pre-set labor tax rate, the effect is reverse. |
| Keywords: | Tax distortion, general equilibrium, energy demand, excess burden, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Industrial Organization, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2016–05–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235569&r=env |
| By: | Hashmat Khan; Christopher R. Knittel; Konstantinos Metaxoglou; Maya Papineau |
| Abstract: | U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are highly procyclical—they increase during expansions and fall during recessions. Given this empirical fact, we estimate the response of emissions to four prominent technology shocks from the business-cycle literature using structural vector autoregressive methodologies and data for 1973–2012. By studying the response of emissions to these shocks, we provide a novel approach to assess the shocks’ relevance as sources of aggregate output fluctuations. We find that emissions rise on impact only after an anticipated investment-specific technology shock; the response is statistically significant after the first quarter. The same shock explains most— roughly a third—of the total variation in emissions at a horizon of 5 years. Notably, emissions decrease on impact after an unanticipated neutral technology shock in a statistically significant way. This negative empirical response has the opposite sign from its theoretical counterpart in recent environmental DSGE (E-DSGE) models. Since the positive response of emissions drives the E-DSGE models’ recommendation for an optimal procyclical policy, our findings suggest that such a policy recommendation should be treated cautiously. |
| JEL: | E32 Q43 Q48 Q54 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22294&r=env |
| By: | Vielma Delano, Sofia K.; Quagrainie, Kwamena K. |
| Abstract: | There has been increasing concern about the environmental impact of pharmaceutical accumulation in surface and groundwater over the last two decades. Several states in the U.S. have implemented medicine take-back programs to help mitigate problems associated with unused and unwanted pharmaceuticals in households. States bordering the Great Lakes have particularly been concerned about this issue. This study assessed the value of a pharmaceutical collection program based on the willingness to pay per prescription and willingness to pay per visit of current and potential participants of the program in the Great Lakes area. We found that 60 % of the population is willing to participate in a collection program, while 40 % is willing to pay to participate in the program. The estimated unconditional mean WTP from a Double Hurdle Model is $0.53 per prescription and $1.03 per visit; and with the conditional mean willingness to pay, $1.25 per prescription and $2.33 per visit. Total annual benefits for such programs given the number of households in the area are estimated to be $20.1 million when considering WTP per prescription, and $18.9 million for a single drop-off per year when considering WTP per visit. This information will help better inform program providers, researchers, policymakers, advocates and other interested parties. |
| Keywords: | Pharmaceutical disposal, Contingent Valuation, Willingness to Pay, Double Hurdle, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236031&r=env |
| By: | Gabriel E. Lade; C.Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell; Aaron Smith |
| Abstract: | The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) mandates large increases in U.S. biofuel consumption and is implemented using a market for tradable compliance credits, known as RINs. In early 2013, RIN prices soared, causing the regulator to propose reducing future mandates. We develop a dynamic model of RFS2 compliance to demonstrate how changes in expectations about future policy affect current compliance costs, and we use a market effciency test to demonstrate that RIN markets have behaved in accordance with our model. We then estimate empirically the effect of three "policy shocks" that reduced the expected mandates in 2013. The largest of these shocks decreased the total cost of compliance by nearly $8 billion. The burden of the mandate reductions fell primarily on advanced biofuel firms and on commodity markets of the marginal compliance biofuel. We argue that the policy shocks reduced the incentive to invest in the technologies required to meet the future objectives of the RFS2. JEL Codes: Q42, Q50, H23 |
| Keywords: | tradable credits, policy design, quantity mechanisms, renewable fuel standard |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:cpaper:16-wp565&r=env |
| By: | Hoang, Phi; McGuire, William; Prakash, Aseem |
| Keywords: | 33/50, voluntary environmental programs, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q53, Q58, Q52, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235556&r=env |
| By: | Okello, Julius J; Zhou, Yuan; Kwikiriza, Norman; Ogutu, Sylvester; Barker, Ian; Schulte-Geldermann, Elmar; Ahmed, Justin; Atieno, Elly |
| Abstract: | This paper used the propensity score method to assess the effect of using certified seed potato (CSP) on yield, input use, and food security among smallholder farmers. It focused on potato growers in central highlands of Kenya. The study found positive effect using certified seed on both yield and food security. But at the same time users of CSP applied significantly higher amounts of pesticides. This study therefore concludes that while using CSP has positive welfare effects, it can increase the use of inputs, some of which have environmentally degrading effects. It discusses the policy implications of the findings |
| Keywords: | Smallholder farmers, certified seed potato, use and effect, propensity score matching, Kenya, Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236242&r=env |
| By: | Kaplan, Jonathan; Travadon, Renaud; Cooper, Monica; Hillis, Vicken; Lubell, Mark; Baumgartner, Kendra |
| Abstract: | Despite the high likelihood of infection and substantial yield losses from trunk diseases, many California practitioners wait to adopt field-tested, preventative practices (delayed pruning, double pruning, and application of pruning-wound protectants) until after disease symptoms appear in the vineyard at around 10 years old. We evaluate net benefits from adoption of these practices before symptoms appear in young Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards and after they become apparent in mature vineyards to identify economic hurdles to early adoption. We simulate production in five regions of California and find widespread benefits from early adoption, increasing vineyard profitable lifespans, in some cases, by more than 50%. However, hurdles to adopt may result from uncertainty about the cost and returns from adoption, labor constraints, long time lags in benefits from early adoption, growers’ perceived probabilities of infection, and their discount rate. The development of extension resources to communicate these benefits and potential hurdles to growers are likely to reduce uncertainty, leading to increased early adoption. |
| Keywords: | Grapevine trunk diseases, Early adoption, Plant-disease management, Preventative practices, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235562&r=env |
| By: | Markel, Evan; Sims, Charles; English, Burton C |
| Abstract: | Investment in the production of advanced biofuel has been encouraged by the federal regulation which enacted the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). However, investments and production of advanced biofuel has been lower than expected in recent years, leading regulators to substantially reduce required volumes of advanced biofuel. Real option analysis is used to help explain why uncertainty has reduced investment in advanced biofuel and eroded the requirements put forth by USEPA. This study examines the effect of uncertainty and irreversibility on a second-generation biofuel investment while considering the volatility of Renewable Identification Number (RIN) price, conventional fuel price and their correlations by applying a two stochastic variable approach. |
| Keywords: | Uncertainty, Irreversibility, Two-Variable Stochastic Process, Second-Generation Biofuels, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, D81, Q16, Q48, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235827&r=env |
| By: | Anthony Yezer (Department of Economics/Institute for International Economic Policy, George Washington University); Stephen Popick |
| Abstract: | Some sources of heterogeneity among cities, i.e. age, gender, race, income, and education, have been the object of substantial inquiry. The reasons are obvious. These differences are easily observed and may have important implications for economic activity. This study considers another potentially important population characteristic, obesity. Descriptive statistics reveal that the intercity variance in obesity rates is substantial. Empirical results demonstrate that demographic and regional amenity variables all have a relation to intercity differences in obesity. Because obesity is important for climate preferences, performance, and productivity, its omission from previous studies and its correlation with amenity and demographic characteristics, could create problems for empirical research. For example, it is possible to explain the recent climate preference finding by Sinha and Cropper (2015) that willingness to pay for higher summer temperature is negatively correlated, Ï = − 0.83, with preferences for higher winter temperatures. |
| Keywords: | Climate preferences, obesity |
| JEL: | I12 J10 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2016-3&r=env |
| By: | Adam P. Balcerzak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland); Michal Bernard Pietrzak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland) |
| Abstract: | The main purpose of the research is to examine the progress achieved by European countries in the field of implementing the concept of sustainable development and to point the group of countries that can be considered as leaders in that sphere. The research is based on the Eurostat data and it is conducted at macroeconomic level in the years 2004-2013. The sustainable development concept should be considered as a multidimensional phenomenon. Thus, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used in the research. TOPSIS method allows to evaluate the objects in terms of multidimensional economic phenomena based on the set of detailed economic attributes (variables). The dynamic synthetic index describing the relative level of sustainable development of the countries was created, which enabled to propose a rating of the countries and group them into homogenous subsets. The grouping was conducted with application of natural breaks method. The comparison of the ratings in the period 2004-2013 shows that most of the new member states of European Union have made a significant progress in implementing the concept of sustainable development. The research enabled to point the countries that are the leaders in the field. |
| Keywords: | multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), TOPSIS method, sustainable development, European Union |
| JEL: | C38 Q01 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2016:no22&r=env |
| By: | Keiser, David A.; Shapiro, Joseph S. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235437&r=env |
| By: | Claudio Agostini (Escuela de Gobierno, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez); Shahriyar Nasirov; Carlos Silva |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uai:wpaper:wp_045&r=env |
| By: | Sung, Jae-hoon; Miranowski, John A. |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effectiveness of soil testing and pest scouting by focusing on field-level chemical use for corn production. Based on the ARMS phase II and phase III data, we estimate equations for technology adoptions and chemical use. For estimation, we incorporate nonlinear endogenous switching regression to account for the nonnegative chemical use and endogeneity problems regarding adoptions of conservation practices. We find that: 1) adopting information technologies are positively correlated with farmers’ human capital, field characteristics, and corn prices. 2) the effects of information technologies on farmers’ nitrogen use depends on crop rotation. To be specific, farmers who adopt soil testing and crop rotation use nitrogen less than farmers who use crop rotation but do not adopt soil testing by about 8 lb/acre, but soil testing has insignificant effects on the rate of nitrogen application by farmers who grew corn continuously. 3) farmers’ management practices such as the use of manure and GM corns have significant effects on their nitrogen and herbicide use, but the directions and sizes of them depends on adoption of information technologies and previous field use. |
| Keywords: | Information technologies, chemical use, ARMS, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Production Economics, Q15, Q16, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235858&r=env |
| By: | Daniel Rais |
| Abstract: | NCCR Working Paper No. 2016/1 April 2016 by Kateryna Holzer: Based on existing research in the interface of emissions trading schemes (ETSs) and WTO law, the paper looks more closely at the design elements of an ETS that are most vulnerable to a WTO challenge, including border adjustment on importation and exportation, recycling of revenues and cross-border linking. The analysis of WTO consistency of various ETS regulatory components reveals significant legal uncertainty. One explanation is that an ETS is not yet fully established as a regulatory tool. It does not have a fixed design and its design elements vary significantly with a scheme. Moreover, ETS-related issues have never been raised in WTO disputes. This makes it hard to predict with confidence the outcome of scrutiny of an ETS by a WTO adjudicative body. In this respect, the availability of environmental and/or health exceptions for justification of ETS-related measures is of great importance. |
| Date: | 2016–05–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wti:papers:972&r=env |
| By: | Wiggins, Seth |
| Abstract: | Abstract: This paper adds to the literature by investigating whether municipal, county, and utility policies drive residential solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption. While previous studies have investigated the effects of state policies, none have do so while including policies at the sub-state level. I employ spatial econometric techniques, which recently have been used to empirically account for the peer effects and spatial clustering that have been found in residential markets. Results from the largest residential solar market in the US suggest that after controlling for solar resource, environmental preference, and other demographic information, the local policies are an important driver in the residential solar PV market: the average solar policy stimulates a 6.0-7.9% percent increase in installed residential capacity. Further, the residential market exhibits a moderate amount of spatial autocorrelation. |
| Keywords: | Residential solar PV adoption, renewable energy production, spatial econometrics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235667&r=env |
| By: | Lindsay, Karen; Popp, Michael; West, Chuck; Ashworth, Amanada; Rocateli Caldeira, Alexandre; Farris, Rodney; Kakani, Gopal; Fritschi, Felix; Green, Steven; Alison, M.W.; Maw, Michael; Acosta-Gamboa, Lucia |
| Abstract: | Biorefineries face logistical problems that may affect the price a biorefinery is willing to pay. One of the driving factors in storage and transportation of biomass is the moisture content (MC) at harvest. Delaying switchgrass harvest from profit-maximizing times of October through November, when moisture and nutrient concentrations of the standing crop are still high, to January or February, when moisture in the standing crop has declined and more nutrients have translocated back to the roots of this perennial plant, may result in production cost savings at the expense of lower yield. Using 20 and 30% MC thresholds in the standing crop as a determining factor, harvesting requires a separate cutting pass above this threshold to allow drying in the swath before chopping with a forage harvester. Below that threshold, a forage harvester may be equipped to perform both cutting and chopping functions in a single pass. Using switchgrass trial data from several environments, this study calculates harvest date-driven changes in yield, harvest cost and nutrient replacement between a profit-maximizing harvest date, requiring two harvest equipment operations vs. delayed, single-pass harvest at lower standing crop MC of 30% and 20% to show whether delayed harvest is feasible. |
| Keywords: | switchgrass, harvest date, moisture content, nutrient concentration, yield curve, Farm Management, Q12, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea16:229884&r=env |
| By: | Owusu, Victor; Kakraba, Isaac |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the impact of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) adoption on yields and gross margins of vegetable farmers using survey data from the Ashanti Region in Ghana. A parametric approach that accounts for selection bias in IPM adoption is employed to evaluate the direct impact of adoption of pest monitoring only, pesticide application only and both pest monitoring and pesticides application on yields and gross margins. The empirical results from the study show selectivity effects for the impact of adoption of pest monitoring and adoption of both IPM practices on yields of vegetable farmers but no selectivity effects for the impacts on gross margins. Assessment of yield and gross margin of IPM adopters in sub- Saharan Africa must account for selectivity effects. |
| Keywords: | Ghana, Gross Margin, Impact Assessment, Integrated Pest Management, Selection Bias, Yield, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, C35, J24, Q16, Q18, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae15:212606&r=env |
| By: | Wetzstein, Brian; Florax, Raymond; Foster, Ken; Binkley, James |
| Keywords: | Marketing, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235947&r=env |
| By: | Wang, Haoying |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the literature of flood risk capitalization and farmland valuation by taking the advantage of boundary discontinuities around flood zone to control for unobserved heterogeneities in estimating flood risk premium using hedonic regression. With a model controlling for building structures attached to farmland, distance to city center, flood exposure, farmland acreage, and municipality related time-invariant fixed effects, a spatial difference-in-differences framework based on boundary discontinuities is proposed. The proposed approach finds qualitatively different results than a conventional hedonic price model with municipality fixed effects. On average, in the study region (Lancaster County of Pennsylvania), the conventional hedonic price model suggests that there is a 6.66% (or $868.76/acre, in 2015 USD) value reduction due to potential flood risk in the 100-year (1% annual chance of flooding) FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) flood zone. The proposed spatial difference-in-differences model, however, finds that the impact on farmland values due to the potential flood risk is insignificant with the same data. This suggests that estimating flood risk premium using a conventional hedonic price model directly may suffer from serious biases due to unobserved spatial heterogeneities. The proposed spatial difference-in-differences approach has an advantage of controlling for unobserved heterogeneities that are continuously distributed across the boundary of floodplain. |
| Keywords: | Flood Risk, Farmland Value, Agricultural Production, Development Pressure, Boundary Discontinuity, Susquehanna River Basin, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235822&r=env |
| By: | Giri, Anil; Johnson, Bruce; Supalla, Raymond |
| Abstract: | The impending increase in the frequency of weather extremes means that there may be an expected increase in drought frequency and severity, leading to more variability in agricultural production. Production variability in turn leads to price volatility, production management challenges and concerns over food security. Several drought measures or indices have been developed, but most are not linked directly to agricultural water demands, or if linked, are based on cumulative seasonal precipitation for relatively large geographic areas. Using cumulative seasonal precipitation assumes that each unit of water has the same effect on yields irrespective of when it occurs. This leads to inaccuracies, because the marginal effect of one inch of rain on yield is extremely high during certain periods of time and almost epsilon at others. In this paper drought is defined using a newly developed measure called the Net Crop Moisture Deficit (NCMD). NCMD has not been used in research previously. NCMD is the difference between, the amounts of water a crop would use with a full water supply, less an estimate of effective rainfall. NCMD is estimated at the county level using a simulation model that incorporates monthly crop water requirements, stored soil moisture and effective monthly precipitation. Preseason soil moisture conditions are incorporated based on inter-seasonal rainfall. Droughts which occurred during the 1980 to 2013 time period were identified based on observed dryland corn yield reductions relative to trend yields. These ground truth results were then compared to NCMD and seasonal precipitation measures of drought to evaluate which measure worked best. The results showed that basing drought classifications on NCMD resulted in improved predictions of yield relative to other drought measures. The positive predictive value, which gives the probability of correctly identifying drought years, was higher for NCMD compared to seasonal precipitation. The negative predictive value, which gives the probability of correctly identifying no drought years, was also higher for NCMD compared to seasonal precipitation. NCMD was also more precise in identifying the severity of drought. The average and marginal effect of NCMD on yield was the same for different annual events within a given county. This means that the NCMD regression coefficients are estimates of the marginal contribution of an inch of effective water to yield. It also means that for a given location the impact per inch doesn’t change when the magnitude of the shortage changes. For ex ante analysis regression equations were estimated on grain yields based on the cumulative NCMD value at the end of July. The forecasted yield deviations were compared to the observed yield deviations and to the forecasted values using the full season moisture shortfall. The results showed that there was no statistical difference in the yield prediction using July rather than end of season values. This effectively means that one can forecast the reduction in yield at the end of July. |
| Keywords: | Drought, NCMD, weather variability, corn yield, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235628&r=env |
| By: | Monger, Randall; Suter, Jordan; Manning, Dale; Schneekloth, Joel |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236061&r=env |
| By: | Chen, Xuqi; Gao, Zhifeng |
| Abstract: | This study exams consumers’ Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for eco-labeled fresh produce under the influence of emotion. Previous literature has indicated a significant correlation between emotion and consumer final purchase decisions. However, few researchers conducted the study within the context of eco-labeled products. In this paper, about 2,500 participants were asked to evaluate four different types of eco-labeled fresh strawberries in terms of WTP. Respondents’ emotion and changes in emotion after a stimulus were measured. Contingent valuation method was used to estimate consumers’ WTP. Multivariate tobit model and seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) were used to estimate the effect of emotion on consumers’ WTP for eco-labeled products. Results show that emotion has a significant positive effect on consumers’ WTP for GMO-free, organic and natural products. Meanwhile, it also has a significant positive impact on the WTP premium for these three products and locally produced products as well, using conventional counterpart as the base. |
| Keywords: | Emotion, Willingness to pay (WTP), Eco-labels, Fresh Strawberry, Contingent Valuation (CV), Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Marketing, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235996&r=env |
| By: | He, Jen; Leard, Benjamin; Linn, Joshua; McConnell, Virginia |
| Abstract: | This study looks at the evidence about fuel economy and other truck attributes from VIUS, and provides implications for a dynamic baseline of improvements in fuel economy. We discuss the engine technologies and vehicle designs that potentially improve truck fuel economy. The combined effects of these advances are estimated as technological progress in our specifications. The rich information from VIUS about vehicle characteristics equips us to estimate the trade-off effects – how vehicle weight and engine power affect fuel economy. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235275&r=env |
| By: | Manning, Dale; Suter, Jordan |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we develop a spatially explicit hydro-economic model of groundwater use to address two research questions related to groundwater management. First, we highlight the theoretical and empirical relationship between changes in an aquifer’s saturated thickness at a given location and the net returns to irrigated agriculture. Second, we illustrate how this relationship influences the relative gains to dynamic behavior and the coordination of groundwater pumping. This latter question helps to provide feedback on the extent to which groundwater use that accounts for dynamic linkages can support higher net returns, even when it does not involve the full coordination of all users. We find that the gains from individual dynamic optimization and coordinated groundwater management critically depend on the sensitivity of crop yields to the level of saturated thickness. When lower levels of saturated thickness correspond to substantial yield reductions, even individual users stand to benefit from optimal management relative to behaving myopically. |
| Keywords: | Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236206&r=env |
| By: | Kemeze, Francis H.; Miranda, Mario J.; Kuwornu, John; Amin-Somuah, Henry |
| Abstract: | Erratic rainfall, within and between years, leads to high uncertainty in runoff reservoir operations in many Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries. Severe food shortages attributed to drought affect millions of vulnerable households, particularly those whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. We construct and successfully simulate a stochastic dynamic model of a small runoff reservoir fashioned after the Tono Reservoir in Northern Ghana. Our model considers a reservoir authority who at the beginning of each season observes the stock of water in the reservoir and, in the wet season, the amount of rainfall, and must decide how much water to release from the reservoir for irrigation and how much acreage to irrigate in order to maximize returns to the agriculture over the three growing seasons. We drive optimal irrigation policies with and without access to emergency groundwater pump irrigation systems and with and without access to rainfall index insurance. The optimal irrigation policies including reservoirs operation policy, deficit irrigation management, and the available water resource allocation could be used to provide decision support for water resources management. Besides, the strategies obtained could help with the risk analysis of reservoirs operation stochastically. |
| Keywords: | Erratic rainfall, runoff reservoir, optimal irrigation policies, index insurance, Ghana, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236030&r=env |
| By: | Waldrop, Megan; McCluskey, Jill |
| Keywords: | wine, sustainable, certification, labels, Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235217&r=env |
| By: | RICARDO AGUIRRE LEAL; REGIS AUGUSTO ELY; JÚLIA GALLEGO ZIERO UHR; DANIEL DE ABREU PEREIRA UHR |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2014:197&r=env |