|
on Mining |
| By: | Benini, Giacomo; Enstad, Erik; Mersha, Amare Alemaye; Rossini, Luca |
| Abstract: | This study provides the first global, plant-level analysis of technical and environmental efficiency in steel production using data from 143 mills across 50 countries (2019–2023). Using a Stochastic Directional Distance Function, we estimate plants’ distance to the frontier and compute shadow prices of CO2e emissions. Results show efficient electric arc furnace mini-mills, common in North America, face high abatement costs and low inefficiency. Conversely, integrated plants in developing countries are inefficient but can abate cheaply, with Europe in between. Shadow prices remain well below carbon market rates, underscoring the need for tailored climate policies. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Environmental Economics and Policy, Sustainability |
| Date: | 2025–11–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemwp:376263 |
| By: | Ruike Lyu; Anna Li; Jianxiao Wang; Hongxi Luo; Yan Shen; Hongye Guo; Ershun Du; Chongqing Kang; Jesse Jenkins |
| Abstract: | In many countries, declining demand in energy-intensive industries (EIIs) such as cement, steel, and aluminum is leading to industrial overcapacity. Although overcapacity is traditionally seen as problematic, it could unlock EIIs' flexibility in electricity use. Using China's aluminum smelting sector as a case, we evaluate the system-level cost-benefit of retaining EII overcapacity for flexible electricity use in decarbonized systems. We find that overcapacity enables smelters to adopt a seasonal operation paradigm, ceasing production during winter load peaks driven by heating electrification and renewable seasonality. In a 2050-net-zero scenario, this paradigm reduces China's electricity-system investment and operating costs by 15-72 billion CNY per year (8-34% of the industry's product value), enough to offset the costs of maintaining overcapacity and product storage. Seasonal operation also cuts workforce fluctuations across aluminum smelting and thermal-power sectors by up to 62%, potentially mitigating socio-economic disruptions from industrial restructuring and the energy transition. |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2511.22839 |
| By: | Brennan, Dominic |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2025–12–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:globco:qt8zw6t6m7 |
| By: | Willem P Sijp |
| Abstract: | Australian house prices have risen strongly since the mid-1990s, but growth has been highly uneven across regions. Raw growth figures obscure whether these differences reflect persistent structural trends or cyclical fluctuations. We address this by estimating a three-factor model in levels for regional repeat-sales log price indexes over 1995-2024. The model decomposes each regional index into a national Market factor, two stationary spreads (Mining and Lifestyle) that capture mean-reverting geographic cycles, and a city-specific residual. The Mining spread, proxied by a Perth-Sydney index differential, reflects resource-driven oscillations in relative performance; the Lifestyle spread captures amenity-driven coastal and regional cycles. The Market loading isolates each region's fundamental sensitivity, beta, to national growth, so that a city's growth under an assumed national change is calculated from its beta once mean-reverting spreads are netted out. Comparing realised paths to these factor-implied trajectories indicates when a city is historically elevated or depressed, and attributes the gap to Mining or Lifestyle spreads. Expanding-window ARIMAX estimation reveals that Market betas are stable across major shocks (the mining boom, the Global Financial Crisis, and COVID-19), while Mining and Lifestyle behave as stationary spreads that widen forecast funnels without overturning the cross-sectional ranking implied by beta. Melbourne amplifies national growth, Sydney tracks the national trend closely, and regional areas dampen it. The framework thus provides a simple, factor-based tool for interpreting regional growth differentials and their persistence. |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.01139 |