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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2014‒07‒13
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Bohringer, Christoph; Rutherford, Thomas F.; Tarr, David G.; Turdyeva, Natalia |
| Abstract: | This report investigates the environmental impacts of Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization. A 10-region, 30-sector model of the Russian economy is developed. The model is innovative and more accurate empirically in that it contains foreign direct investment, imperfectly competitive sectors, and endogenous productivity effects triggered by World Trade Organization accession along with environmental emissions data in Russia for seven pollutants that are tracked for all 30 sectors in each of the 10 regions. The decomposition analysis shows that despite the fact that World Trade Organization accession allows Russia to import better technologies and reduce pollution from the"technique effect,"on balance World Trade Organization accession alone will increase environmental pollution in Russia through a shift toward dirty industries (the"composition effect") and the expansion of output with its associated increase in pollution ("scale effect"). The paper assesses the costs of three types of environmental regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent. The paper simultaneously implements a central case scenario with each of the carbon dioxide emission reduction policy initiatives. The analysis finds that the welfare gains of World Trade Organization accession are large enough to pay for the costs of any of the three environmental abatement policies, while leaving a net welfare gain. But the political economy implications are that the non-market-based policies are more costly and the command and control policy, which is not well targeted, is very costly. Based on a constant returns to scale model, the estimated welfare gains are insufficient to finance the costs of environmental regulation. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics&Policies,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Climate Change Economics,Economic Theory&Research,Environment and Energy Efficiency |
| Date: | 2014–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6957&r=res |
| By: | Golub, Alexander; Toman, Michael |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the possibility of environmental"development traps,"or"brown poverty traps,"caused by interactions between the impacts of climate change and increasing returns in the development of"clean-technology"sectors. A simple specification is used in which the economy can produce a single homogeneous consumption good with two different technologies. In the"old"sector, technology has global diminishing returns to scale and depends on the use of fossil energy that gives rise to long-lived, damaging climate change. In the"new"sector, the technology has convex-concave production and is not dependent on the polluting energy input. If the new sector does not grow fast enough to move through the phase of increasing returns, then the economy may linger at a low level of income indefinitely or it may achieve greater progress but then get driven back down to a lower level of income by environmental degradation. Stimulating growth in the new sector thus may be a key element for avoiding an environmental poverty trap and achieving higher, sustained income levels. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Climate Change Economics,Economic Growth |
| Date: | 2014–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6951&r=res |
| By: | Lorenzo Cerda Planas (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper intends to provide an alternative explanation of why societies behave differently from an environmental point of view. To do so, I use a Kantian moral approach at a microeconomic level. Under this premise, I show that two identical societies (according to income and political system) might follow different paths with respect to their "green" behaviour. Additionally, I identify tipping points that could nudge a society from a polluting behaviour to a green one. I find that environmental perception as well as how governments are elected can be important factors in this shift. |
| Keywords: | Environmental motivation, Kantian morale, green behaviour, tipping points. |
| JEL: | Q50 D64 H41 C62 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:14035&r=res |
| By: | Anastasia Litina (CREA, Université de Luxembourg); Simone Moriconi (Università Cattolica di Milano, Italy); Skerdilajda Zanaj (CREA, Université de Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper theoretically and empirically advances the hypothesis that differences in environmental preferences can be traced to cultural differences. In particular, we argue that environmental attitudes such as the willingness to pay for the environment are not solely the effect of local environmental conditions on individual attitudes. On the contrary, we establish that they can also be accounted for by cultural differences accross countries. To establish our hypothesis we exploit the natural experiment of international migration flows and establish that the environmental culture of migrants, as has been formed in their country of origin and transmitted accross generations, is still prevalent in the host country. Interestingly these culture differences with respect to environmental awareness are prevalent despite the fact that all migrants in a host country are exposed to the same local environment. In the presence of multiple environmental problems that require collective action, comprehending the driving forces behind the formation of an environmental culture, a potential driver of environmental policies, is critical. |
| Keywords: | Cultural Transmission, Migration, Environmental Preferences |
| JEL: | Q50 Q58 R23 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:14-12&r=res |