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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Bläsi, Albrecht; Requate, Tilman |
| Abstract: | We develop a model with two types of electricity producers, fossil fuel utilities generating emissions, and suppliers of electricity from renewable resources such as wind energy. We account for the vertical structure of the wind-energy sector by considering wind-turbine producers engaged in learning by doing and selling their turbines to turbine operators. We show that in the absence of learning spillovers a first-best policy requires Pigouvian taxes only. We also study second-best optimal subsidies on electricity generated by wind power when (optimal) emission taxes are ruled out. We further investigate the impact of subsidies on prices, output, the number of firms, and environmental damage. It turns out that, in the case of purely private learning, secondbest optimal subsidies should only account for the environmental damage but are not necessary to spur learning. |
| Keywords: | learning by doing, renewable energies, environmental policy, Pigouvian taxes, subsidies, feed-in tariffs |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cauewp:6797&r=env |
| By: | Pittel, Karen; Rübbelke, Dirk T. G. |
| Abstract: | Currently informal and formal international negotiations on climate change take place in an intensive way since the Kyoto Protocol expires already in 2012. A post-Kyoto regulation to combat global warming is not yet stipulated. Due to rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emission levels, industrialized countries urge major polluters from the developing world like China and India to participate in a future agreement. Whether these developing countries will do so, depends on the prevailing incentives to participate in international climate protection efforts. This paper identifies ancillary benefits of climate policy to provide important incentives to attend a new international protocol and to positively affect the likelihood of accomplishing a post-Kyoto agreement which includes commitments of developing countries. |
| Keywords: | ancillary benefits, climate change, international negotiations, chicken game |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:6802&r=env |
| By: | Dieter Hesse (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) |
| Abstract: | A major policy goal of low-income countries is to promote the creation of competitive economic capacities in order to achieve sustained growth and raise the material well being of the population. Economic growth is, however, associated with increasing environmental pressures, and the question is to what extent the costs of more stringent environmental policies will affect the competitiveness of domestic firms. This paper examines the empirical evidence on the impact of environmental protection costs on international trade and FDI location decisions and explores the opportunities that the process of technological upgrading, which is a major driving force of economic development, provides for reducing environmental pressures. Also considered are the policies and supportive institutional arrangements that can help to effectively integrate environmental protection into national economic development strategies and thereby promote sustainable production and consumption patterns. |
| Keywords: | Environmental policy, competitiveness, Eastern Europe, transition economies |
| JEL: | O33 O52 Q55 Q56 Q58 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ece:dispap:2007_6&r=env |
| By: | Armstrong, J. Scott; Green, Kesten C.; Soon, Willie |
| Abstract: | The extinction of polar bears by the end of the 21st century has been predicted and calls have been made to list them as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The decision on whether or not to list rests upon forecasts of what will happen to the bears over the 21st Century. Scientific research on forecasting, conducted since the 1930s, has led to an extensive set of principles—evidence-based procedures—that describe which methods are appropriate under given conditions. The principles of forecasting have been published and are easily available. We assessed polar bear population forecasts in light of these scientific principles. Much research has been published on forecasting polar bear populations. Using an Internet search, we located roughly 1,000 such papers. None of them made reference to the scientific literature on forecasting. We examined references in the nine unpublished government reports that were prepared “…to Support U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Polar Bear Listing Decision.” The papers did not include references to works on scientific forecasting methodology. Of the nine papers written to support the listing, we judged two to be the most relevant to the decision: Amstrup, Marcot and Douglas et al. (2007), which we refer to as AMD, and Hunter et al. (2007), which we refer to as H6 to represent the six authors. AMD’s forecasts were the product of a complex causal chain. For the first link in the chain, AMD assumed that General Circulation Models (GCMs) are valid. However, the GCM models are not valid as a forecasting method and are not reliable for forecasting at a regional level as being considered by AMD and H6, thus breaking the chain. Nevertheless, we audited their conditional forecasts of what would happen to the polar bear population assuming that the extent of summer sea ice will decrease substantially in the coming decades. AMD could not be rated against 26 relevant principles because the paper did not contain enough information. In all, AMD violated 73 of the 90 forecasting principles we were able to rate. They used two un-validated methods and relied on only one polar bear expert to specify variables, relationships, and inputs into their models. The expert then adjusted the models until the outputs conformed to his expectations. In effect, the forecasts were the opinions of a single expert unaided by forecasting principles. Based on research to date, approaches based on unaided expert opinion are inappropriate to forecasting in situations with high complexity and much uncertainty. Our audit of the second most relevant paper, H6, found that it was also based on faulty forecasting methodology. For example, it extrapolated nearly 100 years into the future on the basis of only five years of data – and data for these years were of doubtful validity. In summary, experts’ predictions, unaided by evidence-based forecasting procedures, should play no role in this decision. Without scientific forecasts of a substantial decline of the polar bear population and of net benefits from feasible policies arising from listing polar bears, a decision to list polar bears as threatened or endangered would be irresponsible. |
| Keywords: | adaptation; bias; climate change; decision making; endangered species; expert opinion; evaluation; evidence-based principles; expert judgment; extinction; forecasting methods; global warming; habitat loss; mathematical models; scientific method; sea ice |
| JEL: | C53 H0 C5 C0 H23 C4 |
| Date: | 2007–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6317&r=env |
| By: | James A. Giesecke; J. Mark Horridge; José A. Scaramucci |
| Abstract: | In response to oil price rises and carbon emission concerns, policies promoting increased ethanol usage in gasoline blends are being implemented by many countries, including major energy users such as USA, EU and Japan. As a result, Brazil, as the largest ethanol producer and exporter in the world, can expect growing foreign demand for ethanol exports. Also, the introduction of flex-fuel vehicles in Brazil is causing domestic sales of ethanol to increase steadily. In this paper, we investigate the regional and industrial economic consequences of rapid growth in Brazilian ethanol consumption and exports. For this, we use a disaggregated multi-regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with energy industry detail. Our modelling emphasises a number of features of ethanol production in Brazil which we expect to be important in determining the adjustment of its regional economies to a substantial expansion in ethanol production. These include regional differences in ethanol and sugar production technologies, sugarcane harvesting methods and the elasticity of land supply to sugarcane production. |
| Keywords: | CGE models, energy, ethanol, Brazil |
| JEL: | D58 Q13 Q42 R11 R49 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-169&r=env |
| By: | Dannenberg, Astrid; Sturm, Bodo; Vogt, Carsten |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates in how far equity preferences may matter for climate negotiations. For this purposes we conducted a simple experiment with people who have been involved in international climate policy. The experiment, which was run via the Internet, consisted of two simple non-strategic games suited to measure the parameters of inequity aversion in a Fehr and Schmidt (1999) utility function. We find that our participants show aversion against advantageous as well as disadvantageous inequity to a considerable amount. Moreover, the degree of inequity aversion is higher compared to that of students in the similar study of Dannenberg et al. (2007). Regarding the geographical variety in our sample, we cannot confirm significant differences in the degree of inequity aversion between different regions in the world, which is in line with previous findings from the experimental literature. This finding lends support to the hypothesis that equity preferences are "hard-wired" and not much influenced by socio-economic or cultural circumstances. |
| Keywords: | individual preferences, inequity aversion, climate policy, experimental economics, public goods |
| JEL: | C91 C92 H41 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:6801&r=env |
| By: | Benoît De Guillebon (APESA - Association Pour l'Environnement et la Sécurité en Aquitaine - APESA); Minh Ha-Duong (CIRED - Centre international de recherche sur l'environnement et le développement - CIRAD : UMR56 - CNRS : UMR8568 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales - Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées - Ecole Nationale du Génie Rural des Eaux et des Forêts) |
| Abstract: | Ce article est issu de présentations et d'un débat menés lors d'un atelier de dialogue tenu le 27/04/2007 dans le cadre des projets de recherche SOCECO2 et METSTOR. Cet atelier de dialogue rassemblait des représentants des différents acteurs concernés par la problématique du captage et stockage du CO2 : scientifiques, industriels, pouvoirs publics, collectivités, associations, journalistes. L'objectif de cet atelier de dialogue était de réfléchir ensemble sur les conditions nécessaires au développement de cette nouvelle technologie. Le présent article reprend de manière simplifiée les principaux enjeux identifiés et les questions qu'il reste à résoudre. |
| Keywords: | CSC; captage et stockage du CO2 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00154698_v1&r=env |
| By: | Judith Thornton (Department of Economics University of Washington) |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udb:wpaper:uwec-2007-36&r=env |
| By: | Pontara, Nicola; Francisco, Manuela |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to understand whether Mauritanian firms deem corruption as an obstacle to operate and grow, to identify the profile of firms that are more likely to make informal payments, and to quantify the size of these payments. The results of the analysis show that perceptions of corruption can be potentially misleading. Corruption is not considered to be one of the most taxing factors impeding the growth of firms in Mauritania. Yet, its cost to firms is significant and greater than in the comparator group countries. This means that corruption is internalized by firms and considered an accepted practice. Alternatively, firms may fear reporting corruption practices for fear of retaliation. Econometric evidence on the propensity and intensity of bribes suggests that medium-size firms suffer the most from corruption in Mauritania. Larger firms are more established and connected, do not fear exiting the market, and are less likely to be harassed. Smaller firms are less visible and may be able to escape the control of public officials by operating largely in the informal sector. Medium-size firms are the most likely to pay bribes and to pay the highest amounts as a percentage of their total annual sales, which places a heavy burden on their ability to grow. |
| Keywords: | Public Sector Corruption & Anticorruption Measures,Access to Finance,Governance Indicators,Microfinance,National Governance |
| Date: | 2007–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4439&r=env |