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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2024‒06‒17
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Wear, David N. (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | Wood products markets influence returns to forest land uses, and policies targeting these markets could influence land use outcomes, with important implications for timber scarcity, as well as conservation outcomes from watershed protection to carbon sequestration. In this paper, I model interactions between wood product demands, timber prices, and land use switching in the US South between 1982 and 2012 and show that the amount and volatility of financial returns to forests and agriculture influenced both afforestation and deforestation decisions. I then simulate the effects of demand expansion and forest policies on afforestation, deforestation, and net change in forest land area using counterfactual scenarios applied to 2007–12. One scenario estimates the effects of economic growth using the Great Recession as a natural experiment. Other scenarios examine policy approaches that (1) encourage additional wood use in construction, (2) subsidize tree planting, and (3) change agricultural returns. The economic growth (recession counterfactual) scenario results in little net change in forest area—increased afforestation driven by higher timber prices is offset by deforestation from increased demand for urban land uses. In contrast, policies that increase timber demands without increasing demands for urban land (e.g., using more wood in the built environment) are twice as effective as tree-planting subsidies at encouraging afforestation and expanding forest land uses. Agricultural returns more strongly affect deforestation decisions (forest-to-agriculture switching) than afforestation decisions (agriculture-to-forest switching) and have a very small impact on forest area. Results highlight how any policy that increases returns to forest uses, such as through carbon offset markets, could increase forest area in this region and others. |
| Date: | 2024–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-24-07&r= |
| By: | Nilsson, Pia (Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.); Johansson, Eleanor (Department of Economics, The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.); Larsson, Johan P (Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, UK.); Naldi, Lucia (Centre for Family Business and Entrepreneurship CeFEO, Jönköping University, Jönköping Sweden.); Westlund, Hans (Department of Urban and Regional Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how the lockdown-induced exposure to remote work affected the likelihood of switching to longer commutes using a longitudinal full-population register of Swedish employees. Employees with little experience of long distance commuting were more likely to start commuting longer if they had occupations with high potential for remote work. Examining heterogeneity across sectors, this is especially evident among high-skilled workers in sectors with both high and low pre-existing shares of remote work and longer commutes. Our findings are important for understanding regional expansion and spatial extensions of labour markets in a world where more work can be done remotely. |
| Keywords: | Labour mobility; Commuting distance; Remote work: Knowledge-intensive sectors; Covid-19 |
| JEL: | J24 J61 R10 R30 |
| Date: | 2024–05–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0498&r= |
| By: | Eduardo Cavallo (Inter-American Development Bank); Ana Cepeda (International Monetary Fund); Ugo Panizza (Geneva Graduate Institute & CEPR) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the interplay between environmental performance and financial valuation of firms in Latin America and the Caribbean. We provide insights into how environmental considerations are integrated into financial decision-making and investor behavior by analyz-ing the stock market reaction to environmental news of firms with different levels of carbon emission intensity. We find that high emission intensity firms tend to underperform after the release of environmental damage news. Our baseline estimates indicate that, after the release of such news, firms at the 75th percentile of the distribution of emission intensity experience stock returns that are 17% lower than those of firms at the 25th percentile of the distribution of emission intensity. These results suggest that investors care about and price carbon risk, but only when this risk is salient. |
| Keywords: | Carbon emissions; Climate change; Environmental news; Stock returns |
| JEL: | G12 G14 G18 G32 G38 Q54 |
| Date: | 2024–05–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp08-2024&r= |
| By: | Dorothée Charlier (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc, IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc); Aude Pommeret (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc, IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc); Francesco Ricci (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier) |
| Abstract: | We present a formal model that analyzes the trade-offs between environmental policy and economic growth in a developing economy. The adoption of restrictive environmental policies limits the use of abundant fossil energy resources, which may slow down economic development and thus violate the Right-to-Development. If faster economic growth allows a country to grow out of pollution sooner, less stringent policies are good for growth and even for the environment, having adopted a long-term horizon. Accounting for a ceiling on cumulative emissions can reinforce the argument by providing an additional rationale to phase out pollution. One assumption is crucial for the argument to hold: polluting fossil energy is an essential input over the early phase of economic development, but not in the later phases. Such a discontinuity could result from structural change. We provide empirical evidence for the plausibility of a discontinuity in the elasticity of carbon dioxide emissions with respect to aggregate output, using cross country data, even if it does not appear to be as strong as assumed in the model economy. |
| Keywords: | Developing countries, Structural change, Fossil energy intensity, Pollution, Right to development |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04569038&r= |