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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2012‒11‒17
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Milena Breisinger |
| Abstract: | This document provides the methodology prepared and used by IDB to assess the impact of its direct investments loans on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since 2009. The document provides the methodology behind a series of tools developed to assess GHG emissions for IDB operations in key sectors. |
| Keywords: | Environment & Natural Resources :: Climate Change, GHG Emissions Assessment |
| JEL: | Q54 C13 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:76299&r=res |
| By: | Mads Greaker and Tom-Reiel Heggedal (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | The major claim in Acemoglu, Aghion, Bursztyn & Hemous (2012) (AABH) is that subsidies for research and development of clean technologies are more important than carbon taxes when dealing with climate change. However, they – unconventionally – assume that a patent only lasts for one period. In this note we introduce long-lived patents into the AABH model. This makes the role of a research subsidy for clean technologies in AABH far less crucial and reestablishes the role of the carbon tax. This is good news as it is far easier to tax emissions than to pick the right technologies to subsidize. |
| Keywords: | Environment; directed technological change; innovation policy |
| JEL: | O30 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:713&r=res |
| By: | Lionel Nesta (Ofce sciences-po); Francesco Vona (Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques Author-Workplace-Postal :69, quai d'Orsay, Paris 75007, France); Francesco Nicolli (University of Ferrara) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effectiveness of policies in favor of innovation in renew- able energy under dierent levels of competition. Using information regarding renewable energy policies, product market regulation and high-quality green patents for OECD countries since the late 1970s, we develop a pre-sample mean count-data econometric specification that also accounts for the endogeneity of policies. We nd that renewable energy policies are significantly more effective in fostering green innovation in countries with deregulated energy markets. We also nd that public support for renewable energy is crucial only in the genera- tion of high-quality green patents, whereas competition enhances the generation of green patents irrespective of their quality. |
| Keywords: | renwable energy technology, patents,environmental policies, product market regulation,policy complementarity |
| JEL: | Q55 Q58 Q42 Q48 O34 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fce:doctra:1225&r=res |
| By: | César Falconi; Máximo Torero; Eduardo Maruyama; Manuel Hernández; Miguel Robles |
| Abstract: | This Technical Note presents a framework for food security in LAC that takes into consideration the key drivers and external factors behind food security. This framework for food security policy interventions will guide policymakers and analysts in answering the following questions: i) Which are the top priority interventions needed to provide a more focused approach to food security aimed specifically at dealing with the issues that are impeding LAC's capacity to reduce the impacts of the food crisis on its population and at helping to solve the food crisis, given the region's comparative advantages in agriculture; ii) What is the net impact of policy interventions across households in the region, taking into consideration environment and climate change, water management, trade liberalization, and domestic food prices; and iii) How does a specific policy intervention compare to other policy interventions with respect to net impact on food security, other positive impacts, and net intervention costs? |
| Keywords: | Agriculture & Food Security :: Plant, Animal, & Food Production, Publication, Food Security, Agriculture, Policy Interventions, Policy Evaluation Tool |
| JEL: | Q18 N56 O13 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:76941&r=res |
| By: | Grimaud, André (TSE,IDEI,LERNA); Rougé, Luc (TBS) |
| Abstract: | The possibility of capturing and sequestering some fraction of the CO2 emissions arising from fossil fuel combustion, often labeled as carbon capture and storage (CCS), is drawing an increasing amount of attention in the business and academic communities. We present here a model of endogenous growth in which the use of a non-renewable resource in production yields flows of pollution whose accumulated stock negatively a¤ects welfare. A CCS technology allows, via some effort, for the partial reduction of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. We characterize the social optimum and how the availability of the CCS technology affects it, and we study the decentralized economy's trajectories. We then analyze economic policies. We first characterize the first-best policy. We derive the expression of the Pigovian carbon tax, and we give a full interpretation of its level, which is unique. We then study the impacts of three different second-best policies: a carbon tax, a subsidy to sequestered carbon, and a subsidy to labor in CCS. The first two tools foster CCS activity; so does the third, but only if it is coupled with one of the other two. While the tax postpones resource extraction, the two subsidies accelerate it's possibly yielding a rise in short-term CO2 emissions. The effects on growth are more complex. If the weight of the CCS sector in the economy is high, the tax will generally be detrimental to output growth, while the subsidies can foster it in the long-term. Finally, the carbon tax has a negative impact on the output level in the short-term, contrary to the subsidies. |
| Keywords: | carbon capture and storage (CCS), endogenous growth, polluting non-resources, carbon tax, subsidy to CCS. |
| JEL: | O3 Q3 |
| Date: | 2012–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:26507&r=res |
| By: | Nævdal, Erik (The Frisch Centre for EConomic Research); Vislie, Jon (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | An intertemporal optimal strategy for accumulation of reversible capital and management of an exhaustible resource is analyzed for a global economy when resource depletion generates discharges that add to a stock pollutant that affects the likelihood for hitting a tipping point or threshold of unknown location, causing a random“disembodied technical regress”. We characterize the optimal strategy by imposing the notion “precautionary tax” on current extraction. Such a tax will internalize future expected damages or expected welfare loss should a threshold be hit. With reversible capital the presence of a stochastic threshold should speed up accumulation as long as no threshold is hit so as to build up a buffer or stock for future consumption should a threshold be hit. |
| Keywords: | Catastrophic risk and stochastic thresholds; capital accumulation; precautionary taxation; stock pollution; resource extraction |
| JEL: | C61 Q51 Q54 |
| Date: | 2012–09–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2012_024&r=res |
| By: | Boschini, Anne (Department of Economics, Stockholm University.); Pettersson, Jan (Department of Economics); Roine, Jesper (SITE, Stockholm School of Economics, and IZA) |
| Abstract: | Several recent papers suggest that the negative association between natural resource intensity and economic growth can be reversed if institutional quality is high enough. We try to understand this result in more detail by decomposing the resource measure, using alternative measures of both resources and institutions, and by studying different time periods. While an institutional reversal is present in many specifications, only ores and metals interacted with the ICRG measure of institutional quality consistently have a negative growth effect but a positive interaction that turns the curse around when institutions are good enough. |
| Keywords: | Natural Resources; Minerals; Fuels; Resource Curse; Property Rights; Institutions; Economic Growth; Development |
| JEL: | N50 O13 O40 O57 P16 |
| Date: | 2012–11–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2012_017&r=res |
| By: | Richard G. Newell; William A. Pizer; Daniel Raimi |
| Abstract: | Carbon markets are substantial and they are expanding. There are many lessons from experiences over the past eight years: fewer free allowances, better management of market-sensitive information, and a recognition that trading systems require adjustments that have consequences for market participants and market confidence. Moreover, the emerging international architecture features separate emissions trading systems serving distinct jurisdictions. These programs are complemented by a variety of other types of policies alongside the carbon markets. This sits in sharp contrast to the integrated global trading architecture envisioned 15 years ago by the designers of the Kyoto Protocol and raises a suite of new questions. In this new architecture, jurisdictions with emissions trading have to decide how, whether, and when to link with one another, and policymakers overseeing carbon markets must confront how to measure the comparability of efforts among markets as well as relative to a variety of other policy approaches. |
| JEL: | Q48 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18504&r=res |