nep-res New Economics Papers
on Resource Economics
Issue of 2021‒01‒25
four papers chosen by



  1. Adoption of environment-friendly agricultural practices with background risk: experimental evidence By Marianne Lefebvre; Estelle Midler; Philippe Bontems
  2. Common pool resource management and risk perceptions By Can Askan Mavi; Nicolas Quérou
  3. Eco-Innovation and Employment: A Task-Based Analysis By Elliott, Robert J. R.; Kuai, Wenjing; Maddison, David; Ozgen, Ceren
  4. Infrastructure and Urban Form By Edward L. Glaeser

  1. By: Marianne Lefebvre (GRANEM - Groupe de Recherche Angevin en Economie et Management - UA - Université d'Angers - AGROCAMPUS OUEST - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - Institut National de l'Horticulture et du Paysage); Estelle Midler (Osnabrück University); Philippe Bontems (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)
    Abstract: Agriculture is one of the economic sectors most exposed to exogenous risks such as climate hazards and price volatility on agricultural markets. Agricultural policies targeting the adoption of environment-friendly but potentially risk-increasing practices cannot ignore this challenge. Farmers have indeed to decide if they take the foreground risk associated with the adoption of environment-friendly practices, while simultaneously facing exogenous background risk beyond their control. Using a theoretical model and a public good experiment, we analyse the adoption of agri-environmental practices and the effect of agri-environmental subsidies in a context where risks are both foreground and background. While most of the literature on background risk focuses on its impact on individual decisions, we analyse the influence of background risk in a context of strategic uncertainty (contribution to a public good). The results highlight the potential synergies between greening the CAP and supporting risk management. We find that background risk discourages the adoption of green practices, although it affects all farmland independently from the farmer's choice of practices (environment friendly or conventional). An incentive payment per hectare of land farmed with green practices increases the adoption of risk-increasing practices but is significantly less effective in the presence of background risk.
    Date: 2020–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03050486&r=all
  2. By: Can Askan Mavi (University of Luxembourg [Luxembourg]); Nicolas Quérou (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - FRE2010 - UM - Université de Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)
    Abstract: Motivated by recent discussions about the issue of risk perceptions for climate change related events,we introduce a non-cooperative game setting where agents manage a common pool resource under a po-tential risk, and agents exhibit different risk perception biases. Focusing on the effect of the polarizationlevel and other population features, we show that the type of bias (overestimation versus underestimationbiases) and the resource quality level before and after the occurrence of the shift have first-order impor-tance on the qualitative nature of behavioral adjustments and on the pattern of resource conservation.When there are non-uniform biases within the population, the intra-group structure of the populationqualitatively affects the degree of resource conservation. Moreover, unbiased agents may react in non-monotone ways to changes in the polarization level when faced with agents exhibiting different types ofbias. The size of the unbiased agents' sub-population does not qualitatively affect how an increase inthe polarization level impacts individual behavioral adjustments, even though it affects the magnitudeof this change. Finally, it is shown how perception biases affect the comparison between centralized anddecentralized management.
    Keywords: Conservation,Perception bias,Environmental risk,Renewable resources,Dynamic games,Dynamic games JEL Classification: Q20,Q54,D91,C72
    Date: 2020–12–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03052114&r=all
  3. By: Elliott, Robert J. R. (University of Birmingham); Kuai, Wenjing (University of Birmingham); Maddison, David (University of Birmingham); Ozgen, Ceren (University of Birmingham)
    Abstract: This paper provides some of the first evidence of the relationship between eco-innovation and employment. Adopting a O*NET based task approach, in a study of the Dutch firms, we show that eco-innovation has no impact on overall employment. However, compared to non- eco-innovators there is an 18.2% increase in the number of green jobs (equivalent to 12 new green workers for the average firm). This means an average increase in the share of green workers of around 3.3%. Broadly speaking, the increase in the share of green jobs was driven by a reduction in non-green workers and a smaller but still significant increase in the number of green workers. We further show that subsidy-driven policies, rather than regulation-driven policies positively correlate with the number of green workers.
    Keywords: eco-innovation, green jobs, subsidies
    JEL: Q52 Q55 J23
    Date: 2021–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14028&r=all
  4. By: Edward L. Glaeser
    Abstract: Cities are shaped by transportation infrastructure. Older cities were anchored by waterways. Nineteenth century cities followed the path of streetcars and subways. The 20th century city rebuilt itself around the car. The close connection between transportation and urban form is natural, since cities are defined by their density. Physical proximity and transportation investments serve the common cause of reducing the transportation costs for goods, people and ideas. The close connection between transportation and urban form suggests the need for spatial equilibrium models that embed a full set of equilibrium effects into any evaluation of transportation spending. Their connection implies that restrictions on land use will change, and often reduce, the value of investing in transportation infrastructure. Future transportation innovations, including autonomous vehicles and telecommuting, are likely to also change urban form, although cities often take decades to adapt to new forms of mobility.
    JEL: F61 N70 R14 R41
    Date: 2020–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28287&r=all

General information on the NEP project can be found at https://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.