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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2013‒11‒02
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Janet Currie; Joshua S. Graff Zivin; Jamie Mullins; Matthew J. Neidell |
| Abstract: | Pollution exposure early in life is detrimental to near-term health and an increasing body of evidence suggests that early childhood health influences health and human capital outcomes later in life. This paper reviews the economic research that brings these two literatures together. We begin with a conceptual model that highlights the core relationships across the lifecycle. We then review the literature concerned with such estimates, focusing particularly on identification strategies to mitigate concerns regarding endogenous exposure. The nascent empirical literature provides both direct and indirect evidence that early childhood exposure to pollution significantly impacts later life outcomes. We discuss the potential policy implications of these long-lasting effects, and conclude with a number of promising avenues for future research. |
| JEL: | I1 I12 J24 Q5 Q53 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19571&r=res |
| By: | Rhodes, M. Taylor (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the environmental impact of sporting events by analyzing a collection of small typically geographically isolated cities which host at least one NCAA football team that competes in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in 2010. Fixed-effects regressions controlling for differences across cities and across months suggest that cities do experience an increase in pollution levels on and around game days relative to non-game days. These marginal increases were largest in November even after controlling for weather, various trends and other sources of seasonality. When hosting games in November, the corresponding percent increases in daily mortality ranged from .06 to .25% for cardiovascular mortality to .23 to .47% for respiratory mortality. |
| Keywords: | Pollution; Environmental impact; Sporting events; Mortality |
| JEL: | I18 L83 Q53 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2013–10–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2013_019&r=res |
| By: | Sven Rudolph (University of Kassel); Takeshi Kawakatsu (University of Kyoto); Achim Lerch (Hessian University of Cooperative Education) |
| Abstract: | Despite President Obama’s current interest in climate policy, market-based climate policy on the US federal level still appears to be deadlocked. The same is true for Canada, which has aligned its climate policy to the US. However, regional activities are more promising as British Columbia and California have started using market-based approaches recently. Against this background, the paper asks: Can state level market-based climate policy be a sustainable alternative or sup-plement to federal action? Which of the two programs does better in terms of fulfilling ambitious sustainability criteria? How can the programs be improved? In order to answer these questions, in a comparative fashion, the paper analyzes the design and the results of the British Columbia Carbon Tax and the California Cap-and-Trade Program and evaluates them based on sustainability criteria. By doing so, the paper provides a comparative evaluation of two North American sub-national level market-based climate policy programs, shows the significance and the challenges of such regional initiatives, identifies best-practice design elements, and provides recommendations for regional market-based climate policy design. |
| Keywords: | Climate Policy Instruments, Emissions Trading, Carbon Tax, USA, Canada, California, British Columbia |
| JEL: | D62 D63 Q48 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201345&r=res |
| By: | Amigues, Jean-Pierre; Moreaux, Michel |
| Abstract: | Inside a standard growth model with exhaustible resources, we study the optimal growth policy of an economy submitted to a climate constraint, taking the form of a ceiling over admissible atmospheric carbon concentrations. The optimal scenario is a three phases path: a rise of carbon concentrations until the carbon cap is attained followed by a time phase constrained by the ceiling on possible emissions and a last unconstrained phase of resource depletion. Depending upon the primitives of the model we show that the optimal path may be of two main kinds: paths characterized by a positive growth of the economy and paths corresponding to a complex structural adjustment process involving negative growth during some time interval. |
| Keywords: | Carbon pollution; economic growth; exhaustible resources |
| JEL: | Q00 Q32 Q43 Q54 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:27656&r=res |
| By: | Herman R.J. Vollebergh (CentER and Tilburg Sustainability Centre, Tilburg University, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, CESifo); Edwin van der Werf (Wageningen University, CESifo) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to help policy makers identify how standards can contribute to the effective and cost-efficient development and deployment of eco-innovations (innovations that result in a reduction of environmental impact). To that end we discuss what standards are, how the process of standardization works, and how standards are related to induced innovation and diffusion in different type of markets, e.g. markets for add-on technologies versus markets for integrated resource- or emission-saving technologies. This broad perspective enables us to identify interesting economic dimensions of standards, such as their contribution to positive network externalities, and the extent to which they are substitutes or complements to environmental policy instruments. Finally we discuss how governments might contribute to eco-innovation by selecting, stimulating or creating (inter)national standards. |
| Keywords: | Standards, Technological Change, Eco-innovation, Environmental Policy Instruments |
| JEL: | Q38 Q55 Q58 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2013.74&r=res |
| By: | Valentina Bosetti (Università Commerciale “L. Bocconi”, IGIER and FEEM); Marco Maffezzoli (Università Commerciale “L. Bocconi” and IGIER) |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first attempt, to the best of our knowledge, to study the impact of a carbon tax by means of a heterogeneous agents model. The objectives of the paper are two: i) To assess how the results of a representative agent model compare to those coming from a model accounting for heterogeneity across agents when evaluating aggregate economic and environmental impacts of a carbon tax; ii) To assess the distributional implications of a carbon tax (and equivalent cap) and how they can be mitigated through different recycling schemes or allocations. |
| Keywords: | Carbon Tax, Double Dividend, Heterogeneous Agents Model |
| JEL: | Q58 Q54 E2 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2013.72&r=res |