nep-res New Economics Papers
on Resource Economics
Issue of 2015‒07‒04
five papers chosen by



  1. Heterogenous preferences for environmental quality, decentralized policy and first-best efficiency By Marcelo Arbex; Christian Trudeau
  2. Heterogeneous Preferences and Investments in Energy Saving Measures By Urs Fischbacher; Simeon Schudy; Sabrina Teyssier
  3. On the relevance of ideological identification and environmental values for beliefs and attitudes toward climate change: An empirical cross country analysis By Andreas Ziegler
  4. On the transition from nonrenewable energy to renewable energy By Yacoub Bahini; Cuong Le Van
  5. Inequality in emissions: Evidence from Indonesian households By Mohammad Iqbal Irfany

  1. By: Marcelo Arbex (Department of Economics, University of Windsor); Christian Trudeau (Department of Economics, University of Windsor)
    Abstract: We model a federation consisting of two jurisdictions. Their representative agents choose their level of consumption, obtained through pollution-inducing production that also generate a negative externality on the neighbor. Agents in different regions value consumption vs. nature differently. We show that even with a decentralized policy we can obtain first-best efficiency by choosing a combination of pollution tax (that depends solely on externality parameters) and lump-sum transfers (that also depend on the initial stocks of nature). Strikingly, optimal policies are invariant with preferences. Numerically we explore further the relationship among preferences for consumption versus nature, pollution externality and government policies.
    Keywords: Externalities, pollution tax, lump-sum transfers, environmental preferences, first-best efficiency, strategy-proofness.
    JEL: D62 H23 Q53 Q58
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wis:wpaper:1503&r=res
  2. By: Urs Fischbacher; Simeon Schudy; Sabrina Teyssier
    Abstract: We investigate whether risk, time, environmental, and social preferences affect single family homeowners’ investments in energy efficient renovations and energy quality of their house using established experimental measures and questionnaires. We find that homeowners who report to be more risk taking are more likely to have renovated their house. Pro-environmental and future-oriented renovators, i.e. renovators with lower discount factors, live in homes with higher energy efficiency. Controlling for the energy efficiency of houses, we further find that energy consumption as measured by heating and energy costs are lower for future-oriented and pro-environmental individuals. Social preferences measured in a dictator and a generosity game play a mixed role for investments in energy efficiency and energy consumption.
    Keywords: Risk Preferences, Time Preferences, Environmental Preferences, Social Preferences, Energy Efficiency, Artefactual Field Experiment
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:twi:respas:0095&r=res
  3. By: Andreas Ziegler (University of Kassel)
    Abstract: Based on unique data from representative computer-based surveys among more than 3400 citizens, this paper empirically examines the determinants of climate change beliefs, the support of publicly financed climate policy, and the (stated)willingness to pay a price premium for climate-friendly products in three countries which are key players in international climate policy, namely the USA, Germany (as largest country in the European Un-ion), and China. Our econometric analysis focuses on the effect of ideological identification and especially considers the interrelationship between a right-wing or a left-wing orientation and environmental values. Our estimation results imply that environmental aware-ness is in all three countries the major factor for beliefs and attitudes toward climate change. In Germany, citizens with a conservative, but not social or green orientation significantly less often support the considered climate policy and particularly have a significantly lower willingness to pay a price premium, whereas ideological differences are negligible for climate change beliefs. In contrast, a right-wing orientation has significantly negative effects on all beliefs and attitudes toward climate change in the USA. Furthermore, an increasing environmental awareness decreases ideological differences in the support of publicly financed climate policy in Germany and the USA and especially in general climate change beliefs and beliefs in anthropogenic climate change in the USA. Our estimation results suggest alternative strategies such as specific communication campaigns in order to reduce the climate change skepticism in conservative and right-wing circles in the USA and to increase the support of climate policies among such population groups.
    Keywords: Climate change beliefs, climate policy, price premium for climate-friendly products, ideological identification, environmental values, econometric analysis
    JEL: Q54 Q58 A13
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201516&r=res
  4. By: Yacoub Bahini (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS); Cuong Le Van (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, VCREME - VanXuan Center of Research in Economics, Management and Environment - VanXuan Center of Research in Economics, Management and Environment, IPAG - Business School)
    Abstract: In this paper we use the CMM model (Chakravorty et al., 2006) in discrete time and obtain more results concerning the exhaustion time of Non-Renewable Resource (NRE), the dynamic regimes of energy prices, of the stocks of pollution. We show that NRE is exhausted in finite time and is directly influenced by the initial stock of NRE and the costs of NRE and RE. Higher is the initial stock of NRE, far is the time of exhaustion of NRE. Higher is the cost of NRE (resp. the difference of unit costs between RE and NRE), far is the time of exhaustion of NRE. Furthermore, we show that the abatement intervenes, when necessary, not more than two periods. We also show that, when the unit extraction cost of RE is not very high, the stocks of emissions will never be binding if and only if, the initial stock of NRE is less than a critical value.
    Date: 2015–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01167042&r=res
  5. By: Mohammad Iqbal Irfany (Georg-August-University Göttingen)
    Abstract: Although the literature on emission inequality is abundant, this study will differentiate itself by focusing on emission inequalities at the household level due to the disparity in household expenditure profiles. We further separate measures on emission inequality based on household characteristics as well as decompose it into sources of emission. Employing a common application for analyzing inequalities, results show that as per capita expenditure increases, within quintiles emission inequality tends to decline until the middle quintiles but then further increases in expenditure level and worsens emission inequality until the richest household. The decomposition of inequality based on emission sources suggests that energy-transportation dominantly contributes of the overall emission inequality.
    Keywords: carbon footprint; household; inequality
    JEL: O12 O13 D12 D63
    Date: 2015–06–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:177&r=res

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