|
on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Venkatachalam Anbumozhi; Armin Bauer |
| Abstract: | The global financial crisis and the resulting economic slowdown may be assumed to have at least the benefit of also reducing environmental degradation in the individual countries. This paper discusses the consequences of the crisis for energy use, pollution prevention, and land use in Asia and the associated emissions of greenhouse gases—the principal global warming pollutants—as well as their linkage with poverty. [ADBI Working Paper 227] |
| Keywords: | global financial crisis, economic, environmental, energy use, pollution prevention, greenhouse gases, Asia, poverty |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2980&r=env |
| By: | Kaysara Khatun |
| Abstract: | The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005) has classified a number of ecosystems good and services (EGS) provided by tropical forests, namely cultural, provisioning, regulatory and support services. The primary focus of this paper is to carry out an economic assessment by comparing the financial costs and returns of selected EGS, namely carbon and timber in the tropical forests of Central America. Timber is unusual from the other EGS provided by forests in that it competes with the other services, i.e. biodiversity, recreation and water services. Carbon storage is the non-timber value most often included in forest accounts and can be equated directly with timber available in terms of biomass content.<br /> <br /> The study provides a quantitative appraisal of the carbon and timber stocks and flows of tropical (primary) forests and the associated trade-offs by evaluating them simultaneously using data and market values from a number of sources. The provision of reliable and accurate estimates of the economic value of these services is crucial to plan adequate conservation policies that encourage the protection and sustainable management of tropical forests such as those under REDD/REDD+. Results indicate that the economic return for managing natural forests is influenced by timber and carbon prices as well as the discount rate applied. Timber on face value is the better land use option; however, there are many issues that need to be considered when valuing timber, especially regarding the management regimes. Revenues under REDD/ REDD+ option would be higher if co-benefits, which include monies from the sustainable extraction of timber under Sustainable Forestry Management (SFM) are considered. <br /> <br /> |
| Keywords: | Carbon, Environmental Goods and Services, Forests, REDD/REDD+, Timber |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcc:wpaper:2010-14&r=env |
| By: | Michael Ash (University of Massachusetts Amherst); James K. Boyce (University of Massachusetts Amherst); Grace Chang (University of Massachusetts Amherst); Helen Scharber (University of Massachusetts Amherst) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines spatial variations in exposure to toxic air pollution from industrial facilities in urban areas of the United States, using geographic microdata from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators project. We find that average exposure in an urban area is positively correlated with the extent of racial and ethnic disparity in the distribution of the exposure burden. This correlation could arise from causal linkages in either or both directions: the ability to displace pollution onto minorities may lower the effective cost of pollution for industrial firms; and higher average pollution burdens may induce whites to invest more political capital in efforts to influence firms’ siting decisions. Furthermore, we find that in urban areas with higher minority pollution-exposure discrepancies, average exposures tend to be higher for all population subgroups, including whites. In other words, improvements in environmental justice in the United States could benefit not only minorities but also whites. JEL Categories: P16, Q53, Q56, R3. |
| Keywords: | Environmental justice; air pollution; industrial toxics; Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators. |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ums:papers:2010-05&r=env |
| By: | Randy Becker |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of environmental regulation on the productivity of manufacturing plants in the United States. Establishment-level data from three Censuses of Manufactures are used to estimate 3-factor Cobb-Douglas production functions that include a measure of the stringency of environmental regulation faced by manufacturing plants. In contrast to previous studies, this paper examines effects on plants in all manufacturing industries, not just those in “dirty” industries. Further, this paper employs spatial-temporal variation in environmental compliance costs to identify effects, using a time-varying county-level index that is based on multiple years of establishment-level data from the Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey and the Annual Survey of Manufactures. Results suggest that, for the average manufacturing plant, the effect on productivity of being in a county with higher environmental compliance costs is relatively small and often not statistically significant. For the average plant, the main effect of environmental regulation may not be in the spatial and temporal dimensions. |
| Keywords: | environmental regulation, productivity, U.S. manufacturing |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:10-30&r=env |
| By: | Eyckmans, Johan; Pepermans, Guido; Proost, Stefan; [no author] |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/277097&r=env |
| By: | Aparna Sawhney |
| Abstract: | Environmental issues began to be systematically addressed in the WTO following the Decision on Trade and Environment taken towards the end of the Uruguay Round at Marrakesh in 1994. The Committee on Trade and Environment was established in the same year, with the explicit mandate to resolve environmental issues in the trading system. [WTO Research Series No. 5] |
| Keywords: | Environmental, systematically. Trade, Environment, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2984&r=env |
| By: | Francisco M Gonzalez; Itziar Lazkano; Sjak Smulders |
| Date: | 2010–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2010-24&r=env |
| By: | Dan Marsh (University of Waikato); Lena Mkwara (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | Water pollution is now considered to be one of the most important environmental issues facing New Zealand. Water quality in rivers, lakes and streams is generally falling alongside the increase in farming intensity. Currently, technical and regulatory mechanisms to reduce non-point source pollution from agriculture are the focus of an intensive effort involving industry, researchers, regulators and other interests. The research described in this non-technical paper complements existing knowledge by developing appropriate methodology for valuing water quality improvements in New Zealand. It is based on a case study of the Karapiro catchment in the North Island of New Zealand. It uses choice analysis to assess people’s preferences and willingness to pay for different levels of water quality improvement in catchment streams. The results indicate that respondents would be willing to pay for cleaner water for swimming, for better ecological health (with eels, bullies and smelt present), for the presence of trout and for better water clarity. |
| Keywords: | non-market valuation; choice analysis; water quality; streams |
| JEL: | C51 Q25 Q51 |
| Date: | 2010–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:10/06&r=env |
| By: | Kaliappa Kalirajan; Kanhaiya Singh; Venkatachalam Anbumozhi |
| Abstract: | It is an empirical fact that it is very difficult to balance economic growth, poverty reduction, and environment protection, particularly for developing and transitional economies. While the economic environment of a country is influenced by conditions within the country, it is also influenced by external shocks such as the recent global financial crisis depending on how integrated the country is with the rest of the world. Thus, it poses a continuing challenge for policy makers in developing and transitional countries to readjust the economic environment in a way that leads to better and more effective targeting of the chronic issue of poverty reduction without causing damage to the natural environment. It is in this context that this paper attempts to measure the environmental impact of changing trade patterns on the poor. [ADBI Working Paper 239] |
| Keywords: | economic growth, poverty reduction, environment protection, financial crisis, environmental |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2945&r=env |
| By: | Paul O'Brien |
| Abstract: | Sustainable development is a key theme in policy making in Norway. Although it owes a considerable part of its wealth to the carbon-based economy, Norway gives priority to the objectives embodied in the OECD Green Growth Strategy and sees itself as a pioneer in some areas. The sustainable development strategy, an integral part of the documentation for the 2008 budget, spelt out the key principles that were intended to guide policymaking and a set of quantitative indicators that are intended to give an indication of progress. Its focus on preserving natural capital and the precautionary principle can indeed be seen to be reflected in Norway’s policy aims on climate change and on fisheries, two otherwise rather different problems. Another principle is the use of costefficient means to achieve these policy objectives. In many ways Norway has pioneered the use of such measures, introducing a CO2 tax early on and adopting individual quotas in fisheries. But in other ways policy prevents them from playing their full role, exempting significant sectors from the CO2 tax and now from the emission trading system, and restricting the tradability of quotas in fishing. This document explores these issues, noting that some potential conflicts between sustainable development objectives could be given fuller recognition, and that Norway can and should follow through more strongly the logic of its pioneering use of economic incentives to further sustainability goals. This Working Paper relates to the 2010 Economic Survey of Norway. (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Norway)<P>Développement durable : changement climatique et politique de la pêche<BR>Le développement durable occupe une place de premier plan dans l’élaboration de l’action publique en Norvège. Le pays doit une partie considérable de sa richesse à l’économie carbonée, mais il accorde la priorité aux objectifs de la Stratégie de l’OCDE pour une croissance verte et se considère comme un pionnier dans certains domaines. Partie intégrante de la documentation se rapportant au budget 2008, la stratégie de développement durable définissait les principes clés censés guider l’élaboration des politiques, ainsi qu’une série d’indicateurs quantitatifs destinés à donner une idée des progrès réalisés. L’importance qu’elle accorde à la préservation du capital naturel et au principe de précaution se reflète au demeurant dans les buts assignés à l’action publique en ce qui concerne le changement climatique et les pêches, deux domaines par ailleurs assez différents. Le recours à des instruments présentant un bon rapport coût-efficacité, dans l’optique d’atteindre les objectifs, est aussi au nombre des principes retenus. A beaucoup d’égards, la Norvège a en l’occurrence fait oeuvre de pionnière en créant très tôt une taxe sur le CO2 et des quotas individuels de pêche. Quoi qu’il en soit, certaines mesures empêchent ces instruments de jouer tout leur rôle. En effet, des secteurs importants sont exonérés du paiement de la taxe sur le CO2 et, pour l’instant, exclus du système d’échange de quotas d’émission, et l’échangeabilité des quotas de pêche est soumise à des restrictions. Le présent document est consacré à ces questions. Il en ressort qu’il serait possible de prendre acte plus clairement de certains antagonismes potentiels entre objectifs de développement durable, et que la Norvège peut et devrait poursuivre plus résolument dans la voie des incitations économiques, qu’elle a contribué à ouvrir, de manière à favoriser la réalisation des objectifs de durabilité. Ce document de travail se rapporte à l’Étude économique de l’OCDE de la Norvège 2010 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/Norvege) |
| Keywords: | Norway, sustainable development, climate change, fisheries, Norvège, développement durable, changement climatique |
| JEL: | Q01 Q22 Q28 Q48 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2010–10–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:805-en&r=env |
| By: | Chen, Yenming; Wu, Tien-Hua |
| Abstract: | Literature indicates that the main obstacle to better manage existing WEEE recycling supply chain in the developing countries is lake of environmental laws and/or lax enforcement, particularly in control instruments to overcome the difficulty of informal e-waste processing firms and its supply chain. Policy makers may rely on new legislative framework to control environmental performance and the health impacts of pollution; however, this strategy is not clearly effective as the informal nature of this supply chain blocks the enforcement efforts and causes the high cost of monitoring. Hence, it is definitely crucial to understand the interaction between the environmental policy options and economic consideration when achieving the sustainability of operations across the WEEE supply chain. In this study, we propose the simplest form of epidemic spreading, namely a criss-cross epidemic model, and aim to examine the legislative stringency for observing the diffusion dynamics of informal and formal sectors in an e-waste recycling system. We find that a diffusion threshold does exist and it is related to the regulatory stringency. Effective population changes dramatically if it grows beyond this diffusion threshold. In particular, a government agency is able to layout a minimal regulatory stringency so that the participants of the informal sector diminish quickly and eventually cease while the economy remains unhurt. We use a simplified numerical study to test the proposed criss-cross epidemic model. Based on significant findings, this paper provides managerial implications for developing the new environmental legislative framework which is not only feasible but also beneficial to achieving the sustainable WEEE supply chain. |
| Keywords: | Environmental issue; regulatory stringency issue; epidemiological model; informal sector-diffusion; sustainable WEEE supply chain |
| JEL: | Q53 Q51 Q57 Q58 |
| Date: | 2010–10–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25650&r=env |
| By: | Stocking, Andrew |
| Abstract: | Price controls established in an emissions allowance market to constrain allowance prices between a ceiling and a floor offer a mechanism to reduce cost uncertainty in a cap-and-trade program; however, they could provide opportunities for strategic actions by firms that would result in lower government revenue and greater emissions than in the absence of controls. In particular, when the ceiling price is supported by introducing new allowances into the market, firms could choose to buy allowances at the ceiling price, regardless of the prevailing market price, in order to lower the equilibrium price of all allowances. Those purchases could either be transacted by a group of firms intending to manipulate the market or be induced through the introduction of inaccurate information about the cost of emissions abatement that causes firms to purchase allowances at the ceiling. Theory and simulations using estimates of the elasticity of allowance demand for U.S. firms suggest that the manipulation could be profitable under the stylized setting and assumptions evaluated in the paper, although in practice many other conditions will determine its use. |
| Keywords: | cap-and-trade; climate change; price controls; price ceiling; manipulation; allowance market; carbon market |
| JEL: | D21 H41 Q54 D43 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25559&r=env |
| By: | Finn Roar Aune, Hanne Marit Dalen and Cathrine Hagem (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | The EU Parliament has agreed on a target of a 20 % share of renewables in the EU’s total energy consumption by 2020. To achieve the target, the Council has adopted mandatory differentiated national targets for each of the Member States. In this paper we consider the potential for cost reductions by allowing for trade in green certificates across Member States. We show that differentiated national targets cannot ensure a cost effective implementation of the overall target for EU’s green energy consumption. Trade in green certificates can ensure a cost effective distribution of green energy production, but the national targets prevents a cost effective distribution of energy consumption. Nevertheless, our numerical model indicates that EU-wide trade in green certificates may cut the EU’s total cost of fulfilling the renewable target by as much as 70 % compared to a situation with no trade. However, the design of green certificate markets may have large impact on the distribution of costs across countries. |
| Keywords: | Energy policy; green certificate markets; renewable targets |
| JEL: | Q48 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:630&r=env |
| By: | Stelios Rozakis (Agricultural Economics and Rural Development Department, Agricultural University of Athens) |
| Abstract: | Environmental consciousness and accompanying actions have been paralleled by the evolution of multi-criteria methods which have provided tools to assist policy makers in discovering compromises in order to muddle through. This paper recalls the development of multi-criteria methods in agriculture, focusing on their contribution to produce input or output functions useful for environmental and/or energy policy. Response curves generated by MC models can more accurately predict farmers’ response to market and policy parameters compared with classic profit maximizing behavior. Concrete examples from recent literature illustrate the above statements and ideas for further research are provided. |
| Keywords: | multi-criteria models, interval programming, supply curves, bio-energy, policy analysis |
| JEL: | C61 Q11 Q18 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aua:wpaper:2010-04&r=env |
| By: | Eyckmans, Johan; Rousseau, Sandra |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/277092&r=env |
| By: | Gasper, D.R. |
| Abstract: | The language of ‘human security’ arose in the 1990s, including from UN work on ‘human development’. What contributions can it make, if any, to the understanding and especially the valuation of and response to the impacts of climate change? How does it compare and relate to other languages used in describing the emergent crises and in seeking to guide response, including languages of ‘externalities’, public goods and incentives, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis? The paper examines in particular the formulations in those terms in Stiglitz’s Making Globalization Work and Stern’s The Economics of Climate Change and Blueprint for a Safer Planet, and how they are left groping for frameworks to motivate the changes required for global sustainability. It undertakes comparison also with the languages of human development and human rights, and suggests that, not least through enriching our skills of ‘narrative imagination’, the human security framework supports a series of essential changes in orientation—in our conceptions of selfhood, well-being and situatedness in Nature—and contributes towards a required greater solidarity and greater awareness of our inter-connectedness. |
| Keywords: | climate change;human security;incentives;motivation;global public goods;global public spiritedness;economic cost-benefit analysis;narrative imagination;solidarity |
| Date: | 2010–06–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:euriss:505&r=env |
| By: | Growitsch, C.; Jamasb, T.; Wetzel, H. |
| Abstract: | Since the 1990s, efficiency and benchmarking analysis has increasingly been used in network utilities research and regulation. A recurrent concern is the effect of environmental factors that are beyond the influence of firms (observable heterogeneity) and factors that are not identifiable (unobserved heterogeneity) on measured cost and quality performance of firms. This paper analyses the effect of geographic and weather factors and unobserved heterogeneity on a set of 128 Norwegian electricity distribution utilities for the 2001-2004 period. We utilize data on almost 100 geographic and weather variables to identify real economic inefficiency while controlling for observable and unobserved heterogeneity. We use the factor analysis technique to reduce the number of environmental factors into few composite variables and to avoid the problem of multi-collinearity. We then estimate the established stochastic frontier models of Battese and Coelli (1992; 1995) and the recent true fixed effects models of Greene (2004; 2005) without and with environmental variables. In the former models some composite environmental variables have a significant effect on the performance of utilities. These effects vanish in the true fixed effects models. However, the latter models capture the entire unobserved heterogeneity and therefore show significantly higher average efficiency scores. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, Quality of service, Input distance function, Stochastic frontier analysis |
| JEL: | L15 L51 L94 |
| Date: | 2010–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1050&r=env |
| By: | Marius-Cristian Frunza (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, Sagacarbon - Sagacarbon SA); Dominique Guegan (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Antonin Lassoudière (Sagacarbon - Sagacarbon SA) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to show evidence and to quantify with forensic econometric methods the impact of the Value Added Tax fraud on European carbon allowances markets. This fraud mainly occurred at the beginning of between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. In this paper, we explore the financial mechanisms of the fraud and the impact on the market behavior as well as the reflexion on its econometric features. In a previous work, we showed that the European carbon market is strongly influenced by fundamentals factors as oil, energy, gas, coal and equity prices. Therefore, we calibrated Arbitrage Pricing Theory-like models and showed that they have a good forecast capacity. Those models enabled us to quantify the impact of each factor on the market. In this study, we focused more precisely on the benchmark contract for European carbon emissions prices over 2008 and 2009. We observed that during the first semester of 2009, there is a significant drop in our model performances and robustness and that the part of market volatility explained by fundamentals reduced. Therefore, we identified the period where the market was driven by VAT fraud movements and we were able to measure the value of this fraud. Soon after governments passed a law that cut the possibility of fraud occurrence the performance of the model improved rapidly. We estimate the impact of the VAT extortion on the carbon market at 1.3 billion euros. |
| Keywords: | Carbon, EUA, energy, Arbitrage Pricing Theory, Switching regimes, hidden Markov Chain Model, forecast. |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00523458_v1&r=env |
| By: | Stelios Rozakis (Agricultural Economics and Rural Development Department, Agricultural University of Athens) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines evolutions of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) decoupling regime and their impacts on Greek arable agriculture. Policy analysis is performed by using mathematical programming tools. Taking into account increasing uncertainty, we assume that farmers perceive gross margin in intervals rather than as expected crisp values. A bottom-up hybrid model accommodates both profit maximizing and risk prudent attitudes in order to accurately assess farmers’ response. Marginal changes to crop plans are expected so that flatter single payment rates cause significant changes in incomes and subsidies. Nitrogen reduction incentives result in moderate changes putting their effectiveness in question. |
| Keywords: | Interval Linear Programming, Min-Max Regret, Common Agricultural Policy, Arable cropping, Greece |
| JEL: | C61 D81 Q12 Q18 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aua:wpaper:2010-03&r=env |
| By: | Itziar Lazkano |
| Date: | 2010–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2010-23&r=env |
| By: | Méjean, A.; Hope, C. |
| Abstract: | What would be the effect of CO2 pricing on global oil supply and demand? This paper introduces a model describing the interaction between conventional and non-conventional oil supply in a Hotelling framework and under CO2 constraints. The model assumes that nonconventional crude oil enters the market when conventional oil supply alone is unable to meet demand, and the social cost of CO2 is included in the calculation of the oil rent at that time. The results reveal the effect of a CO2 tax set at the social cost of CO2 on oil price and demand and the uncertainty associated with the time when conventional oil production might become unable to meet demand. The results show that a tax on CO2 emissions associated with fuel use would reduce oil demand despite the effect of lower future rents, and would delay the time when conventional oil supply is unable to satisfy demand. More precisely, between 81 and 99% of the CO2 tax is carried into the oil price despite the counter-balancing effect of the reduced rent. A CO2 tax on fuel use set at the social cost of CO2 would delay by 25 years the time when conventional oil production is unable to meet oil demand, from 2019 to 2044 (mean value). The results show that this date is very sensitive to the price elasticity of demand and the demand growth rate, which shows the great potential of demand-side measures to smooth the transition towards low-carbon liquid fuel alternatives. |
| Keywords: | Oil supply and demand; Conventional and non-conventional oil; CO2 pricing; Social cost of CO2. |
| JEL: | Q41 Q42 Q54 |
| Date: | 2010–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1054&r=env |
| By: | Sudhir A. Shah |
| Abstract: | The context for this paper is the interaction between a rm that produces and processes durable pollution and a regulator charged with the tasks of (a) employing a mandated technology to process the public stock of pollution, and (b) designing a contract that induces the rm to adopt a socially desirable technology for processing its private pollution stock. [Working Paper No. 84] |
| Keywords: | context, processes, pollution, technology, private |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2962&r=env |
| By: | Marius-Cristian Frunza (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, Sagacarbon - Subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations); Dominique Guegan (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Fabrice Thiebaut (Sagacarbon - Subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to show evidence and to quantify with forensic econometric methods the impact of the missing trader fraud on European carbon allowances markets. This fraud occurred mainly between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. In this paper, we explore the financial mechanisms of the fraud and the impact on the market behaviour as well as the consequences on its econometric features. |
| Keywords: | COE, Econometrie, fraud. |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00523512_v1&r=env |
| By: | Ben Youssef, Slim |
| Abstract: | We consider a monopolistic firm producing a good while polluting and using a fossil energy. This firm can adopt a clean technology by incurring an investment cost decreasing exponentially with the adoption date. This clean technology does not pollute and has a lower production cost because it uses a renewable energy. We determine the optimal adoption date for the firm in the cases where it is regulated at each period of time and when it is not regulated. Interestingly, the regulated firm adopts the clean technology earlier than what is socially-optimal. However, the non-regulated firm adopts later than what is socially desired. The regulator can compensate the regulated firm for the loss incurred if he wants that it delays its adoption date to the socially-optimal one. Nevertheless, the regulator may be interested in letting the firm adopts earlier to encourage the diffusion of the use of green technologies in other industries. |
| Keywords: | regulation; clean technology; renewable energy; adoption date. |
| JEL: | H57 D62 Q55 Q42 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25576&r=env |
| By: | Sylvie Démurger (GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS : UMR5824 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines); Martin Fournier (GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS : UMR5824 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the determinants of firewood consumption in a poor township in rural northern China, with a special focus on the relationship between households' economic wealth and firewood consumption. We find strong support for the poverty-environment hypothesis since household economic wealth is a significant and negative determinant of firewood consumption. Firewood can therefore be considered as an inferior good for the whole population in the rural area under study, although further evidence shows that at the top of the wealth distribution, there might be a floor effect in the decreasing firewood consumption. Besides economic wealth, our analysis also shows that the own-price effect is important in explaining firewood consumption behavior, the price effect gaining importance with rising incomes. Finally, increasing education is also found to be a key factor in energy consumption behavior, especially when dealing with energy source switching behavior. |
| Keywords: | firewood consumption; poverty; natural resources protection; China |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00522660_v1&r=env |
| By: | James Roumasset (University of Hawaii, Department of Economics; University of Hawaii Econonmic Research Organization); Christopher Wada (University of Hawaii Econonmic Research Organization) |
| Abstract: | Inasmuch as water demand is multifaceted, infrastructure planning should be part of a general specification of efficient quantities and qualities of water deliveries over time. Accordingly, we develop a two-sector dynamic optimization model to solve for the optimal trajectories of groundwater extraction and water recycling. For the case of spatially increasing costs, recycled water serves as an intermediate resource in transition to the desalination steady state. For constant unit recycling cost, recycled wastewater eventually supplies non-potable users as a sector-specific backstop, while desalination supplements household groundwater in the steady state. In both cases, recycling water increases welfare by shifting demand away from the aquifer, thus delaying implementation of costly desalination. Implementation of the model provides guidance on the appropriate timing and size of backstop and recycling infrastructure as well as water deliveries from the various sources to the water-demand sectors. |
| Keywords: | Renewable resources, dynamic optimization, groundwater allocation, wastewater reuse, recycling, reclamation, water quality |
| JEL: | Q25 Q28 C6 |
| Date: | 2010–08–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201013&r=env |
| By: | James Roumasset (University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics); Nori Tarui (University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We provide a dynamic model of natural resource management where the optimal institutional structure that governs resource use changes with resource depletion. Copeland and Taylor (2009) analyze how characteristics of a natural resource determine whether its steady-state management regime is open access, communal property, or private property. We extend this and other studies of endogenous institutions to analyze how and when resource governance may change in transition to the steady state, taking into account the fixed costs of institutional change and the variable costs of enforcement and governance. Assuming that governance cost is increasing in the difference between open-access and the actual harvest, we show that open access can be optimal if the resource is abundant relative to its demand and/or if governance costs are high. Once open access is rendered inefficient due to increased resource scarcity, further depletion warrants institutional change. In the face of set-up costs, optimal governance implies non-monotonic resource dynamics. These findings help to explain the co-evolution of resource scarcity and property rights—from open access to common property and beyond. We also extend the Demsetz/Copeland-Taylor theory of price-induced institutional change to include changing scarcity during the transition to the steady state. |
| JEL: | D23 O13 Q20 |
| Date: | 2010–09–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201015&r=env |
| By: | Clemens Haftendorn; Franziska Holz; Christian von Hirschhausen |
| Abstract: | Coal continues to be an important fuel in many countries' energy mix and, despite the climate change concerns, it is likely to maintain this position for the next decades. In this paper a numerical model is developed to investigate the evolution of the international market for steam coal, the coal type used for electricity generation. The main focus is on future trade ows and investments in production and transport infrastructure until 2030. "COALMOD-World" is an equilibrium model, formulated in the complementarity format. It includes all major steam coal exporting and importing countries and represents the international trade as one globalized market. Some suppliers of coal are at the same time major consumers, such as the USA and China. Therefore, domestic markets are also included in the model to analyze their interaction with the international market. Because of the different qualities of steam coal, we include different heating values depending on the origin of the coal. At the same time we observe the mass-specific constraints on production, transport and export capacity. The time horizon of our analysis is until 2030, in 5-year steps. Production costs change endogenously over time. Moreover, endogenous investments are included based on a net present value optimization approach and and the shadow prices of capacities constraints. Investments can be carried out in production, inland freight capacities (rail in most countries), and export terminals. The paper finishes with an application of the model to a base case scenario and suggestions for alternative scenarios. |
| Keywords: | coal, energy, numerical modeling, investments, international trade |
| JEL: | L11 L72 C69 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1067&r=env |
| By: | Snorre Kverndokk and Knut Einar Rosendahl (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Popular instruments to regulate consumption of oil in the transport sector include fuel taxes, biofuel requirements, and fuel efficiency. Their impacts on oil consumption and price vary. One important factor is the market setting. We show that if market power is present in the oil market, the directions of change in consumption and price may contrast those in a competitive market. As a result, the market setting impacts not only the effectiveness of the policy instruments to reduce oil consumption, but also terms of trade and carbon leakage. In particular, we show that under monopoly, reduced oil consumption due to increased fuel efficiency will unambiguously increase the price of oil. |
| Keywords: | Transport regulations; oil market; monopoly; terms-of-trade effects; carbon leakage |
| JEL: | D42 Q54 R48 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:629&r=env |
| By: | Remoundou, Kyriaki; Drichoutis, Andreas; Koundouri, Phoebe |
| Abstract: | Running conventional laboratory experiments (i.e., with a standard student subject pool) is common practice in economic experiments especially when methodological issues are explored. However, generalization of the results from such experiments to the entire population is subject to severe critique. In this study we investigate warm glow in charitable auctions in a conventional lab experiment and an artefactual field experiment (i.e., lab experiment using subjects from the general population). The auction is constructed in a way to isolate warm glow by donating the sum of revenues by highest bidders to an environmental charity of subjects’ choice. Contributions motivated by pure altruism were eliminated by keeping constant the total amount the charity would receive. Results for the two subject pools are at complete odds. There is ample evidence of warm glow in the student subject pool but none in the consumer subject pool. Our findings suggest that conclusions from conventional lab experiments may not be immediately transferable to the general population. |
| Keywords: | warm glow; charitable auctions; lab experiment; WEIRDos |
| JEL: | Q52 C92 D44 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25553&r=env |
| By: | Gold-Nöteberg, A.H.; Gronewold, U.; Salterio, S. |
| Abstract: | We examine factors affecting the auditor’s willingness to report their own or their peers’ self-discovered errors in working papers subsequent to detailed working paper review. Prior research has shown that errors in working papers are detected in the review process; however, such detection rates only rarely exceed 50% of the seeded errors. Hence, measures that encourage auditors to be alert to their own (or their peers’) potential errors any time they revisit the audit working papers may be valuable in detecting such residual errors and potentially correcting them before damage occurs to the audit firm or its client. We hypothesize that three factors affect the auditor’s willingness to report post detailed review discovered errors: the local office error-management climate (open versus blame), the type of error (mechanical versus conceptual) and who committed the error (the individual who committed the error (self) or a peer). Local office error-management climate is said to be open and supportive where errors and mistakes are accepted as part of everyday life as long as they are learned from and not repeated. In alternative, a blame error-management climate focuses on a “get it right the first time†culture where mistakes are not tolerated and blame gets attached to those admitting to or found committing such errors. We find that error-management climate has a significant overall effect on auditor willingness to report errors, as does who committed the error originally. We find both predicted and unpredicted significant interactions among the three factors that qualify these observed significant main effects. We discuss implications for audit practice and further research. |
| Keywords: | audit quality;adjustments;materiality;review |
| Date: | 2010–08–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:1765020551&r=env |
| By: | John Kurien |
| Abstract: | This paper is the product of an international research project of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA and the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi on “Natural Assets and the Poorâ€. The project was led by Professor James Boyce of PERI. It was first presented at the International Conference on Natural Assets at Tagaytay City, Philipppines in January 2003. [Working Paper No. 349] |
| Keywords: | Community property rights, small-scale fisheries, natural assets |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2988&r=env |