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on Resource Economics |
| By: | Bracht, Felix; Verhoeven, Dennis |
| Abstract: | If air pollution harms innovation — and therefore future productivity — existing assessments of its economic cost are incomplete. We estimate the effect of fine particulate matter concentration on inventive output in 977 European regions. Exploiting thermal inversions and weather-induced ventilation of pollutants for identification, we find that a decrease in air pollution equivalent to the average yearly drop in Europe leads to 1.2% more patented inventions in a given region. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that accounting for the effect on innovation increases the economic cost of air pollution as assessed in prior work by about three quarters. |
| Keywords: | air pollution; air quality; innovation; productivity |
| JEL: | R14 J01 N0 |
| Date: | 2025–03–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:126875 |
| By: | Elisabetta Aurino (Universitat de Barcelona & IEB); Francesco Burchi (German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)); Tekalign Sakketa (German Institute of Development); Anastasia Terskaya (Universitat de Barcelona & IEB and Sustainability (IDOS)) |
| Abstract: | Public works programs (PWPs) are among the most used social protection instruments in low- and middle-income countries. While their impacts on poverty, food security and labor outcomes have been increasingly examined, there is a notable lack of systematic theoretical and empirical research focusing on their effects on climate resilience. To fill this gap, we began by developing a conceptual framework that links the different components of PWPs—wages, infrastructure, and skills development— to household capacity to cope with, and adapt to, weather shocks. After that, we used this framework to guide the review of empirical evidence on the multiple short- and long-term effects of PWPs on resilience to weather shocks, such as flood, drought, and cyclones. Overall, our review suggests that, through the wage component, PWPs can be effective in enhancing resilience, especially by increasing savings and investments in productive assets. However, these benefits usually only materialize in regular, long-term programs. The infrastructure component can be crucial in supporting households’ long-term capacity to adapt to shocks, especially given the recent focus on climate-smart infrastructures. Moreover, the positive effect of infrastructure may not be limited to the direct program beneficiaries but extend to the whole community in which PWPs are implemented. However, it is necessary to highlight that most of the evidence focuses on only a few programs and countries and relies on non-optimal—often crosssectional—data. In particular, the empirical literature investigating the impacts of the infrastructure component of PWPs on both beneficiaries and other community members, especially that carried out through experimental and quasi-experimental methods, is scarce. Another critical research gap concerns the role of on-the-job training and its capacity to strengthen resilience in combination with the infrastructure/service component. Therefore, more research is needed in these directions. Only with adequate information on the overall impacts on different members of the society, and on the channels through which these effects materialize, can policymakers take decisions about when to implement PWPs, and how to design them. |
| Keywords: | Public works program; climate resilience; social protection; climate adaptation; low- and middle-income countries. |
| JEL: | I38 J48 Q54 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2024-12 |
| By: | Zhou, Peng (Cardiff Business School); Gai, Yue (Swansea University); Wang, Chaowei |
| Abstract: | We apply the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach to surveying empirical studies on urban land value. We show that research attention is directed by market size and data availability towards developed economies and residential land. Two distinct patterns of literature evolution emerge, which can be explained by methodological homogeneity adopted in the literature. Following these observations, we compare different types of methods and compile an extensive catalog of databases for land value research. Drawing from 644 factors in the empirical literature, we conduct a thematic analysis to establish a hierarchical understanding of how urban land value is determined. |
| Keywords: | Land Value; Systematic Literature Review; Thematic Analysis |
| JEL: | O18 R14 R31 R52 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2025/3 |