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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2015‒08‒30
ten papers chosen by |
| By: | Tsurumi, Tetsuya; Managi, Shunsuke; Hibiki, Akira |
| Abstract: | The argument that stringent environmental regulations are generally thought to harm export flows is crucial when determining policy recommendations related to environmental preservation and international competitiveness. By using bilateral trade data, we examine the relationships between trade flows and various environmental stringency indices. Previous studies have used energy intensity, abatement cost intensity, and survey indices for regulations as proxies for the strictness of environmental policy. However, they have overlooked the indirect effect of environmental regulations on trade flows. If the strong version of the Porter hypothesis is confirmed, we need to consider the effect of environmental regulation on GDP, because GDP induced by environmental regulation affects trade flows. The present study clarifies the effects of regulation on trade flows by distinguishing between the indirect and direct effects. Our results indicate an observed non-negligible indirect effect of regulation, implying that the overall effect of appropriate regulation benefits trade flows. |
| Keywords: | Environmental regulations, Porter hypothesis, Trade and environment, Gravity model |
| JEL: | F18 Q56 Q59 |
| Date: | 2015–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66321&r=all |
| By: | Linn, Joshua (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | Compared with gasoline engines, diesel fuel engines significantly reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles, but they emit more nitrogen oxides and other pollutants. Across countries, the market share of diesel fuel engines in passenger vehicles varies from close to zero to more than 80 percent. After specifying and estimating the parameters of a model of vehicle markets spanning seven European countries, I show that vehicle taxes and demand for fuel economy, rather than fuel prices or the set of vehicles in the market, explain adoption. The model is used to compare the environmental implications of fuel taxes and carbon dioxide emissions rate standards. |
| Keywords: | vehicle demand estimation, demand for fuel economy and performance, fuel taxes, vehicle taxes, carbon dioxide emissions ratesCreation-Date: 2015-08-17 |
| JEL: | L62 Q4 Q5 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-14-08-rev&r=all |
| By: | Richard Layard |
| Abstract: | Leading thinkers across the worlds of science, public service and academia have launched a new global programme to combat climate change. Richard Layard outlines their proposal for big public investment in research that will dramatically reduce the costs of clean energy. |
| Keywords: | climate change, clean energy, government policy, renewables, R&D |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:444&r=all |
| By: | Pierre-André Jouvet (EconomiX, University of Paris Ouest, France); Julien Wolfersberger (Laboratoire d'Economie Forestière, INRA - AgroParisTech) |
| Abstract: | We study sustainable growth in an economy with natural land endowments, specifically forests, and the need for public policies to quantify the financial value of green capital, measured by forests. Exhaustible primary forests are first depleted for agriculture and production, until a switch occurs to the renewable secondary forests. The introduction of REDD+ in the economy reduces agricultural expansion, since the social planner invests in green capital, at the expense of the physical one. We show that the optimal REDD+ national strategy highly depends on the development stage of the recipient economy. In the end, we prove our findings by calibrating our model to Indonesia and illustrate recommendations for public policies. |
| Keywords: | Deforestation; Development; Forest Transition; Green capital; Growth |
| JEL: | Q15 Q23 Q32 Q56 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lef:wpaper:2015-06&r=all |
| By: | Corentin Girard (UPV - Universitat Politecnica de Valencia [Espagne] - Universitat Politécnica de Valencia); Jean-Daniel Rinaudo (BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières); Manuel Pulido-Velazquez (UPV - Universitat Politecnica de Valencia [Espagne] - Universitat Politécnica de Valencia); Yvan Caballero (BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières) |
| Abstract: | Shaping global change adaptation strategy in water resource systems requires an interdisciplinary approach to deal with the multiple dimensions of the problem. The modelling framework presented integrates climate, economic, agronomic and hydrological scenarios to design a programme of adaptation measures at the river basin scale. Future demand scenarios, combined with a down-scaled climate scenario, provide the basis to estimate the demand and water resources in 2030. A least-cost river basin optimisation model is then applied to select adaptation measures ensuring that environmental and supply management goals are achieved. In the Orb river basin (France), the least-cost portfolio selected suggests mixing demand and supply side measures to adapt to global change. Trade-offs among the cost of the programme of measures, the deficit in agricultural water supply and the level of environmental flows are investigated. The challenges to implement such interdisciplinary approaches in the definition of adaptation strategies are finally discussed. |
| Date: | 2014–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01183833&r=all |
| By: | Raouf Boucekkine (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM) - AMU - Aix-Marseille Université, IUF - Institut Universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche); Fouad El Ouardighi (ESSEC Business School - Essec Business School) |
| Abstract: | We study an optimal AK-like model of capital accumulation and growth in the presence of a negative environmental externality in the tradition of Stokey (1998). Both production and consumption activities generate polluting waste. The economy exerts a recycling effort to reduce the stock of waste. Recycling also generates income, which is fully devoted to capital accumulation. The whole problem amounts to choosing the optimal control paths for consumption and recycling to maximize a social welfare function that notably includes the waste stock and disutility from the recycling effort. We provide a mathematical analysis of both the asymptotic behavior of the optimal trajectories and the shape of transition dynamics. Numerical exercises are performed to illustrate the analysis and to highlight some of the economic implications of the model. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01126636&r=all |
| By: | Emile Quinet |
| Abstract: | Factoring sustainable development into the appraisal of investment projects is a topical issue at both the analytical and the decision-making level. In the area of analysis, we find numerous studies and research projects devoted to the assessment of environmental damage and its translation into monetary terms. The analysis concerns both “flow” damage such as pollution and noise, and “stock” damage with long-term cumulative effect, such as global warming and the reduction of biodiversity. In the area of decisionmaking, efforts are being undertaken in many countries to achieve better integration of these concerns in project appraisal and the related cost-benefit analysis. France is no exception: a working party recently set up to revise the methodology for appraising public investment projects has just completed its deliberations. It paid close attention to considerations of sustainable development and the factoring of the long term, and the present paper is based largely on its recommendations. In what follows, we shall endeavour to analyse those recommendations in the light of scientific knowledge and place them in the French institutional and politico-administrative context. |
| Date: | 2013–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaab:2013/31-en&r=all |
| By: | Silvia Cruz (State University of Campinas Campinas); Faïz Gallouj (CLERSE - CLERSE - Centre lillois d'études et de recherches sociologiques et économiques - CNRS - Université Lille 1 - Sciences et technologies); Sônia Paulino (University of Sao Paolo) |
| Abstract: | This paper is devoted to public services innovation in the municipal solid waste sector. It analyses the implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in the Bandeirantes and São João landfills in the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil. The analysis is based on the concept of Public-Private Innovation Networks in services (ServPPINs). Using the ServPPIN concept it was possible to identify competence gaps affecting the stakeholders involved in these CDM projects. We focus in particular on those organisational and relational competence gaps that are likely to weaken innovation feasibility and reduce the quality of solid waste services supply. In fact, innovation is closely linked to the development of new competences among service providers and users. For the most part, these will arise out of changes in interactions between actors-given that the projects in question include the coordination of various actors (public, private, and citizen). Such innovations will also arise out of changes in the environmental aspect, since in addition to monitoring of the technical parameters required for the general operation of landfills which implement CDM projects, auditing is also carried out by the Designated Operational Entities (DOE), which are responsible for validation of these projects. |
| Date: | 2013–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01133824&r=all |
| By: | Beyene,Abebe D.; Bluffstone,Randall; Dissanayake,Sahan; Gebreegziabher,Zenebe; Martinsson,Peter; Mekonnen,Alemu; Toman,Michael A. |
| Abstract: | This paper provides field experiment?based evidence on the potential additional forest carbon sequestration that cleaner and more fuel-efficient cookstoves might generate. The paper focuses on the Mirt (meaning ?best?) cookstove, which is used to bake injera, the staple food in Ethiopia. The analysis finds that the technology generates per-meal fuel savings of 22 to 31 percent compared with a traditional three-stone stove with little or no increase in cooking time. Because approximately 88 percent of harvests from Ethiopian forests are unsustainable, these findings suggest that the Mirt stove, and potentially improved cookstoves more generally, can contribute to reduced forest degradation. These savings may be creditable under the United Nations Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries. Because of the highly specific nature of the Mirt stove and the lack of refrigeration in rural Ethiopia, rebound effects are unlikely, but this analysis was unable completely to rule out such leakage. The conclusions are therefore indicative, pending evidence on the frequency of Mirt stove use in the field. The effects of six randomized behavioral treatments on fuelwood and cooking time outcomes were also evaluated, but limited effects were found. |
| Keywords: | Urban Environment,Energy Production and Transportation,Renewable Energy,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Environmental Economics&Policies |
| Date: | 2015–08–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7394&r=all |
| By: | Besley, Timothy J.; Leight, Jessica; Pande, Rohini; Rao, Vijayendra |
| Abstract: | Agricultural tenancy reforms have been widely enacted, but evidence on their long-run impact remains limited. In this paper, we provide such evidence by exploiting the quasi-random assignment of linguistically similar areas to different South Indian states that subsequently varied in tenancy regulation policies. Given imperfect credit markets, the impact of tenancy reform should vary by household wealth status, allowing us to exploit historic caste-based variation in landownership. Thirty years after the reforms, land inequality is lower in areas that saw greater intensity of tenancy reform, but the impact differs across caste groups. Tenancy reforms increase own-cultivation among middle-caste households, but render low-caste households more likely to work as daily agricultural laborers. At the same time, agricultural wages increase. These results are consistent with tenancy regulations increasing land sales to relatively richer and more productive middle-caste tenants, but reducing land access for poorer low-caste tenants. |
| Keywords: | inequality; Land reform; long-run impact of institutions |
| JEL: | H73 O12 Q15 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10780&r=all |