|
on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Enrica De Cian (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC)); Samuel Carrara (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC)); Massimo Tavoni (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether an inefficient allocation of abatement, due to constraints on the use of currently available low carbon mitigation options, can promote innovation in new technologies and eventually generate welfare gains. We focus on the case of nuclear power phase out, when accounting for endogenous technical change in energy efficiency and in low carbon technologies. The analysis uses the Integrated Assessment Model WITCH, which features multiple externalities due to both climate and innovation market failures. Our results show that phasing out nuclear power stimulates additional R&D investments and deployment of infant technologies with large learning potential. The innovation benefits which this would generate and that would not otherwise be captured due to intertemporal and international externalities almost completely offset the economic costs of phasing out nuclear power. The technological change benefit depends on the stringency of the climate policy and is distributed unevenly across countries. |
| Keywords: | Technological change, Climate policy, Nuclear phase-out |
| JEL: | H40 O33 Q40 Q55 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2012.96&r=env |
| By: | Marie-Sophie Hervieux (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Université de Nantes : EA4272); Olivier Darné (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Université de Nantes : EA4272) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis using the Ecological Footprint (EF), a more comprehensive indicator of environmental degradation, through a time-series analysis for 15 countries covering the 1961-2007 period. We rst test the EKC hypothesis from traditional linear, quadratic and cubic functions, with standard and logarithmic speci cations. The EKC hypothesis is only supported for Chile and Uruguay with the quadratic functional form. We also nd that most of the countries exhibit a positive linear relationship between the EF and GDP. Finally, we study the long-term relationship between the EF and GDP. The results show evidence of long-term relationship between income and EF for some countries (Brazil, Chile, China, and Uruguay). More particularly, Spain displays a cubic relationship, in an N-shaped function form. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Kuznets Curve ; Ecological Footprint |
| Date: | 2013–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00781958&r=env |
| By: | Elisabetta Allevi (University of Brescia); Giorgia Oggioni (University of Brescia); Rossana Riccardi (University of Brescia); Marco Rocco (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | The European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a cap and trade system to curb CO2 emissions. It has caused both direct costs (CO2 allowances) and indirect costs (higher electricity prices) to energy-intensive industries. Moreover, as there is no global CO2 agreement, the ETS could distort the European economy, prompting energy-intensive industries to relocate production to unregulated countries: the “carbon leakage” effect. This paper investigates the impact of ETS on the cement industry, focusing on Italy, the second European producer, analyzing a Cournot oligopolistic partial equilibrium model with a detailed technological representation of the market. Simulation results show that the European and Italian cement markets are subject to carbon leakage, especially where carbon regulation is more stringent and where plants are located near the seacoast. Further, transportation costs - particularly high in the cement sector - significantly affect the rate of carbon leakage. |
| Keywords: | carbon leakage, cement sector, ETS, generalized Nash game |
| JEL: | C60 D43 D58 C61 Q50 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_899_13&r=env |
| By: | Philippe Aghion (Harvard University); Antoine Dechezleprêtre (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics); David Hemous (INSEAD); Ralf Martin (Imperial College Business School and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics); John Van Reenen (Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and NBER) |
| Abstract: | Can directed technical change be used to combat climate change? We construct new firm-level panel data on auto industry innovation distinguishing between “dirty” (internal combustion engine) and “clean” (e.g. electric and hybrid) patents across 80 countries over several decades. We show that firms tend to innovate relatively more in clean technologies when they face higher tax-inclusive fuel prices. Furthermore, there is path dependence in the type of innovation both from aggregate spillovers and from the firm's own innovation history. Using our model we simulate the increases in carbon taxes needed to allow clean to overtake dirty technologies. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Innovation, Directed Technical Change, Automobiles |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2012.99&r=env |
| By: | Paramita Sinha; Maureen L. Cropper |
| Abstract: | We value climate amenities by estimating a discrete location choice model for households that changed metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) between 1995 and 2000. The utility of each MSA depends on location-specific amenities, earnings opportunities, housing costs, and the cost of moving to the MSA from the household’s 1995 location. We use the estimated trade-off between wages and climate amenities to value changes in mean winter and summer temperatures. At median temperatures for 1970 to 2000, a 1°F increase in winter temperature is worth less than a 1° decrease in summer temperature; however, the reverse is true at winter temperatures below 25°F. These results imply an average welfare loss of 2.7 percent of household income in 2020 to 2050 under the B1 (climate-friendly) scenario from the special report on emissions scenarios (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2000), although some cities in the Northeast and Midwest benefit. Under the A2 (more extreme) scenario, households in 25 of 26 cities suffer an average welfare loss equal to 5 percent of income. |
| JEL: | Q5 Q51 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18756&r=env |
| By: | Jing Wu; Yongheng Deng; Jun Huang; Randall Morck; Bernard Yeung |
| Abstract: | In generating fast economic growth, China is also generating growing concern about its environmental record. Using 2000-2009 data, we find that, while spending on environmental infrastructure has visible positive environmental impact, city spending is strongly tilted towards transportation infrastructure. Investment in transportation infrastructure correlates strongly with both real GDP growth, a measure of tangible economic growth relevant to city-level Party and government cadres’ promotion odds, and with land prices, which affect city governments’ revenues from land lease sales. In contrast, city governments’ spending on environmental improvements is at best uncorrelated with cadres’ promotion odds, and is uncorrelated with local GDP growth and land prices. These findings suggest that, were environmental quality explicitly linked to a cadre’s chance of promotion, or were environmental quality to affect land prices substantially, city-level public investment in environmental improvement would rise. |
| JEL: | G0 H54 P2 P26 Q56 Q58 R11 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18754&r=env |
| By: | Athanasios Kampas (Department of Agricultural Economics & Development, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 11855 Athens, Greece); Anna Vasilaki (Department of Agricultural Economics & Development, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 11855 Athens, Greece); Athanasios Petsakos (Department of Agricultural Products Marketing and Quality Control, Technological Institute of Western Macedonia, 53100 Florina, Greece); Angeliki Stefopoulou (Department of Natural Resources Development and Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera odos 75, 18855, Athens.) |
| Abstract: | The paper presents a rapid assessment of irrigation full cost of the Pinios Local Organization for Land Reclamation. The individual cost components (financial, environmental and resource) were estimated using the best available data and sound methodological choices. On the basis of our estimates it seems that water scarcity and its corresponding resource cost is quite important issue to be ignored. The scarcity rents falls within a range from 21% to 39% of water full cost, while the environmental cost is about 8%. The policy implications of these results are also discussed. |
| Keywords: | WFD, Irrigation Full Cost Account, With-Without Analysis, Water Balance, Water Scarcity Rents, Pinios Local Organization for Land Reclamation |
| JEL: | Q25 Q51 Q52 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aua:wpaper:2013-1&r=env |
| By: | Goeschl, Timo; Heyen, Daniel; Moreno-Cruz, Juan |
| Abstract: | Solar radiation management (SRM) technologies are considered one of the likeliest forms of geoengineering. If developed, a future generation could deploy them to limit the damages caused by the atmospheric carbon stock inherited from the current generation, despite their negative side effects. Should the current generation develop these geoengi-neering capabilities for a future generation? And how would a decision to develop SRM impact on the current generation's abatement efforts? Natural scientists, ethicists, and other scholars argue that future generations could be more sanguine about the side effects of SRM deployment than the current generation. In this paper, we add economic rigor to this important debate on the intergenerational transfer of technological capabilities and pollution stocks. We identify three conjectures that constitute potentially rational courses of action for current society, including a ban on the development of SRM. How-ever, the same premises that underpin these conjectures also allow for a novel possibility: If the development of SRM capabilities is sufficiently cheap, the current generation may for reasons of intergenerational strategy decide not just to develop SRM technologies, but also to abate more than in the absence of SRM. |
| Keywords: | Geoengineering; Climate Change; Intergenerational Issues; Strategic Behavior. |
| Date: | 2013–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:540&r=env |
| By: | Vincent Bretagnolle (CEBC - Centre d'études biologiques de Chizé - CNRS : UPR1934); Elsa Berthet (SADAPT - Sciences pour l'Action et le Développement : Activités, Produits, Territoires - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) : UMR1048 - AgroParisTech, CGS - Centre de Gestion Scientifique - École Nationale Supérieure des Mines - Paris (ParisTech)) |
| Abstract: | Effective solutions for integrating agricultural development and conservation of biodiversity at the landscape scale remain to be identified. We present a case study in an intensively farmed French cereal plain, where the reintroduction of grasslands has been proposed first for conservation purposes in order to protect the Little Bustard, a highly threatened bird species. In these highly fragmented and disturbed habitats, the presence, abundance and distribution of grasslands therefore have a critical role in ecological and environmental regulatory processes. To restore these processes, it is critical to rationalize the inclusion of grasslands in the cropping system (in time, space and according to management practices). However, currently, grasslands are severely depleted by farmers who privilege cereal crops for economic reasons . We therefore raise the issue of whether crop allocation at the landscape scale can be changed without public funding, in order to increase the proportion of grasslands. A solution explored here is to identify the interdependencies between farmers related to the ecosystem services grasslands provide at the landscape scale. The recognition of grassland emergent functions when considered at the landscape scale gives them a status of common good: a good that should be collectively managed to maximize ecosystem services. This consideration leads to involve new stakeholders such as citizens, scientists, government bodies or NGOs in the collective management of grasslands and opens an innovative way to reconcile agriculture and conservation at the landscape scale. |
| Keywords: | Agro-ecosystem; ecosystem services; grasslands; cereal crops; biodiversity; design; collective action; commons |
| Date: | 2012–10–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00781244&r=env |
| By: | Ibon Galarraga; Luis M. Abadie; Alberto Ansuategi |
| Abstract: | Energy labels are used to promote the purchase of efficient appliances. Many countries in Europe use subsidies (namely energy efficiency rebates) to support these purchases as it is the case of Spain. A figure ranging from 50 to 105€ subsidy has been granted in the past for the acquisition of the most efficient appliances. This paper first analyses the impact of a 80€ subsidy on the dishwasher market and compares the results with a 40 € tax for non-labelled ones. The results take into account the effects that the policies generate in the market segment that is a close substitute, that is, cross effects. The paper shows that the subsidy is expensive for the Government, generates some welfare losses and it also generates a rebound effect as a consequence of the increase in the total number of appliances sold. The 40 € tax does not cost money to the Government, it generates a lower welfare loss and reduces the energy bill. However, the analysis is extended to go beyond the two extreme scenarios: subsidies without taxes and taxes without subsidies. Different combinations of both instruments are suggested and they are assessed based on their performance regarding economic efficiency, environmental effectiveness and political feasibility. |
| Keywords: | Energy efficiency rebates, deadweight losses, rebound effect |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcc:wpaper:2013-05&r=env |
| By: | Aleix Altimiras-Martin (Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge; NEREUS, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Sao Paulo) |
| Abstract: | Physical Input-Output Tables (PIOTs) are a powerful accounting framework since they trace simultaneously all physical flows of the economy, including goods and emission. However, there is no IO model able to operate them and, thus, they cannot be used for analytical purposes - only descriptive. A series of papers suggested different methods to operate them but without clearly identifying a IO model matching the specificities of PIOTs (Hubacek and Giljum 2003; Giljum and Hubacek 2004; Suh 2004; Giljum, Hubacek, and Sun 2004; Dietzenbacher 2005; Dietzenbacher et al. 2009; Xu and Zhang 2009). This paper aims to develop an output-driven and an input-driven IO model to operate PIOTs, which would constitute the basic analytical tool-kit to analyse such tables. First, section 2 compares the operation of the traditional Input-Output Tables (IOTs) with PIOTs. It identifies a new type of table - a multiple related outputs IOT - that matches the specificities of a PIOT: it has several outputs (goods and emissions) and one of the outputs - the emissions - is related to the total sectoral throughput by the technology of production. Then, it is shown that the related output causes traditional output-driven IO models such as the Leontief one to underestimate the total outputs. Then, section 3 devises a new IO model by assuming a linear relationship between the related outputs (emissions) and the total throughput (total output or input); consequently, the related outputs such as the emissions can be endogenised in the structure of production and, thus, the model can be driven with final goods alone. Section 3.2 generalises the model for any number of multiple related outputs and shows how to operate a PIOT with five types of simultaneous emissions. Then, section 3.3 shows that Suh's (2004) method is in fact a change of total output units that transforms the PIOT - a multiple related outputs IOT - into a single output IOT that can then be operated with traditional IO models. For completeness, section 4 examines the use of input-driven models with multiple related output tables and finds that no special modification of the input-driven model is required. Thus, this paper provides the theoretical background to analyse PIOTs and any other multiple related outputs IOTs. It is expected that this new model will revive the momentum in PIOT development and analysis which had been lost because of the lack of robust analytical tools. |
| Keywords: | Physical input-output tables, Input-output analysis, Environmental Accounts, Waste, Emission, Material Flow Analysis, EW-MFA |
| JEL: | Q57 Q53 C67 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ccc:wpaper:001&r=env |
| By: | Halkos, George; Tzeremes, Nickolaos |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic efficiency. For this reason conditional Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) estimators alongside with nonparametric regressions are applied in a sample of 25 European countries for the year 2010. Our results reveal that renewable energy consumption has a positive effect on countries’ economic efficiency for lower consumption levels while for higher levels the analysis reveals mixed effects, which are also subject to regional disparities. Finally, it appears that the effect of renewable energy consumption on countries’ economic efficiency depends also on countries’ specific regional characteristics as well as on the environmental policies adopted. |
| Keywords: | Renewable energy consumption; economic efficiency; data envelopment analysis; nonparametric regression |
| JEL: | C14 Q40 Q01 Q20 C60 O44 |
| Date: | 2013–02–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44136&r=env |
| By: | Phoebe Koundouri; Osiel González Dávila (AUEB-RC); Mavra Stithou |
| Abstract: | In this paper a Methodology for Integrated Socio-Economic Assessment (MISEA) of the viability and sustainability of different designs of Multi-Use Offshore Platforms (MUOPs) is presented. MUOPs are designed for multi-use of ocean space for energy extraction (wind power production and wave energy), aquaculture and transport maritime services. The developed methodology allows identification, valuation and assessment of: the potential range of impacts of a number of feasible designs of MUOP investments, and the likely responses of those impacted by the investment project. This methodology provides decision-makers with a valuable decision tool to assess whether a MUOP project increases the overall social welfare and hence should be undertaken, under alternative specifications regarding its design, the discount rate and the stream of net benefits, if a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is to be followed or sensitivity analysis of selected criteria in a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) framework. Such a methodology is also crucial for facilitating of the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD adopted in June 2008) that aims to achieve good environmental status of the EU's marine waters by 2020 and to protect the resource base upon which marine-related economic and social activities depend. According to the MSFD each member state must draw up a program of cost-effective measures, while prior to any new measure an impact assessment which contains a detailed cost-benefit analysis of the proposed measures is required. |
| Keywords: | Multi-Use Offshore Platforms, Integrated Socio-Economic Assessment, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Program of Measures, Cost-Benefit Analysis. |
| Date: | 2013–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aue:wpaper:1302&r=env |
| By: | Natacha LASKOWSKI |
| Abstract: | The model developed here addresses the question of wetland conflict between agricultural production and fishery. Using the modification of the logistic function of growth and the introduction of agricultural activity into traditional fishing models, we consider the optimum allocation of wetlands. This depends on the profits of agents exploiting the fishing resources on the one hand and the agricultural resources on the other. Static followed by dynamic analysis of the model enable us to determine how best to allocate the use of wetlands, and then subsequently using that as a basis for developing sustainable conservation policies for resources |
| Keywords: | Wetlands, dynamic optimisation, carrying capacity, agriculture, fishery, conflict |
| JEL: | Q15 R52 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2013-07&r=env |
| By: | Lauriane MOUYSSET; Luc DOYEN; Jean-Christophe PEREAU; Fréderic JIGUET |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role played by biodiversity goals in the design of agricultural policies. A bio-economic model is developed with a dynamic and multi-scale perspective. It couples biodiversity dynamics, farming land-uses selected at the micro level and public policies at the macro level based on financial incentives for land-uses. The public decision maker provides optimal incentives with respect to both biodiversity and budgetary constraints. These optimal policies are then analyzed through their private, public and total costs. The model is calibrated and applied to metropolitan France at the Small Agricultural Region (SAR) scale using common birds as biodiversity metrics. Results put forward a decreasing and concave efficiency curve for different biodiversity indicators and economic scores stressing the underlying bio-economic trade-off. The analysis of total and public costs also suggests that accounting for biodiversity can generate a second benefit in terms of public budget. It is argued how a regional redistribution of this public earning to the farmers could promote the acceptability of biodiversity goals in agricultural policies. |
| Keywords: | Biodiversity, Land-use, Bio-economics, Modeling, Cost-effectiveness, Optimality, Scenarios, Birds. |
| JEL: | Q15 Q20 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2013-04&r=env |
| By: | Dorothée Brécard (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Université de Nantes : EA4272); Bernard Fritsch (ESO - Espaces Géographiques et Sociétés - CNRS : UMR6590 - Université de Caen Basse-Normandie - Université d'Angers - Université du Maine - Université de Nantes - Université de Rennes II - Haute Bretagne); Rémy Le Boennec (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Université de Nantes : EA4272) |
| Abstract: | En France, les Plans de Déplacements Urbains (PDU) visent à favoriser la mobilité pour tous et à trouver un équilibre entre la voiture, les transports collectifs et les autres modes de transport, avec la volonté de promouvoir une mobilité durable. Quelle satisfaction les habitants des pôles urbains tirent-ils de telles politiques ? Dans cet article, nous essayons de répondre à cette question pour les habitants de Nantes Métropole, à travers une analyse de la capitalisation immobilière de divers effets des politiques de transport urbain. En utilisant la méthode des prix hédoniques, nous montrons que les prix immobiliers ne sont pas déterminés uniquement par les caractéristiques intrinsèques des appartements et de leur environnement socio-économique, mais aussi par une meilleure accessibilité. Selon la localisation de l'appartement et le transport collectif utilisé, une meilleure accessibilité au centre apporte des effets contrastés. La pollution de l'air est perçue comme une source de nuisance par les ménages, mais seulement au-delà d'un certain seuil. L'exposition au bruit constitue également une source de désutilité. |
| Keywords: | capitalisation immobilière ; accessibilité ; pollution de l'air ; exposition au bruit ; méthode des prix hédoniques ; plan de déplacements urbains ; Nantes |
| Date: | 2013–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00781966&r=env |
| By: | David Heres; Steffen Kallbekken; Ibon Galarraga |
| Abstract: | The potential of taxation to correcting environmental externalities has been long recognized among economists. Yet, this welfare-enhancing policy commonly faces strong opposition by citizens. Conversely, externality-correcting subsidies frequently enjoy high levels of public acceptance. We conduct a lab experiment to explore public support for Pigouvian taxes and subsidies. In an experimental market with a negative externality, participants vote on the introduction of Pigouvian taxes and subsidies under full or partial information concerning how the tax revenues will be spent and the subsidy paid for. Theoretically the two instruments should produce identical outcomes. We find substantially greater support for subsidies than taxes. This can partially be explained by the expectation that the subsidy will increase payoffs more than a tax, but not because it could be more effective in changing behavior. Furthermore, we find that under partial information, the preference for subsidies is even stronger. |
| Keywords: | Pigouvian taxes; subsidies; lab experiment; public policy; revenues; effectiveness |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcc:wpaper:2013-04&r=env |
| By: | Schmaljohann, Maya |
| Abstract: | The so called resource curse, the fact that countries rich in natural resources often show lower rates of economic growth compared to resource-poor countries, is commonly attributed to the low quality of governance in resource-rich countries. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) was founded in 2003 to address this problem through increasing the quality of the public financial management of resource flows. By joining this initiative, governments show their willingness to reform and to improve their governance. As the quality of governance is an important factor for investors in deciding where to invest, this signal has the potential to improve a country’s appeal for foreign direct investment (FDI). This study shows in a panel of 81 countries that joining the EITI increases the ratio of FDI inflows to GDP on average by around two percentage points. This is a remarkable increase given that the average ratio of FDI inflows to GDP in the sample is five percent. The results are robust when controlling for selection bias due to the voluntary decision to join the initiative and possible endogeneity of the candidate variable. |
| Keywords: | FDI; EITI; Corruption; Natural Resources. |
| Date: | 2013–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:538&r=env |
| By: | Stéphane Auray (ENSAI); Aurélien Eyquem (Université de Lyon); Frédéric Jouneau-Sion (Université de Lille) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we bridge economic data and climatic time series to assess the vulnerability of a pre-industrial economy to changes in climatic conditions. We propose an economic model to extract a measure of total productivity from English data (real wages and land rents) in the pre-industrial period. This measure of total productivity is then related to temperatures and precipitations. We find that lower (respectively higher) than average precipitations (respectively temperatures) enhance productivity. Further, temperatures have non-linear effects on productivity: large temperature variations lower productivity. Quantitatively, a permanent two degree rise in temperatures lowers the level of productivity by more than 22%, and production by more than 26%. This historical impact evaluation may serve as an informative benchmark for currently under-developed economies in front of the upcoming climatic change |
| Keywords: | Climatic conditions TFP shocks, land rent |
| JEL: | C22 N13 O41 Q54 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpaper:2012-31&r=env |
| By: | Quamrul Ashraf; Stelios Michalopoulos |
| Abstract: | This research examines variations in the diffusion of agriculture across countries and archaeological sites. The theory suggests that a societys history of climatic shocks shaped the timing of its adoption of farming. Specifically, as long as climatic disturbances did not lead to a collapse of the underlying resource base, the rate at which foragers were climatically propelled to experiment with their habitats determined the accumulation of tacit knowledge complementary to farming. Thus, differences in climatic volatility across hunter-gatherer societies gave rise to the observed spatial variation in the timing of the adoption of agriculture. Consistent with the proposed hypothesis, the empirical investigation demonstrates that, conditional on biogeographic endowments, climatic volatility has a non-monotonic effect on the timing of the adoption of agriculture. Farming diffused earlier across regions characterized by intermediate levels of climatic fluctuations, with those subjected to either too high or too low intertemporal variability transiting later. |
| JEL: | O11 O13 O31 O33 O44 Q54 Q55 Q56 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18765&r=env |
| By: | Nicolas Bouleau (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - CIRAD : UMR56 - CNRS : UMR8568 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - AgroParisTech) |
| Abstract: | L'année 2012 marque le vingtième anniversaire du Sommet de Rio et le vingt-cinquième du rapport Brundtland. On est à l'heure du bilan. Il faut reconnaître qu'il est pitoyable, on a tergiversé, discuté sur les mécanismes économiques de droits négociables ou de taxes, on a construit des éoliennes et des centrales nucléaires, et puis à Copenhague on a vu chacun camper sur des positions de moindre coût. Le résultat de ces atermoiements est que les glaces arctiques fondent à une vitesse qui surprend les scientifiques eux-mêmes de sorte que le passage entre le Canada et le pôle se dégage et ouvre une nouvelle voie maritime. La voie que les navigateurs cherchaient depuis des siècles s'ouvre enfin. C'est un symbole. Il s'impose à nous comme le résultat d'une certaine philosophie de l'avenir que nous tentons d'expliciter. |
| Keywords: | développement durable; inégalités; solidarité; Nord-Sud; modernisation écologique; pluralisme |
| Date: | 2012–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00782955&r=env |