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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2013‒08‒31
ten papers chosen by |
| By: | Sen, Anindita |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the effect of intra-industry trade in an environmental-quality differentiated good on the pollution level in a two-country framework when there are strategic interactions between the firms in the two countries. The pro-competitive effect of intra-industry trade expands the scale of production and, therefore, increases pollution in both the countries. Effect on the strategic choice of environmental qualities of the good is, on the other hand, asymmetric for the two producers. Impact of environmental policies like pollution content production tax and tariff on trade and pollution levels are also studied. . |
| Keywords: | Intra-Industry trade, environmental pollution, environmental standard |
| JEL: | F18 Q00 |
| Date: | 2013–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49167&r=res |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | This working paper assesses national policy and governance mechanisms that can influence green growth in Chinese cities. It applies the OECD conceptual framework for urban green growth to examine the potential challenges and opportunities for increasing economic growth through reducing the environmental impact of urban land use, transport and buildings; through improving water and air quality; and through fostering supply and demand of green products and services. The paper first situates the issue of green growth within the nexus of urbanisation and environmental challenges now facing China. This is followed by a review of environmental and quality of life challenges posed by rapid urbanisation. Opportunities for national policies to influence green growth in four key urban policy sectors are then examined. The paper concludes with an assessment of governance challenges and considers potential changes to facilitate economic growth while reducing the environmental impact of cities. |
| Keywords: | sustainable development, innovation, transport, renewable energy, China, climate change, energy efficiency, urban sustainability, cities, green technologies, green growth, green economy, multi-level governance, urban development, regional clusters, green cities, attractiveness, metro-region |
| JEL: | O18 O44 Q01 Q55 Q58 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2013–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:govaab:2013/7-en&r=res |
| By: | Kostka, Genia |
| Abstract: | China's national leaders have recently set ambitious goals to restructure and diversify the economy towards a more resource-efficient and sustainable growth path. To address the growing national environment and energy concerns, leaders introduced several binding environmental targets for government departments and large enterprises. The heavy reliance on a target-based implementation approach raises questions about the effectiveness of this strategy in the short and long run for environmental governance in China. Based on fieldwork in Jiangsu, Hunan, and Shandong provinces in 2012, this paper studies the desirable and undesirable outcomes of binding environmental targets in China's evolving green planning system. This paper argues that environmental targets have a signaling function that has resulted in ecological issues movement onto local governments' core policy agendas. However, in the nascent green planning system, classic planning problems have generated undesirable consequences such that that environmental targets are not always achieving their intended goals. Strategic and cyclical behavior by local government officials in leadership positions often lead to short-term maximization actions instead of long-term innovative environmental management. This analysis of local leaders' responses to top-down targets aims to generate a more realistic picture of what binding environmental targets can and cannot achieve. -- |
| Keywords: | environmental policy implementation,regulation,command and control instruments,targets,China,authoritarian environmentalism |
| JEL: | Q48 Q28 Q00 P21 O21 R58 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fsfmwp:201&r=res |
| By: | Wayne B. Gray; Ronald J. Shadbegian; Chunbei Wang; Merve Cebi |
| Abstract: | The popular belief is that environmental regulation must reduce employment, since suchregulations are expected to increase production costs, which would raise prices and thus reducedemand for output, at least in a competitive market. Although this effect might seem obvious, a careful microeconomic analysis shows that it is not guaranteed. Even if environmental regulation reduces output in the regulated industry, abating pollution could require additional labor (e.g. to monitor the abatement capital and meet EPA reporting requirements). It is also possible for pollution abatement technologies to be labor enhancing. In this paper we analyze how a particular EPA regulation, the so-called “Cluster Rule” (CR) imposed on the pulp and paper industry in 2001, affected employment in that sector. Using establishment level data from the Census of Manufacturers and Annual Survey of Manufacturers at the U.S. Census Bureau from 1992-2007 we find evidence of small employment declines (on the order of 3%-7%), which are sometimes statistically significant, at a subset of the plants covered by the CR. |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:13-39&r=res |
| By: | Marcelo Caffera; Carlos Chávez; Analia Ardente |
| Abstract: | We study individual compliance behavior with respect to a legal norm in an experimental setting under two different regulatory instruments: emission standards and tradable pollution permits. Compliance to the same set of standards and expected permit holdings was induced with different structures of the fine schedule, namely: a linear and a strictly convex penalty function. Even though our design induces perfect compliance, we find that there are violations in both emissions standards and tradable permits systems, regardless of the penalty structure. Nevertheless, the extent of violations is affected by the penalty parameters under emissions standards, but not under a tradable pollution permits. Notwithstanding, we find that the penalty design has an effect on the average price of permits traded, its dispersion and the number of trades. |
| Keywords: | Environmental policy, enforcement, penalty structure, emissions standards, emissions trading, laboratory experiments |
| JEL: | C91 L51 Q58 K42 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnt:wpaper:1305&r=res |
| By: | Blanco Orozco, Napoleón Vicente; Zuniga Gonzalez, Carlos Alberto |
| Abstract: | In this article the Bio economy of power plants connected to the national interconnected system of Nicaragua is analyzed, through the study of environmental effects of greenhouse gases emissions from the use of solid biomass from sugarcane bagasse and oil to generate electricity. In addition, an analysis of Cost - Benefit of investments to the electricity generation using fossil fuel and bagasse is done. The Methodology EX-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) was used; this methodology was proposed by the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) to determine the overall greenhouse gases (GHG) emission balance. Additionally, the WinDASI program, also developed by FAO, was used for the Cost - Benefit Analysis of investment in power plants. Furthermore, we performed marginal costing GHG reduction. The results show, that all plants are sources of GHG emissions, however the impact of sugar mills is partially positive by reforestation components and annual crops. However, the component inputs had negative environmental and socially impact. In the case of thermal power generation plants based on petroleum connected to the national grid, they were found to be sources of greenhouse gases. The analysis of the Benefit Cost in their investment indicates that there is a positive financially impact except in ALBANISA power plant and sugar Mills power plants. |
| Keywords: | WinDASI program, Biomass, Bio Economy, Oil fuel, Energy |
| JEL: | L23 L65 Q16 Q43 Q51 |
| Date: | 2013–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49357&r=res |
| By: | Rabia Manzoor (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad); Ghulam Samad (Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Islamabad.) |
| Abstract: | Policy-makers advocate a fundamental shift towards “Green Growth” as the new qualitatively different growth paradigm. This paper illustrates the green growth perspective of Pakistan to address the question of achieving sustainable green growth in the context of green/environmental technology to maintain and restore the environmental quality and ecological integrity, while meeting the needs of all people with the lowest possible environmental impacts. Pakistan needs both development and access to green technologies that will facilitate the transition to less carbon intensive economy to address the green growth. At this stage it is very important to understand the Pakistan existing level of organisations/institutions to understand their coping strategies. Therefore, the primarily objective of this study is sustainable development in the preamble of green growth/economy perspective of Pakistan. The focused area would be Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), Research and Development (R&D), and Environmental Taxations. We will survey all the related organisations in Pakistan, which are directly or indirectly related to the green growth developmental agenda induced by IPRs, R&D, and Environmental Taxation. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, Sustainable Development |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pid:ceeccp:2013:04&r=res |
| By: | Ruiz Estrada, Mario Arturo |
| Abstract: | Global climate change has a potentially large impact on economic growth but measuring their economic impact is subject to a great deal of uncertainty. The central objective of our paper is to set forth a model – the macroeconomics evaluation of climate change (MECC) model – to evaluate the impact of climate change on GNP growth. The model is based on five basic indicators – (i) the climate change growth rates (αi); (ii) the national climate change vulnerability rate (ΩT); (iii) the climate change magnitude rate (Π); (iv) the economic desgrowth rate (δ); (v) and the CC-Surface. In addition, we apply the MECC Model to the case of China to evaluate its impact on the Chinese economy. |
| Keywords: | Climate change, economic desgrowth, China |
| JEL: | O4 O40 Q54 |
| Date: | 2013–08–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49158&r=res |
| By: | Mareike Lange; César Freddy Suarez |
| Abstract: | It is still difficult for biofuel producers to prove the contribution of their biofuels to reducing carbon emissions because the production of biofuel feedstocks can cause land use change (LUC), which in turn causes carbon emissions. A carbon map can serve as a basis to proof such contribution. We show how to calculate a carbon map according to the sustainability requirements for biofuel production adopted by the European Commission (EU-RED) for the Llanos Orientales in Colombia. Based on the carbon map and the carbon balance of the production process we derive maps showing the possible emission savings that would be generated by biofuels based on palm, soy and sugar cane if an area were to be converted to produce feedstock for these biofuel options. We evaluate these maps according to the criterion contained in the EU-RED of 35% minimum emission savings for each biofuel option compared to its fossil alternative. In addition, to avoid indirect LUC effects of the EURED that might offset any contribution of biofuels to reducing carbon emissions, we argue that all agricultural production should be subject to sustainability assessments. In this effort, our carbon map can be the basis for a sustainable land use planning that is binding for all agricultural production in the coun |
| Keywords: | biofuels, carbon emissions, Renewable Energy Directive, carbon map, land use change, Colombia |
| JEL: | Q42 Q58 Q56 Q16 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1864&r=res |
| By: | Dante Aldrighi; Renato P. Colistete |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a long-run analysis of industrial growth and structural change in Brazil, from the coffee export economy in the nineteenth century to the present day. We focus on Brazil’s high economic growth in most of the twentieth century and the disruption caused by the collapse of debt-led growth in the early 1980s. We then examine the recent trends in economic growth and structural change, with a sectoral analysis of output, employment and productivity growth. Employing new data and estimates, we identify a sharp break with the earlier period of high outuput and productivity growth in Brazil’s manufacturing industry before the 1980s. From the 1990s, the relatively successful process of learning and technological advance by manufacturing firms that took place since the early industrialization has lost strength and Brazil’s productivity growth has declined and stagnated. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Growth; Structural Change; Brazil |
| JEL: | N66 O14 L60 |
| Date: | 2013–08–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2013wpecon10&r=res |