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on Energy Economics |
| By: | Stephan Spiecker; Volker Eickholt (Chair for Management Sciences and Energy Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | The European energy policy is substantially driven by the target to reduce the CO2-emissions significantly and to mitigate climate change. Nevertheless European power generation is still widely based on fossil fuels. The carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) could be part of an approach to achieve ambitious CO2 reduction targets without large scale transformations of the existing energy system. In this context the paper investigates in how far the CCS-technology could play a role in the European and most notably in the German electricity generation sector. To account for all the interdependencies with the European neighboring countries, the embedding of the German electricity system is modeled using a stochastic European electricity market model (E2M2s). After modeling the European side constraints, the German electricity system is considered in detail with the stochastic German Electricity market model (GEM2s). The focus is thereby on the location of CCS plant sites, the structure of the CO2-pipeline network and the regional distribution of storage sites. Results for three different European energy market scenarios are presented up to the year 2050. Additionally, the use of CCS with use of onshore and offshore sites is investigated. |
| Keywords: | stochastic optimization, carbon capture and storage, power system economics |
| JEL: | Q3 Q4 C61 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dui:wpaper:1304&r=ene |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Water Resources - Water and Industry Environment - Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Climate Change Economics Oil Refining and Gas Industry Energy - Energy Production and Transportation Industry |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:16080&r=ene |
| By: | Stephan Spiecker (Chair for Management Sciences and Energy Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | The ongoing transformation of the European energy system comes along with new challenges, notably increasing amounts of power generation from intermittent sources like wind and solar. How current objectives for emission reduction can be reached in the future and what the future power system will look like is, however, not fully clear. In particular, power plant investments in the long run and power plant dispatch in the short run are subject to considerable uncertainty. Therefore an approach is presented which allows electricity market development to be assessed in the presence of stochastic power feed-in and endogenous investments in power plants and renewable energies. To illustrate the range of possible future developments, five scenarios for the European electricity system up to 2050 are investigated. Both generation investments and dispatch as well as utilization of transmission lines are optimized for these scenarios and additional sensitivity analyses are carried out. |
| Keywords: | integration of renewable energies, stochastic optimization, scenario analysis |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dui:wpaper:1305&r=ene |
| By: | Christoph Bohringer; Jared Carbone (University of Calgary); Thomas F. Rutherford |
| Abstract: | Embodied carbon tariffs tax the direct and indirect carbon emissions embodied in trade — an idea popularized by countries seeking to extend the reach of domestic carbon regulations. We investigate their effectiveness using simulations from an applied general equilibrium model of global trade and energy use. We find that the tariffs do reduce foreign emissions, but their ability to improve the global cost-effectiveness of climate policy is limited. Their main welfare effect is to shift the burden of developed-world climate policies to the developing world. |
| Date: | 2013–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2013-24&r=ene |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Air Quality and Clean Air Environment - Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases Transport Economics Policy and Planning Environmental Economics and Policies Energy - Energy Production and Transportation Transport |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:16086&r=ene |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Energy - Renewable Energy Energy Conservation and Efficiency Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Markets and Market Access Environmental Economics and Policies Energy - Energy Production and Transportation Environment |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:16068&r=ene |
| By: | Halkos, George; Tzeremes, Nickolaos |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a sample of 36 countries for the time period 1990-2011 in order to examine the relationship between countries’ electricity consumption from renewable sources and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) levels. Several nonparametric techniques are applied to investigate the effect of electricity consumption from several renewable sources including wind, geothermal, solar, biomass and waste on countries’ GDP levels. When investigating the whole sample ignoring countries’ economic development status, the results reveal an increasing relationship up to a certain GDP level, which after that point the effect of electricity consumption on GDP stabilises. However when analysing separately the ‘Emerging Markets and Developing Economies’, and, the ‘Advanced-Developed Economies’, the results change significantly. For the case of Emerging Market and Developing Economies the relationship appears to be highly nonlinear (an M-shape form) indicating that on those countries the levels of electricity consumption from renewable sources will not result on higher GDP levels. In contrast for the case of the advanced economies the results reveal an increasing nonlinear relationship indicating that higher electricity consumption levels from renewable sources results to higher GDP levels. This finding is mainly attributed to the fact that in the advanced-developed economies more terawatts from renewable sources are generated and consumed compared to the emerging market and developing economies, which traditionally their economies rely on non-renewable sources for power generation and consumption. |
| Keywords: | Renewable energy; Economic growth; Local linear estimator; Nonparametric analysis. |
| JEL: | C14 C60 O44 Q01 Q20 Q40 |
| Date: | 2013–10–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50630&r=ene |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Environment - Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Climate Change Economics Environmental Economics and Policies Energy - Energy Production and Transportation Environment - Environment and Energy Efficiency |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:16028&r=ene |
| By: | Klaas Bauermann; Stephan Spiecker (Chair for Management Sciences and Energy Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | Improvements in the building stock insulation and the replacement of heating systems will have to take place within the next decades in order to lower heat demand and the associated carbon emissions of the building sector. The current study presents an integrated, iterative modelling approach to determine the development of the heating market. A system model captures the fundamental influencing factors on the investment decision while a logistic decision model describes in detail the building owners’ behaviour, taking into account the heterogeneous building stock and possible non-economic factors influencing heating system choice. In the application case, the potentials for different heating technologies are investigated under three different economic scenarios for the German heating market until 2050. The heating market with house owners as the main actors is relatively sluggish, thus political targets are likely to fail. The impact of the heat pump induced electricity demand on the power market remains low. In order to achieve the ambitious heating market targets in Germany further efforts are necessary. In particular the potentials of the existing building stock need to be taped more efficiently. |
| Keywords: | Heating, Residential Energy Demand, Discrete Choice, Peak Load Pricing |
| JEL: | Q47 Q48 E61 C53 C35 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dui:wpaper:1306&r=ene |
| By: | Lintunen , Jussi (Finnish Forest Research Institute); Vilmi, Lauri (Bank of Finland, Monetary Policy and Research Department) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the cyclical properties of optimal emission taxes and emissions using a real business cycle model with a stock pollutant. We derive conditions for the procyclicality of optimal emission tax and show that the tax is in typical conditions procyclical. The possibility of a countercyclical behavior of the emission tax increases if 1) the pollution is short-lived and the emission transfer into environmental damages rapidly 2) emissions are countercyclical, 3) marginal damages are strongly increasing and 4), in disutility case, the marginal utility of consumption increases with the increase in the intensity of the harmful environmental process. In the climate change context we show that the optimal carbon tax is procyclical irrespectively on the production technology. Instead, the technology is a key determinant of the cyclicality of the emissions. The optimal carbon tax correlates almost fully with the consumption and as a rule-of thumb, it could be indexed to the consumption level of the economy. The relative scale of tax deviations relative to the consumption deviations is determined by the inverse of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. Comparison between the optimal emission tax and an optimally set constant emission tax shows that the constant tax leads to very slightly higher emissions but the general economic effects are next to negligible. |
| Keywords: | optimal emission tax; cyclical properties |
| JEL: | E32 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2013–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofrdp:2013_024&r=ene |
| By: | Shahbaz, Muhammad; Farhani, Sahbi; Ozturk, Ilhan |
| Abstract: | The present study explores the relationship between coal consumption, industrial production and CO2 emissions in case of China and India for the period of 1971-2011. The structural break unit root test and cointegrating approach have been applied. The direction of causal relationship between the variables is investigated by applying the VECM Granger causality test. Our results validate the presence of cointegration among the series in both countries. We also find the existence of inverted U-shaped curve between industrial production and CO2 emissions for India but for China it is U-shaped relationship. Coal consumption adds in CO2 emission. The causality analysis reveals that industrial production and coal consumption Granger cause CO2 emission in India. In case of China, the feedback effect exists between coal consumption and CO2 emissions. |
| Keywords: | Coal consumption, Industrial production, CO2 emissions, China, India |
| JEL: | C4 |
| Date: | 2013–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50618&r=ene |
| By: | Natina Yaduma; Mika Kortelainen; Ada Wossink |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:1322&r=ene |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Climate Change Economics Environment - Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases Economic Theory and Research Environmental Economics and Policies Energy - Energy Production and Transportation |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:16088&r=ene |
| By: | Christoph Bohringer; Jared Carbone (University of Calgary); Thomas F. Rutherford |
| Abstract: | Unilateral carbon policies are inefficient due to the fact that they generally involve emission reductions in countries with high marginal abatement costs and because they are subject to carbon leakage. In this paper, we ask whether the use of carbon tariffs—tariffs on the carbon embodied in imported goods—might lower the cost of achieving a given reduction in world emissions. Specifically, we explore the role tariffs might play as an inducement to unregulated countries adopting emission controls of their own. We use an applied general equilibrium model to generate the payoffs of a policy game. In the game, a coalition of countries regulates its own emissions and chooses whether or not to employ carbon tariffs against unregulated countries. Unregulated countries may respond by adopting emission regulations of their own, retaliating against the carbon tariffs by engaging in a trade war, or by pursuing no policy at all. In the unique Nash equilibrium produced by this game, the use of carbon tariffs by coalition countries is credible. China and Russia respond by adopting binding abatement targets to avoid being subjected to them. Other unregulated countries retaliate. Cooperation by China and Russia lowers the global welfare cost of achieving a 10% reduction in global emissions by half relative to the case where coalition countries undertake all of this abatement on their own. |
| Date: | 2013–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2013-25&r=ene |
| By: | Felix Richter; Malte Steenbeck; Markus Wilhelm |
| Abstract: | Major nuclear accidents as recently in Fukushima set nuclear power plant security at the top of the public agenda. Using data of the German Socio-Economic Panel we analyze the effects of the Fukushima accident and a subsequent government decision on nuclear power phase-out on several measures of subjective perception in Germany. In the light of current political debates about the strategic orientation of this energy turnaround, such an analysis is of particular interest since non-pecuniary gains in measures of subjective perception might provide further aspects to be taken into consideration when evaluating the economic costs of the policy. We find that the Fukushima accident increases the probability to report greater worries about the environment. Furthermore, we find evidence for a decrease in the probability to be very worried about the security of nuclear power plants as well as for an increase in reported levels of subjective well-being following the government's resolution on nuclear phase-out. Finally we find that the probabilities of reporting very high concerns are related to the distance between the respondents' place of residence and the nearest nuclear power station. |
| Keywords: | Fukushima, nuclear accident, nuclear energy, nuclear phase-out, environment, subjective perception |
| JEL: | I3 N7 Q4 R1 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp590&r=ene |
| By: | Frank Jotzo; Dimitri de Boer; Hugh Kater |
| Abstract: | This paper summarises results from the inaugural China Carbon Pricing Survey. The survey elicited expectations about the future of China’s carbon price from China-based experts on carbon pricing and carbon markets during July to September 2013. The results indicate confidence that all seven of China’s pilot schemes will be under way by 2015, with prices rising over time and having an effect on investment decisions; however there is significant uncertainty about price levels. There is strong confidence that China will proceed to introduce national emissions trading, probably in conjunction with a carbon tax. Carbon price levels are expected to rise, in time exceeding those currently prevailing in the EU emissions trading scheme. A large majority of respondents expect that China’s 2020 emissions intensity target will be achieved or surpassed, and almost all expect further targets to be adopted in 2025 and 2030, possibly in the form of absolute limits on emissions. |
| Keywords: | Carbon pricing, emissions trading, carbon tax, public policy, expert survey, China |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:ccepwp:1305&r=ene |
| By: | Natina Yaduma; Mika Kortelainen; Ada Wossink |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:1321&r=ene |
| By: | Shahbaz, Muhammad; Farhani, Sahbi; Rahman, Mohammad Mafizur |
| Abstract: | The present study investigates the relationship between natural gas consumption and economic growth using Cobb-Douglas production function by incorporating exports, capital and labor as additional factors of production. We applied the ARDL bounds testing approach to test the existence of long run relationship between the series. The VECM Granger approach is implemented to detect the direction of causal relation between the variables. Our results show that variables are cointegrated for long run relationship. The results indicate that natural gas consumption, exports, capital and labor are contributing factors to domestic production and hence economic growth in case of France. The causality analysis indicates that feedback hypothesis is validated between gas consumption and economic growth which implies that adoption of energy conservation policies should be discouraged. The bidirectional causality is also found between exports and economic growth, gas consumption and exports, capital and energy consumption, exports and capital. This study opens up new direction for policy makers to formulate a comprehensive energy policy to sustain economic growth for long span of time in case of France. |
| Keywords: | Exports, Gas Consumption, Growth, France |
| JEL: | C4 |
| Date: | 2013–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50619&r=ene |
| By: | Wolf-Peter Schill |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects of future renewable expansion in Germany on residual load and renewable surplus generation for policy-relevant scenarios for 2022, 2032 and 2050. We also determine the storage capacities required for taking up renewable surpluses for varying levels of accepted curtailment. Making use of extensive sensitivity analyses, our simulations show that the expansion of variable renewables leads to a strong decrease of the right-hand side of the residual load curve. Renewable surpluses generally have high peaks which only occur in very few hours of the year, whereas overall surplus energy is rather low in most scenarios analyzed. Surpluses increase substantially with growing thermal must-run requirements, decreasing biomass flexibility and decreasing load. On average, most surpluses occur around noon and in spring time. Whereas the energy of single surplus hours is often in the range of existing German pumped hydro capacities, the energy of connected surpluses is substantially larger. Using an optimization model, we find that no additional storage is required in the scenarios for 2022 and 2032 in case of free curtailment. Even restricting curtailment to only 1% of the yearly feed-in of non-dispatchable renewables would render storage investments largely obsolete under the assumption of a flexible system. In contrast, further restrictions of curtailment and a less flexible system would strongly increase storage requirements. In a flexible 2050 scenario, 10 GW of additional storage are optimal even in case of free curtailment due to larger surpluses. Importantly, minor renewable curtailment does not impede achieving the German government's renewable energy targets. We suggest avoiding renewable surpluses in the first place by making thermal generators more flexible. Afterwards, different flexibility options can be used for taking up remaining surpluses, including but not limited to power storage. Curtailment remains as a last resort. Full surplus integration by power storage will never be optimal because of the nature of surpluses shown in this paper. Future research should explore synergies and competition between different flexibility options, while not only covering the wholesale market, but also ancillary services. |
| Keywords: | Renewable energy, Residual load, Storage, Curtailment, Germany |
| JEL: | Q42 Q47 Q48 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1316&r=ene |
| By: | Frédéric Branger (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement [CIRAD] : UMR56 - CNRS : UMR8568 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - AgroParisTech); Philippe Quirion (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement [CIRAD] : UMR56 - CNRS : UMR8568 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - AgroParisTech) |
| Abstract: | The efficiency of unilateral climate policies may be hampered by carbon leakage and competitiveness losses. A widely discussed policy option to reduce leakage and protect competitiveness of heavy industries is to impose Border Carbon Adjustments (BCA) to non regulated countries, which remains contentious for juridical and political reasons. The estimation of carbon leakage as well as the assessment of different policy options led to a substantial body of litterature in energy-economic modeling. In order to give a quantitative overview on the most recent research on the topic, we conduct a meta-analysis on 25 studies, altogether providing 310 estimates of carbon leakage ratios according to different assumptions and models. The typical range of carbon leakage ratio estimates are from 5% to 25% (mean 14%) without policy and from -5% to 15% (mean 6%) with BCA. The output change of Energy Intensive Trade Exposed (EITE) sectors varies from -0.1% to -16% without BCA and from +2.2% to -15.5% with BCA. A meta-regression analysis is performed to further investigate the impact of different assumptions on the leakage ratio estimates. The decrease of the leakage ratio with the size of the coalition and its increase with the binding target is confirmed and quantified. Providing flexibility reduces leakage ratio, especially the extension of coverage to all GHG sources. High values of Armington elasticities lead to higher leakage ratio and among the BCA options, the extension of BCA to all sectors is in the meta-regression model the most efficient feature to reduce the leakage ratio. Our most robust statistical finding is that, all other parameters being constant, BCA reduces leakage ratio by 6 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Carbon leakage, Competitiveness, Border Carbon Adjustments, Meta-analysis, Meta-regression analysis, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00870689&r=ene |
| By: | Hampf, Benjamin; Krüger, Jens |
| Abstract: | This study explores the reduction potential of greenhouse gases for major pollution emitting countries of the world using nonparametric productivity measurement methods and directional distance functions. In contrast to the existing literature we apply optimization methods to endogenously determine optimal directions for the efficiency analysis. These directions represent the compromise of output enhancement and emissions reduction. The results show that for reasonable directions the adoption of best-practices would lead to sizable emission reductions in a range of about 20 percent compared to current levels. |
| Keywords: | climate policy, nonparametric frontier functions, directional distance functions |
| Date: | 2013–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:ddpeco:60952&r=ene |
| By: | Füss, Roland; Mahringer, Steffen; Prokopczuk, Marcel |
| Keywords: | Electricity Futures, Fundamental Model, Derivatives Pricing, Forward-looking Information, Enlargement of Filtrations |
| JEL: | G12 G13 Q4 Q41 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:sfwpfi:2013:17&r=ene |
| By: | Kossov, Vladimir; Kossova, Elena |
| Abstract: | For the large majority of goods, the price dispersion between countries does not exceed 1:10. Diesel fuel stands out, with a dispersion which exceeds 1:100. Given a constant oil price the difference in diesel fuel prices between countries is caused by the different taxes. The average share of taxes in the price determines the normal price. An estimation of the normal price of diesel fuel is made using an econometric model (using 79 countries, 1998-2008 by even years). Of greatest interest to economic policy are normal prices for countries with economies in transition and developing countries. This paper is organized as follows. In the introduction a definition of the term "normal price" and why it is important are presented. The first chapter is devoted to the notion of "price level" both international and national. The normal price is calculated using an econometric model. The estimation of the normal price of goods is determined by the international component and deviation of the normal price by the national one. In the second chapter the results of evaluating the parameters of the econometric model and the values of normal prices are given. In the third chapter price deviations in Russia and Kazakhstan are discussed and it is concluded that they have reached the maximum value, above which mass protests may result. |
| Keywords: | budget revenue; diesel fuel price; motor fuel tax; mass protests; normal price; oil rent; price level |
| JEL: | C23 D49 E37 Q48 |
| Date: | 2013–03–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48667&r=ene |
| By: | Coria, Jessica (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Bonilla, Jorge (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Grundström, Maria (Dept of Biological and Environmental Sciences); Pleijel, Håkan (Dept of Biological and Environmental Sciences) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the effects of the temporal variation of pollution dispersion, traffic flows and vehicular emissions on pollution concentration and illustrate the need for temporally differentiated road pricing through an application to the case of the congestion charge in Stockholm, Sweden. By accounting explicitly for the role of pollution dispersion on optimal road pricing, we allow for a more comprehensive view of the economy-ecology interactions at stake, showing that price differentiation is an optimal response to the physical environment. Most congestion charges in place incorporate price bans to mitigate congestion. Our analysis indicates that, to ensure compliance with air quality standards, such price variations should also be a response to limited pollution dispersion. |
| Keywords: | air pollution; road transportation; road pricing; assimilative capacity |
| JEL: | L91 Q53 R48 |
| Date: | 2013–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0572&r=ene |
| By: | Lester C. Hunt (Surrey Energy Economics Centre (SEEC) and Challenging Lock-in through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES), School of Economics, University of Surrey, UK.); Scott Milne (Surrey Energy Economics Centre (SEEC) and Challenging Lock-in through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES), School of Economics, University of Surrey, UK.) |
| Abstract: | This report outlines work undertaken in 2011 and 2012 as part of the Challenging Lock-in through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES) project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), grant number EP/1002170/1 under the Sustainable Urban Environments Programme Phase 3. |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sur:seedps:seers1&r=ene |
| By: | Necibi, Thameur; Issaoui, Fakhri |
| Abstract: | This article has for a core objective the handling of the established relation between oil price variation and certain macroeconomic variables, in this particular case GDP, RMM, CPI, Ex-factory price. The study in Tunisia is based on quarterly and monthly data from the period going from 2000 to 2011 revealed three important facts. First, it showed at the level of the quarterly analysis that the Tunisian authority succeeded in limiting the effect of crude oil price shock, it was approved through an impulse analysis of the dynamic responses, a second important result was revealed at the level of the quarterly analysis and the established long-term relation which showed that the GDP or the industrial production positively and significantly depend on Brent oil price and on the inflation in a structure of administered price. Second at the level of the monthly analysis, the conducted study allowed us to identify the nature of inflation, which is said to the production cost through introducing a new variable which is ex-factory price. Third, the conducted study allowed us to study the asymmetric relation between Brent oil price and the monetary mechanism in an administered price regime. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomics, oil prices, inflation, asymmetry |
| JEL: | L1 L11 |
| Date: | 2013–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50420&r=ene |
| By: | Clemens Heuson; Wolfgang Peters (Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)); Reimund Schwarze; Anna-Katharina Topp (Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)) |
| Abstract: | It is well established that adaptation and technological investment in each case may serve as a commitment device in international climate politics. This paper for the first time analyzes the combined impact of these two strategic variables on global mitigation within a non-cooperative framework where countries either decide on mitigation before or after adaptation. By investment, which is assumed to be made in the fi rst place due to its considerable lead time, countries commit to lower national contributions to the global public good of mitigation. We fi nd that the sequencing of adaptation before mitigation reinforces this strategic effect of technological investments at least for sufficiently similar countries. As a consequence, the subgame-perfect equi- librium yields a globally lower level of mitigation, and higher global costs of climate change when adaptation is decided before mitigation. Besides this theoretical contribution, the paper proposes some strategies to combat the unfortunate rush to adaptation which can be currently observed in climate politics. |
| Keywords: | adaptation, climate policy, investment, mitigation, non-cooperative behavior |
| JEL: | Q54 H41 H87 C72 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:euv:dpaper:011&r=ene |
| By: | Coria, Jessica (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Mohlin, Kristina (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | We analyze diffusion of an abatement technology in an imperfectly competitive industry under a standard emission tax compared to an emission tax which is refunded in proportion to output market share. The results indicate that refunding can speed up diffusion if firms do not strategically influence the size of the refund. If they do, it is ambiguous whether diffusion is slower or faster than under a non-refunded emission tax. Moreover, it is ambiguous whether refunding continues over time to provide larger incentives for technological upgrading than a non-refunded emission tax, since the effects of refunding dissipate as the overall industry becomes cleaner. |
| Keywords: | emisson tax; refund; abatement technolgy; technology diffusion; imperfect competition |
| JEL: | H23 O33 O38 Q52 |
| Date: | 2013–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0573&r=ene |
| By: | Kollenbach, Gilbert |
| Abstract: | The effects of an agreement such as the Kyoto Protocol, which implicitly imposes a ceiling on the stock of pollution, have recently been studied in Hotelling models. We add pollution and a ceiling to the endogenous growth model of \cite{tsur2005scarcity} to study the effects of the ceiling on capital accumulation and research investments. The ceiling increases the scarcity of the exhaustible resource in the short run, which boosts backstop utilization. This implies that R\&D becomes more beneficial compared with capital accumulation. How the short run development path of an economy is affected depends on its capital endowment or richness, respectively. Only economies which are neither too rich nor too poor may invest more into research. In the long run an economy with a ceiling follows basically the same long run development path as an economy without the ceiling. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous growth, Environmental agreements, Fossil fuels, Nonrenewable resources, Research and Development |
| JEL: | O44 Q32 Q54 Q55 Q56 |
| Date: | 2013–10–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50641&r=ene |
| By: | Piaszeck, Simon; Wenzel, Lars; Wolf, André |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to quantify the macroeconomic costs resulting from a one hour power outage at the level of German counties. This is done by combining public data from various sources based on a well-established methodology, which both accounts for production losses of firms and losses in well-being of consumers. As a main result, we identify a North-South divide in the vulnerability of German counties, with counties in southern Germany tending to face larger losses. At the same time, considerable heterogeneity can also be found in small-scale comparisons, confirming the need for a spatially disaggregated analysis. We discuss the implications of our results for the debate on network expansion in Germany, suggesting that a stronger focus on outage costs could represent an important step towards a real cost-benefit analysis of expansion projects. -- Ziel dieser Studie ist eine Schätzung der potentiellen Kosten eines einstündigen Stromausfalls für die deutschen Kreise. Hierzu werden Daten aus der VGR über eine in der Literatur etablierte Methodik zusammengeführt, welche sowohl Schäden aus Produktionsausfällen als auch Wohlfahrtseinbußen der Haushalte in die Kalkulation miteinbezieht. Als ein wichtiges Ergebnis lässt sich eine Nord-Süd Divergenz in der Gefährdung der deutschen Kreise feststellen, wobei die Verluste im Süden der Republik als tendenziell stärker geschätzt werden. Gleichzeitig Ist ein gewisses Maß an Heterogenität aber auch auf kleinräumlicher Ebene zu beobachten, was als Rechtfertigung für unseren räumlich disaggregierten Ansatz gesehen werden kann. Die Studie schließt mit einer Diskussion der Bedeutung unserer Ergebnisse für die aktuelle Debatte zum Ausbau der Stromnetze in Deutschland. Eine stärkere Berücksichtigung von Ausfallkosten kann aus unserer Sicht dabei einen bedeutenden Schritt auf dem Weg zu einer umfassenden Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse von Netzausbauprojekten darstellen. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hwwirp:142&r=ene |
| By: | Kopczuk, Wojciech (Columbia University); Marion, Justin (University of CA, Santa Cruz); Muehlegger, Erich (Harvard University); Slemrod, Joel (University of MI) |
| Abstract: | The canonical theory of taxation holds that the incidence of a tax is independent of the side of the market which is responsible for remitting the tax to the government. However, this prediction does not survive in certain circumstances, for example when the ability to evade taxes differs across economic agents. In this paper, we estimate in the context of state diesel fuel taxes how the incidence of a quantity tax depends on the point of tax collection, where the level of the supply chain responsible for remitting the tax varies across states and over time. Our results indicate that moving the point of tax collection from the retail station to higher in the supply chain substantially raises the pass-through of diesel taxes to the retail price. Furthermore, tax revenues respond positively to collecting taxes from the distributor or prime supplier rather than from the retailer, suggesting that evasion is the likely explanation for the incidence result. |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp13-027&r=ene |
| By: | Aurelio Volpe (CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies) |
| Abstract: | The report analyzes the lighting fixtures market in Asia Pacific. It provides historical statistical data of Production, International trade and Market size 2007-2012 of the lighting fixtures industry for the 11 countries considered. Macroeconomic forecasts up to 2015 are also provided. Demand is broken down by product and by light source. An overview of the competitive system is outlined, with short company profiles, data on sales and market shares for the top lighting fixtures companies for each Asia Pacific country considered. International trade of of lighting fixtures and distribution channels are included. Addresses of about 460 lighting fixtures manufacturers and other key contacts are also included. Countries covered: Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam. |
| JEL: | L11 L22 L68 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mst:csilre:s72&r=ene |