|
on Resource Economics |
|
Issue of 2016‒04‒04
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Marianna Gilli (University of Ferrara, Italy.); Giovanni Marin (IRCrES-CNR, Milano, Italy.); Massimiliano Mazzanti (University of Ferrara, Italy.); Francesco Nicolli (IRCrES-CNR, Milano, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | Industrial development has always been seen as the main engine for economic growth due to its large economic multiplier and technological opportunities. However, manufacturing sectors are directly and indirectly responsible for a large share of overall environmental pressures, raising concerns for the environmental sustainability of manufacturing-based development. In this paper we evaluate the drivers and decoupling trends of environmental pressures arising (directly or indirectly) from manufacturing production and consumption for a large selection of developed and developing countries. As a first step we decompose changes in emission intensity of manufacturing sectors into a series of components by means of a shift-share analysis to identify the main drivers of change. A second step will compare direct environmental pressures generated by manufacturing sectors (production perspective) with the amount of emissions generated (domestically and abroad) by the domestic consumption of manufacturing goods (production perspective). Finally, we evaluate the possible emergence of an EKC dynamics for production and consumption perspective emissions for the world as a whole and for different continents. |
| Keywords: | industrial development, environmental efficiency, shift share analysis, production-consumption perspective, environmental Kuznets curve |
| JEL: | Q55 Q56 O19 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0216&r=res |
| By: | Baumgärtner, Stefan; Drupp, Moritz A.; Meya, Jasper N.; Munz, Jan M.; Quaas, Martin F. |
| Abstract: | We study how the distribution of income among members of society, and income inequality in particular, affects social willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental public goods. We find that social WTP for environmental goods increases with mean income, and decreases (increases) with income inequality if and only if environmental goods and manufactured goods are substitutes (complements). Furthermore, social WTP for environmental normally changes more elastically with mean income than with income inequality. We derive adjustment factors for benefit transfer to control for differences in income distributions between a study site and a policy site. For illustration, we quantify how social WTP for environmental public goods depends on the respective income distribution for empirical case studies in Sweden, China and the World. We find that the effects of adjusting for income inequality can be substantial. |
| Keywords: | environmental goods,public goods,income distribution,inequality,willingness to pay,benefit transfer,sustainability policy |
| JEL: | Q51 D63 H23 H43 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cauewp:201604&r=res |
| By: | Francesco Bogliacino; Cristiano Codagnone; Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri; Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva; George Gaskell; Andriy Ivchenko |
| Abstract: | This article presents the results of a laboratory experiment and an online multi-country experiment testing the effect of motor vehicle eco-labels on consumers. The laboratory study featured a discrete choice task and questions on comprehension, while the ten countries online experiment included measures of willingness to pay and comprehension. Labels focusing on fuel economy or running costs are better understood, and influence choice about money-related eco-friendly behaviour. We suggest that this effect comes through mental accounting of fuel economy. In the absence of a cost saving frame, we do not find a similar effect of information on CO2 emissions and eco-friendliness. Labels do not perform as well as promotional materials. Being embedded into a setting, which is designed to capture the attention, the latter are more effective. We found also that large and expensive cars tend to be undervalued once fuel economy is highlighted. |
| Keywords: | eco-label; nudge; willingness to pay; fuel economy; experiments |
| JEL: | C9 D3 Q56 Q58 |
| Date: | 2016–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000178:014330&r=res |
| By: | Rhiannon Jerch; Matthew E. Kahn; Shanjun Li |
| Abstract: | Local governments spend roughly $1.6 trillion per year to provide a variety of public services ranging from police and fire protection to public schools and public transit. However, we know little about public sector’s productivity in delivering key services. To understand the productivity both over time and across space, we examine public bus service, which represents a standardized output for benchmarking the cost of local government service provision. There is significant dispersion across transit agencies in the operating cost per bus mile with the highest being more than three times as high as the lowest among top 20 largest cities by population. We estimate the cost savings from privatization and explore the political economy of why privatization rates are lower in high cost unionized areas. Our analysis finds that the full privatizaton could result in cost savings of $5.7 billion in 2011 and that the gain in economic efficiency from more closely aligning bus fares with production costs would be worth at least half a billion dollars. |
| JEL: | J3 J45 R4 R5 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22088&r=res |
| By: | Christophe Muller (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); Huijie Yan (LEA, Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Languages, and Social Sciences, Aix-Marseille University) |
| Abstract: | Because of recent concerns about the negative externalities of traditional fuel use on the environment and health, the issue of the household fuel transition in developing countries, from dirty fuels towards clean fuels, has received growing research attention. This paper provides an up-to-date survey of the economic literature on household fuel use in these countries. First, we present the conceptual and theoretical frameworks. Then, we discuss the empirical results that show how a wide range of factors drive the household fuel transition. Finally, we suggest priorities for policy initiatives and highlight areas of future research. |
| Keywords: | household decisions,fuel transition,energy consumption |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01290714&r=res |
| By: | Takumi Motoyama (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the process of economic development in an overlapping generations model where higher physical capital involves pollution and deteriorates the productivity of education. In this setting, households may not invest into education and multiple steady states of the physical/human capital ratio can arise, leading long-run production with low initial endowment (physical capital) to be higher than that with high initial endowment. This occurs because, owing to the low productivity of education caused by pollution, only physical capital accumulation occurs with high initial endowment, while physical and human capital accumulation occur with low initial endowment. This result is consistent with the resource curse. We also show that higher abatement technology can solve the resource curse problem since it helps households redirect physical capital accumulation toward human capital accumulation. |
| Keywords: | Semiconductor Human capital, Pollution, Resource curse |
| JEL: | I15 O13 Q52 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1603&r=res |