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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Isola, W.A.; Mesagan, E.P. |
| Abstract: | This article focused on the impact of oil production on human condition in Nigeria. The study used environmental degradation, life expectancy, and infant mortality rate as proxies of human condition. The data were obtained from the statistical bulletin of the Central Bank of Nigeria and World Development Indicator. The study covered 1980 to 2012. Vector autoregressive (VAR) model and variance decomposition analysis were explored. Three striking results were reported: (i) oil production of the first period positively impacted environmental degradation, while it was negative in the second period; (ii) Its first period lag has positive relationship but second period lag has negative relationship with life expectancy; and (iii) The variance decomposition analysis showed that oil production worsened environmental degradation and adversely impacted on infant mortality rate, while it positively affected life expectancy. Two major recommendations emanated from the study: (i) since oil production has a negative impact on human condition in Nigeria, efforts should be made to control carbon emission from fuel by ending gas flaring, especially in the Niger Delta region; and (ii) Government should look for means to channel their efforts into sustainable policies that would aim at transforming some of the largess from the oil sector into the health sector, as well as into the provision of infrastructural and life enhancing facilities like good roads, portable water, and so on. These can help to enhance life expectancy beyond its current stagnating state. All these as suggested will make the oil sector to have huge positive impact on human condition. |
| Keywords: | Oil Production; Human Condition; Niger Delta; Nigeria. |
| JEL: | D62 Q56 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67784&r=env |
| By: | Congressional Budget Office |
| Abstract: | A carbon tax or cap-and-trade program could make emission-intensive U.S. products less competitive and increase emissions overseas. Import tariffs related to emissions could reduce those effects but would be hard to implement. |
| Date: | 2013–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:report:449710&r=env |
| By: | Christina Hood; Liwayway Adkins; Ellina Levina |
| Abstract: | In 2015, Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) communicated their Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions (INDCs) for the Paris climate agreement. This publication summarises the key information communicated in the mitigation components of INDCs that were submitted by 31 August 2015, and analyses the implications of this information for the clarity, transparency and understanding of individual and collective mitigation efforts.<P>Tour d'horizon des CPDN soumises au 31 août 2015<BR>En 2015, les Parties à la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC) ont communiqué leurs contributions prévues déterminées au niveau national (CPDN) dans l’optique de l’accord de Paris sur le climat. Cette publication fait la synthèse des informations relatives à l’atténuation des CPDN soumises au 31 août 2015, et elle en analyse les implications pour la clarté, la transparence et la compréhension des efforts individuels et collectifs de lutte contre le changement climatique. |
| Keywords: | mitigation, climate, UNFCCC, atténuation, climat, CCNUCC |
| JEL: | F53 O19 O30 O44 Q54 Q56 Q58 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:envaab:2015/4-en&r=env |
| By: | Nathalie Berta (REGARDS - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS); Emmanuelle Gautherat (LS-CREST - ENSAE ParisTech - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique, REGARDS - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne); Ozgur Gun (REGARDS - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne) |
| Abstract: | The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is supposed to help regulated installations to cover their CO2 emissions by trading in allowances. In practice, the EU ETS is mainly a financial market used for hedging and speculation. This financial feature is regarded as a solution (hedging and liquidity) to a problem (the price risk and volatility imposed on installations) which the market has actually created itself. This paper provides an estimation of the real underpinning of the scheme, i.e. the needs of installations for allowances transfers to achieve compliance in the two first exchange periods. This estimation, which was singularly lacking in the literature, shows that compliance transactions become more and more marginal as market activity grows and that they are drowned in a whirlpool of speculation. This challenges the role of the carbon price whose financial and self-referential evaluation can obviously not reveal installations' marginal abatement costs, the condition of cost-effectiveness expected from carbon trading. |
| Abstract: | Le marché du carbone européen est créé en 2005 pour aider les installations assujetties à couvrir leurs émissions de CO2 à travers l'échange de quotas. En pratique, c'est essentiellement un marché financier dédié à l'échange de dérivés à des fins de couverture de risque et de spéculation. Cette dimension financière bien connue est présentée comme une solution (couverture de risque et liquidité) à un problème que le marché a lui-même créé (risque de prix et volatilité imposés par l'instrument, par opposition à un système de taxe). Ce papier établit une estimation du véritable sous-jacent du marché, i.e. des besoins de transferts de permis des installations à des fins de conformité. Cette estimation – singulièrement absente de la littérature – montre que les transactions à des fins de conformité sont de plus en plus marginales à mesure que l'activité sur le marché augmente, activité presque uniquement tirée par la spéculation. Se joue alors la capacité du prix du carbone à révéler les coûts marginaux des entreprises, principale condition d'efficacité attendue en théorie de ce type d'instrument. |
| Keywords: | European Union Emissions Trading Scheme,carbon market,CO2 allowance,carbon finance,marché de permis négociables,finance carbone,marché de carbone européen |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01224552&r=env |
| By: | Dietz, Simon; Gollier, Christian; Kessler, Louise |
| Abstract: | Mitigation reduces the expected future damages from climate change,flbut how does it affect the aggregate risk borne by future generations?flThis raises the question of the ‘climate beta’, i.e., the elasticity of climatefldamages with respect to a change in aggregate consumption. Inflthis paper we show that the climate beta is positive if the main sourceflof uncertainty is exogenous, emissions-neutral technological progress,flimplying that mitigation has no hedging value. But these results areflreversed if the main source of uncertainty is related to the carbonclimate-flresponse and the damage intensity of warming. We then showflthat in the DICE integrated assessment model the climate beta is positivefland close to unity. In estimating the social cost of carbon, thisflwould justify using a relatively high rate to discount expected climatefldamages. However, the stream of undiscounted expected climate damagesflis also increasing in the climate beta. We show that this dominatesflthe discounting effect, so that the social cost of carbon is in fact largerflthan when discounting expected damages at the risk-free rate. |
| Keywords: | beta, climate change, discounting, integrated assessment,flmitigation, risk, social cost of carbon |
| JEL: | Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:29903&r=env |
| By: | Heidi Bruderer Enzler; Andreas Diekmann |
| Abstract: | Switzerland, like many other countries, has set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Private households play a significant part in achieving these aims. Therefore, it is important to know which factors are related to emissions. So far, most studies have focused on income, household size and other structural factors while neglecting the potential relevance of attitudinal variables such as environmental concern. Those studies that did examine environmental attitudes were mostly based on "intent-oriented" measures of pro-environmental behavior instead of actual environmental impacts. The present study brings these lines of research together by analyzing the relationship between emissions, income and environmental attitudes within a framework of multivariate analysis. Furthermore, three specific emissions domains – mobility, housing and food – are analyzed separately and the results are compared to those based on a scale of pro-environmental behavior. All analyses are based on data from a large representative general population survey, the Swiss Environmental Survey 2007 (n = 3,369), and a subsequent life cycle analysis. The results indicate that higher income and lower levels of environmental concern are both associated with higher emissions. Furthermore, overall emissions are higher for younger, male respondents with higher education, living in smaller households with cars. For emissions by mobility, being economically active is a further predictor of higher emissions. For housing, the pattern is slightly different, in that females and older respondents are attributed higher emissions. In the case of food, however, there is no clear-cut association between emissions and income. In conclusion, this study clearly indicates that next to income, environmental concern is an important predictor of GHG emissions, even when controlling for the effects of income. A very similar pattern of correlations was found for intent-oriented pro-environmental behavior. |
| Keywords: | Environmental impact, greenhouse gas emissions, pro-environmental behavior, income, environmental concern |
| Date: | 2015–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ets:wpaper:9&r=env |
| By: | Jean-Philippe Nicolaï (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | The present paper addresses two policy objectives that the environmental regulator aims to accomplish: to implement a market for permits and make regulation acceptable for businesses. Profit-neutral permit allocations are defined as the number of permits that the regulator should give for free so that profits after regulation (i.e. profits that the firm realizes in the market for products plus the value of the allowances granted for free) are equal to profits before regulation. The paper demonstrates that a low number of free allowances is sufficient to meet these two goals. Moreover, even when the reduction is high, the regulator can fully offset losses if the concerned sectors are not in a monopoly context. The suggested model is developed by assuming that firms compete "à la Cournot", use polluting technologies and the demand function is iso-elastic. It is then illustrated by the first two phases of the EU Emissions Trading System. |
| Keywords: | Pollution permits, Cournot oligopoly, EU-ETS |
| JEL: | F18 H2 L13 L51 Q2 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:15-224&r=env |
| By: | Kaixing Huang (School of Economics, University of Adelaide.) |
| Abstract: | Studies of climate change impacts on agricultural profits using panel data typically do not take account of adaptations over time by farmers, and those that do tend to use the standard hedonic approach which is potentially biased. As an alternative, this paper develops a panel framework that includes farmer adaptation. When tested with United States data, this study finds that the negative impact of expected climate change on farm profits by 2100 is only one-third as large once likely adaptation by farmers is taken into account. |
| JEL: | Q15 Q51 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adl:wpaper:2015-20&r=env |
| By: | Barreca, Alan I. (Tulane University); Deschenes, Olivier (University of California, Santa Barbara); Guldi, Melanie (University of Central Florida) |
| Abstract: | Dynamic adjustments could be a useful strategy for mitigating the costs of acute environmental shocks when timing is not a strictly binding constraint. To investigate whether such adjustments could apply to fertility, we estimate the effects of temperature shocks on birth rates in the United States between 1931 and 2010. Our innovative approach allows for presumably random variation in the distribution of daily temperatures to affect birth rates up to 24 months into the future. We find that additional days above 80 °F cause a large decline in birth rates approximately 8 to 10 months later. The initial decline is followed by a partial rebound in births over the next few months implying that populations can mitigate the fertility cost of temperature shocks by shifting conception month. This dynamic adjustment helps explain the observed decline in birth rates during the spring and subsequent increase during the summer. The lack of a full rebound suggests that increased temperatures due to climate change may reduce population growth rates in the coming century. As an added cost, climate change will shift even more births to the summer months when third trimester exposure to dangerously high temperatures increases. Based on our analysis of historical changes in the temperature-fertility relationship, we conclude air conditioning could be used to substantially offset the fertility costs of climate change. |
| Keywords: | fertility, birth rates, seasonality, birth weight, temperature, climate change |
| JEL: | I12 J13 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9480&r=env |
| By: | Ulrich Hoffmann |
| Abstract: | Many economists and policymakers advocate a fundamental shift towards “green growth” as the new, qualitatively-different growth paradigm, largely based on enhanced material/resource/energy efficiency, structural changes towards a service-dominated economy and a switch in the energy mix favouring renewable forms of energy. “Green growth” may work well in creating new growth impulses with reduced environmental load and facilitating related technological and structural change. But can it also mitigate climate change at the required scale (i.e. significant, absolute and permanent decline of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at global level) and pace (i.e. in no more than two to three decades)? This paper argues that growth, technological, population-expansion and governance constraints as well as some key systemic issues cast a very long shadow on the “green growth” hopes. One should not deceive oneself into believing that such an evolutionary (and often reductionist) approach will be sufficient to cope with the complexities of climate change. It may rather give much false hope and excuses to do nothing really fundamental that should bring about a U-turn of global GHG emissions. The proponents of a resource efficiency revolution, re-structuring of economies and a drastic change in the energy mix need to scrutinize the historical evidence, in particular the arithmetic of economic and population growth. Furthermore, they need to realize that the required transformation goes far beyond innovation and structural changes to include better distribution of income and wealth, limitation of market power of economic agents that promote biased approaches to GHG reduction, and a culture of sufficiency. Climate change calls into question the global equality of opportunity for prosperity (i.e. ecological justice and development space) and is thus a huge developmental challenge for all countries, but particularly for the global South and a question of life and death for some developing countries. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unc:dispap:222&r=env |
| By: | Congressional Budget Office |
| Abstract: | Using the rising amounts of renewable transportation fuels required by the Renewable Fuel Standard will be difficult. CBO looks at how those requirements and alternatives would affect fuel and food prices and greenhouse gas emissions. |
| JEL: | Q10 Q16 Q18 Q20 Q28 Q40 Q42 Q48 Q50 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2014–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:report:454771&r=env |
| By: | Congressional Budget Office |
| Abstract: | Using the rising amounts of renewable transportation fuels required by the Renewable Fuel Standard will be difficult. CBO looks at how those requirements and alternatives would affect fuel and food prices and greenhouse gas emissions. |
| JEL: | Q10 Q16 Q18 Q20 Q28 Q40 Q42 Q48 Q50 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2014–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:report:454770&r=env |
| By: | Zhang, Shanshan (CERE, SLU); Lundgren, Tommy (CERE, Umeå University, SLU); Zhou, Wenchao (CERUM, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relation between three dimensions of firm performance – productivity, energy efficiency, and environmental performance – and shed light on the role of environmental investment. Data from Swedish industry between 2002 and 2008 is utilized to generate the three performance measures at the firm level. Environmental investments are efforts to reduce environmental impact, which may also affect firm competitiveness, in terms of changes in productivity, and spur more (or less) efficient use of energy. A panel vector auto-regression (VAR) methodology is utilized to investigate the causal relationship between the three dimensions of performance and environmental investment. Results show that energy efficiency and environmental performance are integrated. Improved environmental performance and energy efficiency - induced by external or internal policy - boosts next period productivity, which would corroborate the Porter hypothesis and the notion of strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR). An increase in productivity constrains next period environmental performance and energy efficiency, while increasing environmental investments. This is indicative of “managerial opportunism” or the “available funds” hypothesis. The former suggesting in good times managers allocate resources to e.g. managerial perks rather than improving environmental and/or energy performance, while still, to avoid regulatory penalty, uphold some level of environmental investment. The latter explanation argues that managers invest in environmental capital in order to reduce environmental impacts and boost goodwill for their business, but this investment requires resources and, in the short-term, harms energy and environmental performance. Finally, an increase in environmental investment improves next period environmental performance, which would suggest that environmental investments have the intended and expected effect; it reduces the environmental burden caused by the firm. As a consequence, in a second step, the increased environmental performance will tend to increase productivity in the next period, which suggests that environmental investments can boost productivity channeled via enhanced environmental performance. |
| Keywords: | Energy Efficiency; Environmental Performance; Panel VAR; Malmquist Index; Investment |
| JEL: | D22 D24 M14 Q40 Q41 |
| Date: | 2015–11–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2015_012&r=env |
| By: | Haradinova, Anelia; Ivanova, Daniela; Vasileva, Elka |
| Abstract: | The economic activities and the ever-increasing needs for resources put the world in a position to discover urgently a path towards sustainable development. To achieve this aim the environmental policies and innovative approaches are crucial. Eco-innovations are key element in EU sustainable growth strategy. Based on that, the report reviews and evaluates the activities of the Bulgarian SMEs in the development and implementation of new innovative technologies in the last 3 years based on the results of a survey among 135 companies with working environment management system under ISO 14001 or EMAS. |
| Keywords: | eco-innovations, Environmental management system, Bulgaria |
| JEL: | M10 Q59 |
| Date: | 2015–06–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67700&r=env |
| By: | Chloë FERNANDEZ; Driss EZZINE DE BLAS; Céline DUTILLY DIANE; Gwenole LE VELLY |
| Abstract: | This article empirically explores the distribution of a Payments for Environmental Services (PES) scheme within Mexican forest communities. The PSA-H is a Mexican federal PES that has been remunerating communities for forest conservation since 2003. During the last decade, Mexico’s National Forestry Commission [CONAFOR] has developed a complex targeting system in order to enroll forests owned by communities with certain socio-economic and ecological characteristics. In the present study we analyze the socio-economic characteristics and land use changes of recipients of the PSA-H to understand how the targeting objectives have been expressed in the field. We conducted a combined survey of 47 ejidos and 163 households in the south of the state of Yucatan – the Cono Sur region. We first investigate, at the ejido-level, what determines the unequal distribution of payments. Second, we analyze the amount of payment received depending on the characteristics of households. Our analysis shows that the way the PSA-H is being distributed by ejidatarios bypasses the initial compensation objective. As a matter of fact, the distribution of the payments reflects past land use trajectories. |
| Keywords: | PES ; Mexico ; Communities ; Forest conservation ; Economic compensation ; Distribution of payments |
| JEL: | D63 Q23 Q28 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1758&r=env |
| By: | Simon Dietz |
| JEL: | G32 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:61215&r=env |
| By: | Halkos, George; Papageorgiou, George |
| Abstract: | This paper presents, in brief, the fundamentals of optimal control theory together with some notes for differential games, which is the game theoretic analogue of the optimal control. As it is recommended by literature references the main tool of analysis in open loop information structure for environmental models is the Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle, while the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation is the tool of analysis for any closed loop informational structure. As applications of the above theoretic considerations we present some environmental economic models which are solved both as optimal control problems and as differential games as well. |
| Keywords: | Optimal control; Differential games; Renewable resources; Environmental and Resource Economics. |
| JEL: | C61 C62 D43 H21 Q0 Q2 Q20 Q50 Q52 Q53 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67845&r=env |
| By: | Andrew Stocking; Terry Dinan |
| Abstract: | Growing rapidly in recent decades, China’s demand for energy has nearly doubled since 2005—making China the world’s largest consumer of energy. That growth and the energy policies that China pursues increase the level and possibly the volatility of some energy prices, reduce the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing firms in relation to Chinese firms but provide benefits for U.S. consumers, and increase greenhouse gas emissions. This paper examines trends in China’s energy consumption, the implications of those trends for U.S. households and businesses, and policy options that might help |
| JEL: | Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:wpaper:50216&r=env |
| By: | Ian Martin; R. S. Pindyck |
| Abstract: | Faced with numerous potential catastrophes—nuclear and bioterrorism, megaviruses, climate change, and others—which should society attempt to avert? A policy to avert one catastrophe considered in isolation might be evaluated in cost-benefit terms. But because society faces multiple catastrophes, simple cost-benefit analysis fails: Even if the benefit of averting each one exceeds the cost, we should not necessarily avert them all. We explore the policy interdependence of catastrophic events, and develop a rule for determining which catastrophes should be averted and which should not. |
| Keywords: | catastrophes; catastrophic events; disasters; willingness to pay; policy objectives; climate change; epidemics; pandemics; nuclear terrorism; bioterrorism |
| JEL: | D81 Q5 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:62139&r=env |
| By: | Kamijo, Tetsuya |
| Abstract: | The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) introduced guidelines for environmental and social considerations in April 2004. The guidelines could lead to an improvement in the quality of environmental and social consideration reports. The main reason for this may be the inclusion of alternatives analysis and public involvement. This study aimed to quantitatively verify the effectiveness of alternatives analysis and public involvement, and to propose concrete methods for improving the quality of reports based on the analytic result. The Lee-Colley review package was used to review the quality of the samples of 120 reports dating from 2001 to 2012. A path analysis with structural equation modeling was used to obtain a causal model. The rating scales from A to F (ordinal scales) were converted to rank scores and analyzed using a statistical technique. This paper acknowledges the effectiveness of alternatives analysis, public involvement, and the number of criteria for improving the quality of the reports. The effectiveness of those variables may be verified by the causal model. As a result of statistical analysis, the paper points out the effectiveness of alternatives analysis with a wide range of criteria and public involvement. Further research is needed to improve the causal model by attaining new knowledge, to find out what are the concrete benefits of public involvement to the quality of the reports, to verify the most suitable number of alternatives and criteria for alternatives analysis, and to prepare technical guidelines for the use of the quantitative technique of alternatives analysis in case studies. |
| Keywords: | environmental and social considerations , alternatives analysis , public involvement , The Lee-Colley review package , path analysis |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:108&r=env |
| By: | Iñaki Iriarte Goñi (Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain); Enric Tello Aragay (Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This work introduces some concepts, tools and works useful to analyse modern economic growth in Spain in historical perspective, taking into account some of its environmental aspects. The paper is based on the idea, supported by ecological economics, that the economy is and has been historically an open subsystem constantly interacting with society and ecosystems. In this general framework we review the main works analysing Spanish economic history matters from this specific perspective or friendly points of view. We believe that this approach to economic history is convenient for bringing to light some aspects and problems that usually remind hidden in the main stream of economic history analysis, and is, therefore, helpful for a better understanding of historical economic growth and economic development and its consequences. |
| Keywords: | Modern Economic Growth, Environmental History, Ecological footprint, Social metabolism, socio-ecological transitions |
| JEL: | N0 N5 Q57 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1516&r=env |
| By: | Tuyara Gavrilyeva |
| Abstract: | It is known that cities are the engines of growth of the modern economy and society. Herewith we highlight the national and regional characteristics of urbanization as a global process. Somewhere the urbanization is stimulated, in China for example, somewhere it is limited, as we see in Russia. But it is a long-term trend, which will qualitatively change the life of humanity in the 21st century. There is a special interest in the comparative analysis of models of development in the northern cities of the world and Russia. They all have growth restrictions, such as the environment, the demographic capacity of the area, the high level of technological hazards. Thus, many have similar conditions: - Located near the water (sea and river), respectively, these are ports; - There is a highly developed transport infrastructure, including bridges; - The population is small; - Most are the educational and research centers; - Most are the administrative centres of the province (region), metropolises. In contrast to the sustainable state of the northern cities in Europe and America, where the dynamics of the main indicators remain stable for a long time, the state of the cities in the Russian North is differentiated. Yakutsk is the biggest city in terms of population, located in the permafrost zone. Now it is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Over the past 15 years, the population of the city increased by 50%, from 195.4 thousand people in 2000 to 294.2 thousand people in 2014. In contrast, the other cities of the North of Russia (Norilsk, Vorkuta and Magadan) show population decline, deterioration of the economic situation. Fast growth, as well as a rapid decline, entail an increase in social risks. In addition, growth is also accompanied by an increase in technological and environmental risks. Currently, the most pressing issues for Yakutsk are: - Lack of social, communal and engineering infrastructure, poor quality of the land improvement. - Poverty of the population due to the weak labor market. - Growth of social tensions by reason of no high-quality social services and the emergence of wealth (income) limit for access to quality services. - Increase of anthropogenic pressure on the environment. - High costs on production. Yakutsk needs to shape its own, unique in many respects model of sustainable development, which should absorb world experience as well as its own properties. Development of the city is largely determined by quality management decisions and research projects. |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1719&r=env |
| By: | Morag F. Macpherson (Computing Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling); Adam Kleczkowski (Computing Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling); John Healey (School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University); Nick Hanley (Department of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews) |
| Abstract: | Effective forest management is crucial to maximising the economic benefits obtained from forests. However, the arrival of novel pests and pathogens may have a negative effect on timber values. We argue that management strategies should be calibrated to consider the effect of disease and in this paper explore the optimal rotation length of a single rotation, even-aged, plantation forest under varying disease conditions. We show that the optimal rotation length, which maximises the net present value of the forest, is reduced when disease decreases the timber value. Moreover, an increase in the rate of disease progression or the effect of disease on timber has a negative effect on the optimal rotation length. More generally, the effect of forest disease on optimal management depends in a complex way on the interaction of economic, ecological and epidemiological parameters |
| Keywords: | contingent valuation; historic site; willingness to pay |
| JEL: | Q51 Q58 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sss:wpaper:2015-19&r=env |
| By: | Sven Rudolph; Achim Lerch |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kue:epaper:e-15-009&r=env |
| By: | Mauro Napoletano (OFCE Sciences Po Skema Busibess School); Andrea Roventini (OFCE-SciencesPo & Skema Business School); Jean Luc Gaffard (OFCE Sciences Po & Skema Business School) |
| Abstract: | We build an agent-based model populated by households with heterogenous and time-varying nancial conditions in order to study how scal multipliers can change over the business cycle and are aected by the state of credit markets. We nd that deficit-spending scal policy dampens the eect of bankruptcy shocks and lowers their persistence. Moreover, the size and dynamics of government spending multipli- ers are related to the degree and persistence of credit rationing in the economy. On the contrary, in presence of balanced-budget rules, output permanently falls below pre-shock levels and the ensuing multipliers fall below one and are much lower than the ones emerging from the deficit-spending policy. Finally, we show that dierent conditions in the credit market significantly aect the size and the evolution of fiscal multipliers |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fce:doctra:1525&r=env |
| By: | Johansson, Per-Olov (Stockholm School of Economics & CERE) |
| Abstract: | There is no consensus with respect to handling of tradable permits in cost–benefit analysis. The leading (organizational/governmental) manuals in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia handle permits in different ways or ignore them. This paper offers a brief discussion of the properties of cap-and-trade systems, and contrast these to the properties of emission charges. The paper then turns to cost–benefit rules for projects using fossil fuels in a cap-and-trade system. The focus is on small projects but the paper also briefly addresses the case where a project significantly affect prices. As a service to the reader the small project rules are contrasted to the much more familiar and standardized ways of handling emission charges in cost–benefit analysis. Finally, the consequences of market power in cap-and-trade markets are briefly addressed. |
| Keywords: | Cost–benefit analysis; greenhouse gases; tradable permits; emission charges; market power. |
| JEL: | H21 H23 H41 H43 I30 L13 |
| Date: | 2015–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2015_011&r=env |
| By: | Gaspar Núñez Rodríguez (El Colegio de México) |
| Abstract: | This paper has three goals. First, to build and publish a transparent Social Accounting Matrix, based on the 2008 Input-Output Table of Mexico. Second, to develop a parsimonious Applied General Equilibrium Model (AGEM), which can be modified, and applied to other research purposes. And third, to apply this AGEM to the analysis of taxes on hydrocarbons extraction, given their importance for public budget and recent energy reforms. Specifically, we analyze an increase in Households Income Taxes that would collect the same amount of money, while we diminish taxes on hydrocarbons extraction. Our main results show that income tax would have to triple in order to compensate for diminished taxes on hydrocarbons extraction, and that the first four deciles would benefit with a positive HEV (given the progressive structure of the Income tax), but deciles from V to X would suffer a severe loss, which would overcome low income deciles gains by far. |
| Keywords: | applied general equilibrium model, social accounting matrix, Mexico, taxes on hydrocarbons extraction |
| JEL: | C68 D58 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2015-05&r=env |