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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2020‒12‒14
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Aditya Goenka (University of Birmingham); Lin Liu (University of Liverpool); Nguyen, Manh-Hung (Toulouse School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Preliminary evidence indicates that pollution increases severity and likelihood of Covid- 19 infections as is the for many other infectious diseases. This paper models the interaction of pollution and preventive actions on transmission of infectious diseases in a neoclassical growth framework where households do not take into account how their actions affects disease transmission and production activity results in pollution which increases likelihood of infections. Household can take private actions for abatement of pollution as for controlling disease transmission. Disease dynamics follow SIS dynamics. We study the difference in health and economic outcomes between the decentralized economy, where households do not internalize the externalities, and the socially optimal outcomes, and characterize the taxes and subsidies that will decentralize the socially optimal outcomes. Thus, we examine the question whether there are sufficient incentives to reduce pollution, both at the private and public levels, once its effects on disease transmission is taken into account. |
| Keywords: | Covid-19, pollution, environmental policy, infectious disease, Green Recovery, dynamic Pigovian taxes |
| JEL: | I15 Q53 H23 E22 C61 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:20-29&r=all |
| By: | Steven Bond-Smith (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin University); Rebecca Cassells (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin University); Alan S Duncan (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin University); Astghik Mavisakalyan (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin University); Silvia Salazar (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin University); Maria Sandoval-Guzman (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin Business School); Richard Seymour (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin University); Chris Twomey (Western Australian Council of Social Service (WACOSS) and Bankwest Curtin Centre, Curtin Business School) |
| Abstract: | Green Shoots: Opportunities to grow a sustainable WA economy, the fifth report in the Focus on Industry series, looks at the green economy, taking stock of the current environmental footprint and development of ‘green’ sectors as well as identifying opportunities to grow a sustainable and diverse Western Australian economy. The challenges brought by climate change have highlighted the significant pressure we put on our resources. The pollution of our air, growing water scarcity and the increasing amount of waste has accelerated the loss of biodiversity and caused growing health concerns in our community. At the same time Western Australia is at a critical juncture in developing its long-term strategy to drive economic and social progress. It is important that our economy has the opportunity to thrive, but doing so in a responsible and sustainable way that respects our natural environment. The report’s findings look at the challenges in balancing economic prosperity with environmental sustainability, and provides a roadmap for Western Australia to transition to a more sustainable and resilient economic future. |
| Keywords: | Western Australia, green diversification, regional development, solar power, environmental impact, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions |
| JEL: | Q20 Q28 Q42 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ozl:bcecrs:fi05&r=all |
| By: | Bruno Conte; Klaus Desmet; Dávid Krisztián Nagy; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg |
| Abstract: | This paper quantitatively assesses the world's changing economic geography and sectoral specialization due to global warming. It proposes a two-sector dynamic spatial growth model that incorporates the relation between economic activity, carbon emissions, and temperature. The model is taken to the data at the 1º by 1º resolution for the entire world. Over a 200-year horizon, rising temperatures consistent with emissions under Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 push people and economic activity northwards to Siberia, Canada, and Scandinavia. Compared to a world without climate change, clusters of agricultural specialization shift from Central Africa, Brazil, and India's Ganges Valley, to Central Asia, parts of China and northern Canada. Equatorial latitudes that lose agriculture specialize more in nonagriculture but, due to their persistently low productivity, lose population. By the year 2200, predicted losses in real GDP and utility are 6% and 15%, respectively. Higher trade costs make adaptation through changes in sectoral specialization more costly, leading to less geographic concentration in agriculture and larger climate-induced migration. |
| Keywords: | climate change; quantitative economic geography; spatial growth |
| JEL: | O4 Q54 R13 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1221&r=all |
| By: | Christa D. Court (Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida); Elham Erfanian (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University) |
| Abstract: | The World Economic Forum has consistently ranked water crises as one of the top five most impactful issues facing humanity, alongside but not completely separate from issues such as climate change and natural disasters (World Economic Forum, 2019). A growing population and changing climate will only further stress the constrained water system. Acute and ongoing societal disruptions, caused by significant declines in the available quality and quantity of fresh water around the globe, underscore the importance of water to human life and a functional society. The papers in this special issue highlight the role that regional scientists can and should play in informed decision-making related to water at the local, regional, and national scale. |
| Keywords: | Water, Regional Science, Integrated Analysis, Open Science |
| JEL: | Y2 Q25 R1 |
| Date: | 2019–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rri:wpaper:2019rp04&r=all |
| By: | Aronsson, Thomas (Department of Economics, Umeå University); Johansson-Stenman, Olof (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg) |
| Abstract: | Existing research on optimal taxation in economies with status-driven relative consumption assumes that the labor market is competitive, despite the fact that real world labor markets are typically characterized by involuntary unemployment. We show how the marginal tax policy ought to be modified to simultaneously account for positional consumption externalities and equilibrium unemployment, and find that interaction effects between these two market failures are crucial determinants of the marginal tax structure. In certain cases, the policy incentive to tax away positional externalities vanishes completely, and negative positional externalities may even lead to lower marginal taxation, under involuntary unemployment. |
| Keywords: | Optimal taxation; relative consumption; externalities; unemployment |
| JEL: | D62 D90 H21 H23 J64 |
| Date: | 2020–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0983&r=all |