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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2018‒10‒08
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Ray Chaudhuri, A. (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Benchekroun, H.; Breton, Michele |
| Abstract: | We examine the profitability of horizontal mergers within nonrenewable resource industries, which account for a large proportion of merger activities worldwide. Each firm owns a private stock of the resource and uses open-loop strategies when choosing its extraction path. We analytically show that even a small merger (merger of 2 firms) is always profitable when the resource stock owned by each firm is small enough. In the case where pollution is generated by the industry's activity, we show that an environmental policy that increases the firms' production cost or reduces their selling price can deter a merger. This speeds up the industry's extraction and thereby causes emissions to occur earlier than under a laissez-faire scenario. |
| Keywords: | exhaustible resources; horizontal mergers; environmental regulation; differential games |
| JEL: | Q39 L41 Q58 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:0900f396-d440-4db5-9102-a56c8a0d07d6&r=res |
| By: | Liu, Zhongyuan; Dorfman, Jeffrey H.; Bergstrom, John C.; Chen, Huiguang |
| Keywords: | Environmental and Nonmarket Valuation, Household and Labor Economics, Behavioral & Institutional Economics |
| Date: | 2018–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea18:274008&r=res |
| By: | Coria, Jessica (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Hennlock, Magnus (Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL),); Sterner, Thomas |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the effects of the interaction between national and local policies designed to reduce an environmental externality that causes environmental damages both nationally and locally. We formulate a theoretical model to develop hypotheses regarding the combined effects of such policies on the stringency of the local policies and on firms’ emissions reductions. To test our hypotheses, we use actual data for Sweden, where emissions of nitrogen oxides from combustion plants are subject to a heavy national tax and to individual emissions standards set by county authorities. Our analytical findings suggest that it is unlikely that local regulators will impose emissions standards stringent enough to achieve further reductions than those induced by the national tax. This is confirmed in our data, where most emissions reductions can be attributed to the national tax and the effects of the emissions standards are not significant. |
| Keywords: | environmental regulation; multi-governance; federalism; emission taxes; command-and-control; air pollution; N0x; Sweden |
| JEL: | D62 H23 H77 Q58 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0742&r=res |
| By: | Broberg, Thomas (CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics); Egüez, Alejandro (CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics); Kažukauskas, Andrius (CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics) |
| Abstract: | Incomplete information may be one reason why some households do not invest in energy efficiency even though it would benefit them to do so. Energy performance certificates (EPCs) have been promoted to overcome such information shortages. In this paper, we investigate whether EPCs together with mandatory home energy audits make households more likely to invest in energy efficiency. Our study takes advantage of the mandatory nature of the EPCs to avoid the potential selection bias problem that typically applies to studies using voluntary energy audits as the treatment. Our treatment group consists of single-household dwellings in Sweden sold from 2008, i.e., when EPCs became legally required in connection with sales of residential buildings, to 2015; while the control group consists of houses sold between 2002 and 2008, i.e., without an EPC. The results show that there is no statistically significant treatment effect for most of the measures that a household can take to improve the energy performance of their house. |
| Keywords: | energy performance certificate (EPC); home energy audits; quasi-natural experimental design; incomplete information; investment decision; energy efficiency gap; policy evaluation |
| JEL: | D83 Q41 Q48 |
| Date: | 2018–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2018_008&r=res |