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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2015‒01‒09
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Misani, Nicola; Pogutz, Stefano |
| Abstract: | We examine the roles of the outcome and process dimensions of environmental performance in determining financial performance as measured by Tobin’s q. Outcomes refer to the impacts of the firm on the natural environment, while processes are the firm’s actions to reduce these outcomes. We focus on a specific outcome—carbon emissions—and suggest that it affects Tobin’s q non-linearly. We find that firms achieve the highest financial performance when their carbon performance is neither low nor high, but intermediate. We also find that environmental processes moderate this relationship as they reinforce firms’ financial performance through improved stakeholder management. This mixed picture suggests that firms do not generally internalize the costs of poor carbon performance, but those that stand out in both environmental outcomes and processes achieve net financial benefits. These findings are based on a sample of carbon-intensive firms that disclosed their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the Carbon Disclosure Project from 2007 through 2013. |
| Keywords: | GHG emissions; climate change; environmental management; financial performance; Tobin’s q |
| JEL: | C21 L20 M13 Q20 |
| Date: | 2014–11–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60359&r=res |
| By: | Christian A. L. Hilber; Charles Palmer |
| Abstract: | We exploit a unique panel of 75 metro areas ('cities') across the globe and employ a city-fixed effects model to identify the determinants of within-city changes in air pollution concentration between 2005 and 2011. Increasing car and population densities significantly reduce air pollution concentration in city centers where air pollution induced health risks are greatest. These effects are largely confined to cities in non-OECD countries. Two possible mechanisms for the negative effect of car density are explored: (i) increasing car density permits a decentralization of residential and economic activity; and (ii) car usage substitutes for motorbike usage. We find limited evidence in favour of (i) and no evidence in favour of (ii). We also observe a complex relationship between income and pollution concentration as well as a general downward-trend in pollution concentration over time. Overall, our findings are indicative that densely populated polycentric cities may be 'greener' and 'healthier' than comparable monocentric ones. |
| Keywords: | Urbanization, urban form, decentralization, air pollution, transport, built environment |
| JEL: | Q01 Q53 R11 R41 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0169&r=res |
| By: | Rezai, Armon; van der Ploeg, Frederick |
| Abstract: | We use the Euler equation to put forward a back-on-the-envelope rule for the global carbon tax based on a two-box carbon cycle with temperature lag, and a constant elasticity of marginal damages with respect to GDP. This tax falls with time impatience and intergenerational inequality aversion and rises with population growth and prudence. It also falls with growth in living standards if inequality aversion is large enough or marginal damages do not react much to GDP. It rises in proportion with GDP if marginal climate damages are proportional to output and has a flat time profile if they are additive. The rule also allows for mean reversion in climate damages. The rule closely approximates the true optimum for our IAM of Ramsey growth, scarce fossil fuel, energy transitions and stranded assets despite it using the more complicated DICE carbon cycle and temperature modules. The simple rule gets close to the social optimum even if damages are much more convex than in DICE. |
| Keywords: | climate damage specification; intergenerational inequality aversion; optimal energy transitions; Ramsey growth; SCC; simple rule; stranded assets |
| JEL: | H21 Q51 Q54 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10292&r=res |
| By: | Malgorzata Ogonowska (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France; GREDEG CNRS); Dominique Torre (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France; GREDEG CNRS) |
| Abstract: | Awareness of the environment and the need to protect it has increased markedly in recent decades, and market actors, consumers and other stakeholders have been progressively more aware of ecological issues. Awareness of the pollution caused by mass tourism has resulted in the emergence of the concept of sustainable tourism which encompasses both environmental and societal concerns. This paper reviews work on sustainable tourism, highlighting the main issues which are illustrated by empirical examples in this new research framework. |
| Keywords: | Economics of Tourism, Environmental Economics, Sustainable Tourism, Certification, Vertical Differentiation, Stake-holders, Tourism Externalities |
| JEL: | L83 Q56 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2014-45&r=res |
| By: | Damien Sans (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS, & EHESS); Sonia Schwartz (CERDI, Université d’Auvergne); Hubert Stahn (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS, & EHESS) |
| Abstract: | In this article we introduce a polluting eco-industry. Depending on the level of the damage, we find one of two optimal equilibria. If the damage is low, we generalize the usual results of the economic literature to the polluting eco-industry: the dirty firm partially abates their emissions, only efficient eco-industry firms produce and the abatement level increases with the damage. However, we obtain very specific results if the damage is high. In this case, not all efficient eco-industry firms produce. The abatement level and the number of active eco-industry firms both decrease as the damage increases. We finally show that a well-designed Pigouvian tax implements these equilibria in a competitive economy. |
| Keywords: | Polluting Eco-Industry, Heterogeneous Örms, Welfare Analysis, Pigouvian Tax |
| JEL: | D62 Q58 L11 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1453&r=res |
| By: | Okullo, S.J. (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Reynes, F.; Hofkes, M.W. |
| Abstract: | We propose a model to reconcile the theory of inter-temporal non-renewable resource depletion with well-known stylized facts concerning the exploitation of exhaustible resources such as oil. Our approach introduces geological constraints into a Hotelling type extraction-exploration model. We show that such constraints, in combination with initially small reserves and strictly convex exploration costs, can coherently explain bell-shaped peaks in natural resource extraction and hence U-shapes in prices. As production increases, marginal profits (marginal revenues less marginal extraction cost) are observed to decline, while as production decreases, marginal profits rise at a positive rate that is not necessarily the rate of discount. A numerical calibration of the model to the world oil market shows that geological constraints have the potential to substantially increase the future oil price. While some (small) non-OPEC producers are found to increase production in response to higher oil prices induced by the geological constraints, most (large) producers’ production declines, leading to a lower peak level for global oil production. |
| Keywords: | Peak oil; Hotelling rule; Exploration; Reserve development; Geological constraints |
| JEL: | Q30 Q47 C61 C7 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:db6aecf8-bc32-478d-b0cd-138ea2ed182f&r=res |