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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2012‒03‒14
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Ulrich Hoffmann |
| Abstract: | Many economists and policy makers advocate a fundamental shift towards “green growth” as the new, qualitatively-different growth paradigm, based on enhanced material/resource/energy efficiency and drastic changes in the energy mix. “Green growth” may work well in creating new growth impulses with reduced environmental load and facilitating related technological and structural change. But can it also mitigate climate change at the required scale (i.e. significant, absolute and permanent decline of GHG emissions at global level) and pace? This paper argues that growth, technological, population-expansion and governance constraints as well as some key systemic issues cast a very long shadow on the “green growth” hopes. One should not deceive oneself into believing that such evolutionary (and often reductionist) approach will be sufficient to cope with the complexities of climate change. It may rather give much false hope and excuses to do nothing really fundamental that can bring about a U-turn of global GHG emissions. The proponents of a resource efficiency revolution and a drastic change in the energy mix need to scrutinize the historical evidence, in particular the arithmetic of economic and population growth. Furthermore, they need to realize that the required transformation goes beyond innovation and structural changes to include democratization of the economy and cultural change. Climate change calls into question the global equality of opportunity for prosperity (i.e. ecological justice and development space) and is thus a huge developmental challenge for the South and a question of life and death for some developing countries (who increasingly resist the framing of climate protection versus equity). |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unc:dispap:205&r=res |
| By: | King, Robert P. |
| Abstract: | Climate change has the potential to drive transformations in natural resource access, availability, and use that will have significant, farâreaching impacts worldwide, not only for those of us living today but also for future generations. As economists we are being called upon to assess the economic impacts of alternative climate change scenarios and the costs of efforts to mitigate and adapt to the adverse consequences of climate change. I classify these professional activities as âeconomic analysis,â and I cite John Quigginâs 2011 AAEA Fellows Address (Quiggin 2012) as one of many noteworthy contributions we have made. Equally important, we are being asked to design economic artifacts â institutions, markets, contractual relationships, measuring and monitoring procedures, and decision support systems â that will allow people to better respond to and adapt to changing circumstances. I classify these professional activities as âeconomic design.â In my AAEA Presidential Address (King 2012) I asserted that these two sets of activities, economic analysis and economic design, while closely related and highly complementary, are also distinct and different. I also asserted that, while we are familiar with and accustomed to the processes and methods of economic analysis, our shared understanding of economic design scholarship is less fully developed. This paper focuses on the general questions of how we do economic design and what constitutes good scholarship in economic design, with illustrations and examples related to the design of climate change policy. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare12:121412&r=res |
| By: | Midori Aoyagi (Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)); Eiko Suda; Tomomi Shinada |
| Keywords: | Climate change, gender inclusion, agricultural production, Natural Disasters |
| JEL: | J16 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:develo:23227&r=res |
| By: | Quaas, Martin F.; Requate, Till |
| Abstract: | We present a model of a multi-species fishery and show that (i) consumer preferences for seafood diversity may trigger a sequential collapse of fish stocks under open-access fishery, (ii) the stronger the preferences are for diversity the higher is the need for coordinated multi-species regulation, (iii) second-best optimal management of only one (or a few) species is less strict than socially optimal management of the same species. Finally, (iv) myopic regulation of one species, ignoring spill-overs to other species, may cause depletion of other stocks that would not be depleted under open access. -- |
| Keywords: | marine biodiversity,fishery economics,product differentiation |
| JEL: | Q22 Q57 Q21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cauewp:201203&r=res |
| By: | Mohaddes, K. |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a novel approach by which to identify the price of oil at the time of depletion; the so-called "terminal price" of oil. It is shown that while the terminal price is independent of both GDP growth and the price elasticity of energy demand, it is dependent on the world real interest rate and the total life-time stock of oil resources, as well as on the marginal extraction and scarcity cost parameters. The theoretical predictions of this model are evaluated using data on the cost of extraction, cumulative production, and proven reserves. The predicted terminal prices seem sensible for a range of parameters and variables, as illustrated by the sensitivity analysis. Using the terminal price of oil, we calculate the time to depletion, and determine the extraction and price profiles over the life-time of the resource. The extraction profiles generated seem to be in line with the actual production and the predicted prices are generally in line with those currently observed. |
| Keywords: | Oil prices and extraction, terminal price of oil, time to depletion, nonrenewable resources, oil demand estimations, and oil extraction costs. |
| JEL: | C23 Q31 Q47 |
| Date: | 2012–03–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1212&r=res |