|
on Resource Economics |
|
Issue of 2013‒03‒02
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Akay, Alpaslan; Brereton, Finbarr; Cunado, Juncal; Ferreira, Susana; Martinsson, Peter; Moro, Mirko; Ningal, Tine F |
| Abstract: | Concerns for environmental quality and its impact on people's welfare are fundamental arguments for the adoption of environmental legislation in most countries. In this paper, we analyse the relationship between air quality and subjective well-being in Europe. We use a unique dataset that merges three waves of the European Social Survey with a new dataset on environmental quality including SO2 concentrations and climate in Europe at the regional level. We find a robust negative impact of SO2 concentrations on self-reported life satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | GIS; European Social Survey; Europe; Life Satisfaction; Subjective Well-Being; SO2 Concentrations; Air Quality |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stl:stledp:2013-02&r=res |
| By: | Buchholz, Wolfgang; Schymura, Michael |
| Abstract: | The evaluation of long-term effects of climate change in cost-benefit analysis has a long tradition in environmental economics. Since the publication of the Stern Review in 2006 the debate about the appropriate discounting of future welfare and utility levels was revived and the most renowned scholars of the profession participated in this debate. In two recent contributions in Environmental and Resource Economics, there was dispute about intertemporal welfare economics between Partha Dasgupta and John Roemer about the correct interpretation of the topic. The aim of this work is to bring together economic and philosophical reasoning about justice and intergenerational equity in the context of climate change. So we adopt the normative view in order to present the most important ethical issues that, particularly in the context of climate policy, are most relevant for the choice of intertemporal discounting. Subsequently we explore whether ethical considerations may also be helpful to justify pure social discounting per se. -- |
| Keywords: | Intertemporal ethics,Distribution,Discounting,Climate Change |
| JEL: | Q53 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13008&r=res |
| By: | Meredith Fowlie; Nicholas Muller |
| Abstract: | Much of the air pollution currently regulated under U.S. emissions trading programs is non-uniformly mixed, meaning that health and environmental damages depend on the location and dispersion characteristics of the sources. Existing policy regimes ignore this fact. Emissions are penalized at a single permit price, regardless of the location of the source. In theory, differentiated policies can be designed to accommodate non-uniformly mixed pollution using emissions penalties that vary with emissions damages. Under perfect certainty, damage-based policy differentiation is unambiguously welfare improving. In the presence of uncertainty about damages and abatement costs, differentiated policies need not welfare dominate simpler, undifferentiated designs. Using rich data from a major U.S. emissions trading program, we estimate the welfare impacts of policy differentiation. Surprisingly, we find that differentiated emissions trading results in welfare loss as compared to the undifferentiated trading regime that was implemented. This result manifests because ex post realized abatement costs appear to have exceeded expectations. We further show that, in this context, a differentiated price-based policy welfare dominates the differentiated quantity-based alternative. |
| JEL: | Q58 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18801&r=res |
| By: | Bruno Lanz (ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Thomas F. Rutherford (ETH Zurich, Switzerland); John E. Tilton (Colorado School of Mines, USA) |
| Abstract: | Subglobal climate policies induce changes in international competitiveness and favor a relocation of carbon-emitting activities to non-abating regions. In this paper, we evaluate the potential for CO2 abatement and the emissions `leakage' effect in the copper industry, a prominent energy-intensive trade-exposed sector. We formulate a plant-level spatial equilibrium model for copper commodities in which parameters describing the behavioral response of agents are calibrated to econometric estimates of price elasticities. We find producers and consumers to be price inelastic even in the long-run, making the copper industry unresponsive to climate policies. Monte Carlo simulations with our model based on statistical uncertainty on elasticity estimates suggest that around 30% of emissions reductions in industrialized countries would be compensated by an increase of emissions in non-abating countries. |
| Keywords: | Carbon leakage; Pollution haven effect; Climate policy; International environmental agreements; International trade; Copper industry. |
| JEL: | F18 F55 H23 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:13-174&r=res |
| By: | Maike Schmitt |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the relation between air quality and subjective well-being in Germany. Life Satisfaction (LS) data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) is connected with daily county pollution in terms of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) from 1998 to 2008. The assumed microeconometric happiness function is estimated considering individual time invariant effects. It is observed that O3 has a significant negative impact on life satisfaction. The estimated influence of current CO as well as NO2 is not significant. Moreover, I found that LS of people with environmental worries is more affected by ozone pollution. This was not the case for people with a bad health status. Using the marginal rate of substitution between income and air pollution, it is calculated that an increase of one µg/m3 in daily average county O3 has to be compensated by an increase of €11.33 in monthly net household income to hold an average individual's LS constant. |
| Keywords: | Life satisfaction, air pollution, environmental quality |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp541&r=res |
| By: | Martin Wörter (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Tobias Stucki (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Christian Soltmann (Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | While recent literature has focused on explaining the determinants of green innovations, it is not well understood how such innovations affect performance. To analyse the relationship between green innovation and performance, new industry-level panel data were exploited: these include 12 OECD countries, the whole manufacturing sector and a period of 30 years. The results show that green inventions are U-shape related to performance. However, the turning point is quite high and hence only relevant for a few industries. This indicates that - given the current level of green promotion - market incentives alone are not sufficient to allow the green invention activities of industries to rise considerably. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, R&D, patents, environment, technological change, performance |
| JEL: | O30 O34 Q55 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:13-330&r=res |