nep-res New Economics Papers
on Resource Economics
Issue of 2018‒02‒19
four papers chosen by



  1. Regulating Mismeasured Pollution: Implications of Firm Heterogeneity for Environmental Policy By Eva Lyubich; Joseph S. Shapiro; Reed Walker
  2. Drivers of energy efficiency in German manufacturing: A firm-level stochastic frontier analysis By Lutz, Benjamin Johannes; Massier, Philipp; Sommerfeld, Katrin; Löschel, Andreas
  3. A Meta-Analysis of the Literature on Climate Change and Migration By Michel Beine; Lionel Jeusette
  4. Climate Change and Agriculture: Farmer Adaptation to Extreme Heat By Fernando M. Aragón; Francisco Oteiza; Juan Pablo Rud

  1. By: Eva Lyubich; Joseph S. Shapiro; Reed Walker
    Abstract: This paper provides the first estimates of within-industry heterogeneity in energy and CO2 productivity for the entire U.S. manufacturing sector. We measure energy and CO2 productivity as output per dollar energy input or per ton CO2 emitted. Three findings emerge. First, within narrowly defined industries, heterogeneity in energy and CO2 productivity across plants is enormous. Second, heterogeneity in energy and CO2 productivity exceeds heterogeneity in most other productivity measures, like labor or total factor productivity. Third, heterogeneity in energy and CO2 productivity has important implications for environmental policies targeting industries rather than plants, including technology standards and carbon border adjustments.
    JEL: F18 H23 Q56
    Date: 2018–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24228&r=res
  2. By: Lutz, Benjamin Johannes; Massier, Philipp; Sommerfeld, Katrin; Löschel, Andreas
    Abstract: Increasing energy efficiency is one of the main goals in current German energy and climate policies. We study the determinants of energy efficiency in the German manufacturing sector based on official firm-level production census data. By means of a stochastic frontier analysis, we estimate the cost-minimizing energy demand function at the two-digit industry level using firm-level heterogeneity. Apart from the identification of the determinants of the energy demand function, we also analyze potential drivers of energy efficiency. Our results suggest that there is still potential to increase energy efficiency in most industries of the German manufacturing sector. Furthermore, we find that in most industries exporting and innovating firms as well as those investing in environmental protection measures are more energy efficient than their counterparts. In contrast, firms which are regulated by the European Union Emissions Trading System are mostly less energy efficient than non-regulated firms.
    Keywords: Stochastic Frontier Analysis,Stochastic Demand Frontier,Energy Efficiency,Climate Policy,Manufacturing
    JEL: D22 D24 L60 Q41
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cawmdp:99&r=res
  3. By: Michel Beine (CREA, Université du Luxembourg); Lionel Jeusette (CREA, Université du Luxembourg)
    Abstract: Recent surveys of the literature devoted to climate change and migration emphasize the important diversity of outcomes and approaches of the empirical studies. In this paper, we carry out a meta-analysis in order to investigate the role of the various methodological choices of these empirical studies in finding some particular results concerning the role of climatic factors as drivers of human mobility. To that aim, we code 45 papers representative of the existing literature in terms of methodological approaches. The approaches are characterized by coding more than 80 variables capturing the methodology of the main dimensions of the methods. These dimensions include among others authors’ reputation, type of mobility, measures of mobility, type of data, context of the study, econometric methods and last but not least measures of the climatic factors. We look at the influence of these characteristics on different outcomes of the regressions: probability of finding any effect, finding a displacement effect, finding an increase in immobility, finding evidence in favour of a direct versus an indirect effect. Our results highlight the role of some main methodological choices, such as the frequency of the data on mobility, the level of development of the covered area, the particular measures of human mobility and of the climatic factors as well as the econometric methodology.
    Keywords: Climate change; Human mobility; Econometric regressions; Meta-analysis; Natural disasters.
    JEL: C83 F22 J61 Q54
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:18-05&r=res
  4. By: Fernando M. Aragón (Simon Fraser University); Francisco Oteiza (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Juan Pablo Rud (Department of Economics, Royal Holloway, University of London and Institute of Fiscal Studies)
    Abstract: This paper examines how farmers adapt, in the short-run, to extreme heat. Using a production function approach and micro-data from Peruvian households, we find that high temperatures induce farmers to increase the use of inputs, such as land and domestic labor. This reaction partially attenuates the negative effects of high temperatures on output. We interpret this change in inputs as an adaptive response in a context of subsistence farming, incomplete markets, and lack of other coping mechanisms. We use our estimates to simulate alternative climate change scenarios and show that accounting for adaptive responses is quantitatively important.
    Keywords: Climate Change, Agriculture, Adaptation
    JEL: O13 O12 Q12 Q15 Q51 Q54
    Date: 2018–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp18-02&r=res

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