New Economics Papers
on Resource Economics
Issue of 2013‒05‒24
four papers chosen by



  1. Environmental Taxation Evolution in Ukraine: Trends, Challenges and Outlook By Shkarlet, Serhiy; Petrakov, Iaroslav
  2. Uncertainty and International Climate Change Negotiations By Yiyong Cai; Warwick J. McKibbin
  3. Accounting for Cultural Dimensions in Estimating the Value of Coastal Zone Ecosystem Services using International Benefit Transfer By Hynes, Stephen; Norton, Daniel; Hanley, Nick
  4. A green reform is not always green By Fosgerau, Mogens; Jensen, Thomas C.

  1. By: Shkarlet, Serhiy; Petrakov, Iaroslav
    Abstract: Recent development trends of environmental taxation in Ukraine in context of the 2011 Tax Reform are analysed. Institutional, fiscal and security challenges for green taxes evolution during economic downturn and recession are summarized. Further modernization outlook for environment-oriented fiscal instruments in Ukraine considering European experience is suggested.
    Keywords: environmental taxes, fiscal instruments, trends, challenges
    JEL: H23 O13 O44 P28 P48 Q53 Q56 Q58
    Date: 2013–01–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45168&r=res
  2. By: Yiyong Cai; Warwick J. McKibbin
    Abstract: This paper explores the failure of countries to coordinate climate policies as an equilibrium outcome of a game where countries optimize in the face of both unprecedented economic and environmental uncertainty. Because issues associated with climate change are historically unprecedented and thus policymakers do not have a prior distribution over possible outcomes, the usual theoretical framework based on governments maximizing expected utility may not be suitable for analyzing climate policy choice. Under an alternative plausible assumption that policymakers act strategically but choose the policy that incurs the highest possible gain in the worst-case scenario, this paper shows how coordination can be inferior to unilateralism in both carbon mitigation and economic loss minimization. In order to make progress in reaching a global agreement in this situation, additional restrictions that help to reduce uncertainty can lead to a coordinated outcome that benefits the environment and minimizes economic cost.
    Keywords: climate change, policy game, coordination, robust control
    JEL: C71 C72 Q52 Q54
    Date: 2013–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2013-13&r=res
  3. By: Hynes, Stephen; Norton, Daniel; Hanley, Nick
    Abstract: Values for non-market goods can be expected to be sensitive to variations in the cultural contexts of beneficiaries. However, little progress has been made to date in adapting benefit transfer procedures for cultural variations. Using information from a study that ranked 62 societies with respect to nine attributes of their cultures, we develop an index that is then used to re-weight multiple coastal ecosystem service value estimates. We examine whether these culturally-adjusted Benefit Transfer (BT) estimates are statistically different than simply transferring the income-adjusted mean transfer estimates for each coastal ecosystem service from international study sites to the policy site. We find that once differences in income levels have been accounted for, the differences in cultural dimensions between study and policy sites actually have little impact on the magnitude of our transfer estimates. This is not a surprising result given that the majority of the study site estimates are derived from countries that share many ethnic, linguistic and other cultural similarities to the policy site. However, benefit adjustments based on cultural factors could have a much higher impacts in settings different to that investigated here.
    Keywords: Non-market goods, Benefit Transfer, coastal ecosystem service, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:semrui:148828&r=res
  4. By: Fosgerau, Mogens; Jensen, Thomas C.
    Abstract: This paper analyses a tax reform, explicitly conceived by policy makers to be climate-friendly, that partly replaces a high vehicle registration tax by road user charging and allows for differentiation of the remaining registration tax by fuel efficiency. A microeconomic framework is proposed to analyse such a reform. For the case of Denmark, the analysis shows that the reform is likely to yield a significant and robust welfare gain. However, it seems not unlikely that CO2 emissions from passenger cars may increase as a result of the reform.
    Keywords: Congestion; Road user charging; Tax reform; CO2; Welfare economics; Registration tax
    JEL: H2 R41
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42264&r=res

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