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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2008‒08‒14
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Uwe A. Schneider; Pete Smith (Research unit Sustainability and Global Change) |
| Abstract: | Energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions are closely linked. This paper reviews agricultural options to reduce energy intensities and their impacts, discusses important accounting issues related to system boundaries, land scarcity, and measurement units, and compares agricultural energy intensities and improvement potentials on an international level. Agricultural development in the past decades, while increasing yields, led to lower average energy efficiencies between the sixties and mid eighties. In the last two decades, energy intensities in developed countries increased, however, with little impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Efficiency differences across countries suggest a maximum improvement potential of 500 million tons of CO2 annually. |
| Keywords: | Energy intensity, Agriculture, Greenhouse gas emissions, Mitigation potential, Fertilizer efficiency |
| JEL: | Q54 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgc:wpaper:164&r=res |
| By: | David J. Maddison; Katrin Rehdanz (Institute for World Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces the concept of homogeneous non-causality in heterogeneous panels. This concept is used to examine a panel of data for evidence of a causal relationship between GDP and carbon emissions. The technique is compared to the standard test for homogeneous non-causality in homogeneous panels and heterogeneous non-causality in heterogeneous panels. In North America, Asia and Oceania the homogeneous non-causality hypothesis that CO2 emissions does not Granger cause GDP cannot be rejected if heterogeneity is allowed for in the data-generating process. In North America the homogeneous non-causality hypothesis that GDP does not cause CO2 emissions cannot be rejected either. |
| Keywords: | Energy; Carbon Emissions; Granger Causality; Heterogeneous Panels |
| JEL: | Q54 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgc:wpaper:163&r=res |
| By: | Roberto A. De Santis (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Frank Stähler (Corresponding author: Department of Economics, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental policy stringency in a two-country model with trade costs, where FDI could be unilateral and bilateral and both governments address local pollution through environmental taxes. We show that FDI does not give rise to ecological dumping because the host country has an incentive to shift rents away from the source country towards the host country. Environmental policy strategies and welfare effects are studied under the assumption that parameter values support FDI to be profitable. JEL Classification: F12, F18, F23. |
| Keywords: | Foreign direct investment, environmental taxes, multinational enterprises, plant location. |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20080921&r=res |