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on Regulation |
| By: | Mar Reguant |
| Abstract: | Renewable policies have grown in popularity across states in the US, and worldwide. The costs and benefits from renewable policies are unevenly distributed across several margins. The incidence of alternative designs varies substantially across producers and consumers, across types of producers, across types of consumers, and across regions. In particular, the efficiency and distributional implications of large-scale policies crucially depend on the design of wholesale policies and how targets are set, but also on how the costs of such policies are passed-through to consumers. Given that renewable costs are mostly non-marginal, due to the large presence of fixed costs, there are many different ways to implement these policies on both the environmental design and retail pass-through margins. Using data from the California electricity market, I develop a model to illustrate the interaction between large-scale renewable policies (carbon taxes, feed-in tariffs, production subsidies and renewable portfolio standards) and their pricing to final consumers under alternative retail pricing schemes (no pass-through, marginal fees, fixed flat tariffs and Ramsey pricing). I focus on the trade-off between charging residential versus industrial consumers to highlight tensions between efficiency, distributional and environmental objectives. |
| JEL: | Q4 Q5 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24398&r=reg |
| By: | Eva Lyubich (UC Berkeley); Joseph S. Shapiro (Cowles Foundation, Yale University); Reed Walker (University of California, Berkeley, IZA, & NBER) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the ?rst estimates of within-industry heterogeneity in energy and CO2 productivity for the entire U.S. manufacturing sector. We measure energy and CO2 productivity as output per dollar energy input or per ton CO2 emitted. Three ?ndings emerge. First, within narrowly de?ned industries, heterogeneity in energy and CO2 productivity across plants is enormous. Second, heterogeneity in energy and CO2 productivity exceeds heterogeneity in most other productivity measures, like labor or total factor productivity. Third, heterogeneity in energy and CO2 productivity has important implications for environmental policies targeting industries rather than plants, including technology standards and carbon border adjustments. |
| JEL: | F18 H23 Q56 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2117r&r=reg |
| By: | Curtis, John; McCoy, Daire |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:rb201807&r=reg |
| By: | François Cohen (CERNA i3 - Centre d'économie industrielle i3 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - PSL - PSL Research University - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris); Matthieu Glachant (CERNA i3 - Centre d'économie industrielle i3 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - PSL - PSL Research University - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris); Magnus Söderberg (NIVA - Norwegian Institute for Water Research - Norwegian Institute for Water Research) |
| Abstract: | Using household-level data from the American Housing Survey, this paper assesses the cost of adapting housing to temperature increases. We account for both energy use adjustments and capital adjustments through investments in weatherization and heating and cooling equipment. Our best estimate of the present discounted value of the cost for adapting to the A2 « business-as-usual » climate scenario by the end of the century is $5,600 per housing unit, including both energy and investment costs. A more intense use of air conditioners will be compensated for by a reduction in heating need, leading to a shift from gas to electricity consumption. |
| Date: | 2017–01–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01695171&r=reg |
| By: | Newbery, David M. G. |
| Abstract: | Given the agreed urgency of decarbonizing electricity and the need to guide decentralized private decisions, an adequate and credible carbon price appears essential. The paper models and quantifies the useful concept of the break-even carbon price for mature zerocarbon electricity investments. It appears an attractive alternative given the difficulty of measuring the social cost of carbon, but modelling shows it extremely sensitive to projected fuel prices, the rate of interest, and the capital cost of generation options, all of which are very uncertain. This has important implications, and justifies combining a carbon price floor with suitable long-term contracts for electricity investments. |
| Keywords: | carbon price,electricity,investment,renewables |
| JEL: | C65 Q42 Q48 Q51 Q54 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201829&r=reg |
| By: | Jové Llopis, Elisenda,; Segarra Blasco, Agustí, 1958- |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates the factors driving the adoption of energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) measures in a sample of 8,213 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in European countries. Using a bivariate probit model we examine their drivers, complementarities, and potential temporal persistence in three European country clusters (Core countries, Mediterranean countries and New EU members). Our results suggest that sustainable energies actions (EE and RE) are highly persistent both at the firm level and across countries and that there are relevant complementarities between EE and RE practices, as well as other resource efficient practices. In addition, strategies for EE seem to rely more on cost saving and regulations, while those for RE are more linked to public support and environmental awareness. This paper ends with some recommendations for policymakers suggesting that Europe needs to design an energy policy for the SMEs firms that jointly pursues both EE and the diffusion of RE according to the technological gap of each member country. Keywords: energy efficiency, renewable energy, European Union, SMEs firms |
| Keywords: | Energies renovables -- Unió Europea, Països de la, Empreses petites i mitjanes -- Aspectes ambientals -- Unió Europea, Països de la, 338 - Situació econòmica. Política econòmica. Gestió, control i planificació de l'economia. Producció. Serveis. Turisme. Preus, |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/306520&r=reg |
| By: | Fotis, Panagiotis; Polemis, Michael |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to cast light on the relationship between sustainable development environmental policy and renewable energy use. We utilize a dynamic GMM approach over a panel of 34 European Union (EU) countries spanning the period 2005-2013. Our findings reveal a positive monotonic relationship between development and pollution. Energy saving positively affects environmental degradation, while energy intensity increases air pollution. Our findings imply important policy implications to policy makers toward sustainability. Despite the fact that the Europe “20-20-20” climate and energy package strategy seems to be achieved, the recently adopted Energy Roadmap 2050 must be updated on regular basis in order to be effectively implemented and monitored by government officials and firms’ stakeholders. Therefore, we argue that EU countries must increase the use of new technology and renewable energy capacity in order to align environmental policies towards more efficient energy use and sustainable development among the EU periphery. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable Development; Environmental Policy; Renewable Energy Sources; Dynamic Panel Data Analysis |
| JEL: | D23 L16 O11 Q56 |
| Date: | 2018–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:85018&r=reg |
| By: | Pereira, Alfredo; Pereira, Rui |
| Abstract: | The objective of this work is to examine the environmental, economic, and distribution effects of carbon taxation and environmental tax reform policies in Portugal. Decarbonization of the Portuguese economy will necessarily be based on an increasing electrification of energy demand and the production of electricity from renewable energy resources. Carbon and energy pricing policies coupled with appropriate recycling of the carbon tax revenues can contribute towards the decarbonization of the Portuguese economy and an increase in the use of renewable energy resources in the production of electric power. In this work we provide full details as to the model, calibration, and simulation results within the economic framework of the DGEP model. |
| Keywords: | economic effects, distributional effects, electrification, decarbonization, carbon taxation, Portugal |
| JEL: | C68 H2 O5 Q43 Q5 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:84782&r=reg |
| By: | Bardey, David; Martimort, David; Pouyet, Jérôme |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the evolution of drug use in Colombia over the past years. Our analysis, based on surveys from the Dirección Nacional de Estupefacientes, shows that drug consumption grew substantially between 1996 and 2013. The growth occurred for both genders, all ages, socioeconomic strata and types of occupation. The results also suggest that men of high socioeconomic strata who regularly consume alcohol and cigarettes and who are between 18 and 24 years of age are more likely to use drugs. Finally, the paper presents some indirect evidence that contradicts the alleged effects of the judgment of the Constitutional Court (Sentencia C-221 of May 1994) that decriminalized the personal dose on the consumption of drugs in Colombia. |
| Keywords: | Drugs; decriminalization |
| JEL: | D12 I18 |
| Date: | 2016–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:heccah:1184&r=reg |
| By: | Asplund, Disa (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Pydokke, Roger (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the impacts of different social welfare weights on fares and frequencies, optimized to maximize welfare for bus services in the small Swedish city of Uppsala, handling both congestion in streets and crowding in public transport. It represents choice between three modes; public transport, car and a combination of walking and cycling, two periods; peak and off-peak, two zones and three origin-destination combinations. Six scenarios are evaluated; the base year (2014), a welfare optimal combination without distributional concerns and welfare optimal policies for four different sets of welfare weights with various degrees of progressivity. The main results are that, compared to the welfare optimal scenario without distributional weights, increasing the welfare weights of the low-income group increases frequencies and reduces fares successively. Comparing the simulation results to the fares and frequencies in Uppsala in 2014, optimal frequencies with even the most far reaching distributional objectives are lower. |
| Keywords: | Income distribution; Distributional weights; Optimization; Public transport; Welfare; Fares; Frequencies |
| JEL: | R10 R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2018–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2018_007&r=reg |
| By: | Naoya Yamaguchi; Maiya Hori; Yoshinari Ideguchi |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we formulate a method for minimising the expectation value of the procurement cost of electricity in two popular spot markets: {\it day-ahead} and {\it intra-day}, under the assumption that expectation value of unit prices and the distributions of prediction errors for the electricity demand traded in two markets are known. The expectation value of the total electricity cost is minimised over two parameters that change the amounts of electricity. Two parameters depend only on the expected unit prices of electricity and the distributions of prediction errors for the electricity demand traded in two markets. That is, even if we do not know the predictions for the electricity demand, we can determine the values of two parameters that minimise the expectation value of the procurement cost of electricity in two popular spot markets. We demonstrate numerically that the estimate of two parameters often results in a small variance of the total electricity cost, and illustrate the usefulness of the proposed procurement method through the analysis of actual data. |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1803.04532&r=reg |
| By: | Eirik S. Amundsen; Peder Andersen; Jørgen Birk Mortensen |
| Abstract: | Instruments chosen to pursue climate related targets are not always efficient. In this paper we consider an economy with three climate related targets for its electricity generation: a given share of “green” electricity, a given expansion of “green” electricity, and a given reduction of “black” (fossil based) electricity. At its disposal the country has three instruments: an allowance system (tradable green certificates), a subsidy system (feed-in tariffs) and a Pigouvian fossil tax. Each of these instruments may be used to attain any of the given targets. Within the setting of the model it is verified that each kind of the target has only a single efficient instrument under certainty, and that there is a deadweight loss of using other instruments to achieve the target. Similarly, there is also an analysis of instrument choice when several targets are to be attained at the same time. The paper also discusses the case of simultaneous targets as well as the relevance of the various targets. |
| Keywords: | energy policy, green certificates, subsidies, Pigouvian taxes, climate change |
| JEL: | C70 Q28 Q42 Q48 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6926&r=reg |
| By: | Bertsch, Valentin |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:rb201808&r=reg |
| By: | Maximilian Auffhammer |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a simple two-step estimation method (Climate Adaptive Response Estimation - CARE) to estimate sectoral climate damage functions, which account for long- run adaptation. The paper applies this method in the context of residential electricity and natural gas demand for the world's sixth largest economy - California. The advantage of the proposed method is that it only requires detailed information on intensive margin behavior, yet does not require explicit knowledge of the extensive margin response (e.g., technology adoption). Using almost two billion energy bills, we estimate spatially highly disaggregated intensive margin temperature response functions using daily variation in weather. In a second step, we explain variation in the slopes of the dose response functions across space as a function of summer climate. Using 18 state-of-the-art climate models, we simulate future demand by letting households vary consumption along the intensive and extensive margins. We show that failing to account for extensive margin adjustment in electricity demand leads to a significant underestimate of the future impacts on electricity consumption. We further show that reductions in natural gas demand more than offset any climate-driven increases in electricity consumption in this context. |
| JEL: | Q4 Q54 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24397&r=reg |
| By: | Elkerbout, Milan; Egenhofer, Christian |
| Abstract: | Carbon prices in the EU ETS have been low for a number of years and might remain at relatively low levels for the foreseeable future. That does not mean that the EU ETS, or the price signal it produces, is meaningless. Incentives to abate greenhouse gas emissions exist at any price level (it is just stronger with higher prices). This is true even if the impact is different between the power and industrial sectors, partly but not only because of the difference in allocation rules. What the ETS price signal does not drive, however, is long-term investment decisions, which are more a function of price expectations and expected returns on investment. |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:cepswp:12666&r=reg |
| By: | Rubensson, Isak (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)); Börjesson, Maria (CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)) |
| Abstract: | Customer Satisfaction Surveys conducted among public transport passengers over 15 years in Stockholm show that the satisfaction with crowding has been and is low. Surprisingly, however, crowding does not seem to be important for the passengers’ total satisfaction with the public transport service, not even for passengers on the most highly crowded bus services in central Stockholm. A possible reason is that crowding is not perceived as part of the service delivered by the public transport provider. Using less aggregated data than previous studies we also find that the performance of the attributes crowding, reliability and frequency influences satisfaction with these attributes. Moreover, a general result is that when comparing different bus lines and public transport modes, the satisfaction with an attribute is influenced by the performance of this attribute, while the importance level is much more stable across bus lines and public transport modes. There is also a trend increase in the satisfaction with many attributes (but not for crowding), while the importance is more stable over time. |
| Keywords: | Customer Satisfaction; Service Quality; Stated Preference; Public Transport; Preferences; Crowding; Reliability |
| JEL: | R41 R42 R48 |
| Date: | 2018–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2018_006&r=reg |
| By: | Rinaldi, David; Núñez Ferrer, Jorge |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an overview of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) as a budgetary instrument. A preliminary analysis of the quantitative impact of its first year and a half of activity is complemented by an outline of the corollary policies that can determine the success of EFSI. Taking into account the instrument’s original mission, the preliminary evidence is encouraging and suggests that it is on track to attain expected targets. For EFSI 2.0, the study recommends revising the regulation to provide a window-specific definition of additionality and strengthening parliamentary oversight. In order for EFSI to contribute to the greater goal of cohesion and development, it further recommends the creation of a Development Window with a special guarantee for riskier regions and a push on EFSI corollary policies, including the establishment of country offices for the Advisory Hub and the development of a strategy for investment in human capital. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:cepswp:12433&r=reg |