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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Marc A. C. Hafstead; Roberton C. Williams III |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effects of environmental policy on employment (and unemployment) using a new general-equilibrium two-sector search model. We find that imposing a pollution tax causes substantial reductions in employment in the regulated (polluting) industry, but this is offset by increased employment in the unregulated (nonpolluting) sector. Thus the policy causes a substantial shift in employment between industries, but the net effect on overall employment (and unemployment) is small, even in the short run. An environmental performance standard causes a substantially smaller sectoral shift in employment than the emissions tax, with roughly similar net effects. The effects on the unregulated industry suggest that empirical studies of environmental regulation that focus only on regulated firms can be misleading (and those that use nonregulated firms as controls for regulated firms will be even more misleading). The paper’s results also suggest that overall effects on employment are not a major issue for environmental policy, and that policymakers who want to minimize sectoral shifts in employment might prefer performance standards over environmental taxes. |
| JEL: | E24 H23 J64 Q52 Q58 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22269&r=env |
| By: | Florian Leblanc (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - AgroParisTech - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); C. Cassen (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - AgroParisTech - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Thierry Brunelle (CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - AgroParisTech - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Patrice Dumas (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - AgroParisTech - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement); Aurélie Méjean (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - AgroParisTech - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | The final objective of the project is to provide an integrated vision of these four case studies in WP4. This deliverable will specifically analyze the conflicts and synergies between various sustainability issues that stem from these four cross sectors linkages under different visions of globalization and development pathways. The challenge is thus to integrate sector-based analysis in a common economic framework capturing the interplay between innovation, the evolution of life styles, macroeconomic constraints (investments, trade...) in a world experiencing strong economic transitions. This report will then develop a set of comprehensive scenarios at the World and European levels. These numerical experiments will aim at analyzing i) the mechanisms that explain the tensions and synergies between various sustainability issues (climate change, land availability, energy security) under various views of the future of economic globalization and ii) ways to mitigate these tensions within the framework of each scenario. We will specifically assess the implementation of climate policies. CO2 emissions have indeed continued to grow in the past decade even more rapidly than predicted (Peters et al., 2011; Raupach et al., 2007; IPCC, 2014). This context is the result of both the diculty to decouple growth and carbon emissions in developed regions, where development styles cannot be changed overnight, and the rapid carbon-intensive growth patterns of emerging countries (IEA, 2012). It also highlights the necessity to implement ambitious measures to trigger a strong bifurcation away from carbon-intensive development paths (IPCC, 2007, 2014). Despite this scientific consensus, the implementation of ambitious global carbon emission reduction targets remains highly uncertain as shown by the difficulties to reach a global climate agreement under the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in particular since the failure of the Copenhagen Conference in 2009. This is essentially due to the concerns about (a) significant welfare and economic losses consecutive to carbon restrictions and (b) the interplay of climate measures with other sensitive political issues such as the financial crisis, poverty alleviation, job creation, energy and food security, or health and local environmental protection (e.g., see the dilemma of the climate development Gordian knot discussed in (Hourcade et al., 2008)). An integrated vision between sustainable development and the globalisation process can be a precondition to overcome this dilemma in view of post 2015 climate policies. |
| Keywords: | Globalisation, sustainable development, climate change. |
| Date: | 2014–07–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:ciredw:hal-01300545&r=env |
| By: | Yang, Meng; Qiu, Feng |
| Abstract: | As the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions play an increasingly important role in fighting against global warming, tracking carbon dioxide emissions trends, estimating the determinants of driving emissions, and identifying opportunities for reducing emissions will be necessary. This paper studies the relationship among carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in United States at state level during the period from 1960 to 2011. It is essential to study state level determinants of carbon dioxide emissions especially for a country that differs from coast to coast in energy use, economic development strategy, and carbon dioxide reduction policy. Based on the EKC long run analysis of CO2 emissions in each state of US, we found that 13 states show inverted-U relationship between CO2 emissions and economic development, 18 states display N relationship, 6 states indicate increasing linear relationship, 6 states appear decreasing linear relationship, and the rest states show no cointegration among the variables. We also found that energy consumption always having significant and positive effect on carbon dioxide emissions. States in US have already tried a variety of strategies to reduce emission over the past decades, vary by state results of estimated EKC relationship may help indicate the past successes and failures of efforts, and provide guidance for future environmental policy. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235713&r=env |
| By: | Nemati, Mehdi; Hu, Wuyang; Reed, Michael |
| Abstract: | This study attempts to empirically re-examine the relationship between free trade agreements (FTAs) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For this aim, we chose three different free trade agreements: Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA). These FTAs are between developing countries, developed and developing countries, and only developed countries, respectively. Panel unit root, panel cointegration, and fully modified OLS (FMOLS) estimators are employed to find the longrun relationship between GHG emission, trade liberalization, and other economic factors. The results indicate that the environmental effect of a free trade agreement depends on the agreement type. When the agreement is among only developed or only developing countries, there is no environmental damage to the world and these types of FTAs can be beneficial for the world environment. However, when developing and developed countries are in the agreement, world GHG emissions increase. |
| Keywords: | Economic Factors, EKC, FTAs, GHG Emissions, Panel Cointegration, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, F18, Q56, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235631&r=env |
| By: | Arjun Mahalingam; David Reiner |
| Abstract: | From 2005-2012, Spain and Italy saw significant investment in renewable energy, most notably in onshore wind and solar, driven by generous subsidies, the expectation of rising carbon prices and falling renewables (especially solar panel) costs. As a result of the Global Financial Crisis, both countries were faced with massive fiscal deficits and were forced to curtail their renewable support schemes, although these efforts took several years to take effect after the onset of the initial crisis. Ironically, both Spain and Italy incurred the lion’s share of their liability for renewables support after the onset of the crisis particularly because of the rapid drop in costs of solar PV panels, while subsidy levels remained high. In spite of changes to their support regimes, Italy is likely to meet its 2020 climate and renewable targets, whereas Spain is unlikely to meet its 2020 renewables target based on current trajectories. Following a comparative historical survey of the two large EU member states, we present a scenario analysis that contrasts alternative futures of 2030 where renewable support remain at current levels (essentially zero) or is revived and where carbon prices stay at current low levels (€5/t CO2) or rises to levels needed to accomplish the proposed 40% EU 2030 reduction target. We find that, by 2030, in large parts of Spain, solar PV will be cost-competitive even under low-carbon price and low renewable support regimes, whereas concentrated solar power (CSP) and onshore wind, will require at least either a sustained renewable support regime or a high carbon price to become cost competitive. In Italy, solar PV becomes cost competitive in the low-carbon, low-renewable support scenario except when fossil fuel prices are unusually low. By 2030, there would be large-scale penetration of onshore wind and geothermal in Italy if there is either a high-carbon price or a high renewable support regime or both. In general, if the current levels of carbon price were to exist post-2020, both Italy and Spain would find it rather difficult to increase the penetration of renewables in their electricity mix. A high subsidy world, on the other hand, would be result in the most favourable outcome, particularly for Spain, although it may incur additional costs in comparison to a high carbon price world. |
| Keywords: | Renewable energy; Electricity; Scenarios; Subsidies; EU energy and climate policy, Spain; Italy |
| JEL: | H23 Q42 N74 O13 Q28 |
| Date: | 2016–02–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1608&r=env |
| By: | Daniel Rais |
| Abstract: | Abstract Estimates show that fossil fuel subsidies average USD 400–600 billion annually worldwide while renewable energy (RE) subsidies amounted to USD 66 billion in 2010 and are predicted to rise to USD 250 billion annually by 2035. Domestic political rationales for energy subsidies include promoting innovation, job creation and economic growth, energy security, and independence. Energy subsidies may also serve social and environmental goals. Whether and to what extent subsidies are effective to achieve these goals or instead lead to market distortions is a matter of much debate and the trade effects of energy subsidies are complex. This paper offers an overview of the types of energy subsidies that are used in the conventional and renewable energy sectors, and their relationship with climate change, in particular greenhouse gas emissions. While the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) is mostly concerned with harm to competitors, this paper considers the extent to which the Agreement could also discipline subsidies that cause harm to the environment as a global common. Beyond the existing legal framework, this paper surveys a number of alternatives for improving the ability of subsidies disciplines to internalize climate change costs of energy production and consumption. One option is a new multilateral agreement on subsidies or trade remedies (with an appropriate carve-out in the WTO regime to allow for it if such an agreement is concluded outside it). Alternatively, climate change-related subsidies could be included as part of another multilateral regime or as part of regional agreements. A third approach would be to incorporate rules on energy subsidies in sectorial agreements, including a Sustainable Energy Trade Agreement such as has been proposed in other ICTSD studies. |
| Date: | 2015–02–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wti:papers:773&r=env |
| By: | Pates, Nicholas J.; Hendricks, Nathan P. |
| Abstract: | Voluntary incentive payments, also known green subsidies are a popular method to incentivize farmers into adopting environmentally friendly practices. The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) latest budget directs over 4.5 billion dollars toward programs like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CStP) and plans to have 380 million acres enrolled in these programs in 2016. The prominence of these programs mean both conservationists and taxpayers have a serious stake in their effectiveness. One concern with these programs is that they may provide little additional environmental benefits relative to what would have occurred in the absence of the program. This paper performs a discrete dynamic optimization simulation to study additionality in a dynamic environment. This allows us to directly study moral hazard as it relates to non-additionality and even delayed adoption from green payment programs. We show that larger programs do not necessarily generate more additionality and that especially poor policies can slow green practice diffusion. |
| Keywords: | additionality, diffusion, moral hazard, adverse selection, dynamic, policy, environmental, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236066&r=env |
| By: | Wang, Yangyang; Atallah, Shady; Shao, Guofan |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a spatially explicit analysis of the nutrient retention ecosystem service responses to changes in forest management in the White River Basin (WRB), Indiana. We use a modified version of the Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and ArcGIS to simulate and value the magnitude of nutrient retention service, assess the prediction power of the InVEST water yield and nutrient retention model, estimate changes in the quantity and value of nutrient retention service with hypothetical increases in enrollment in a forest conservation program, the Classified Forest and Wildlands (CFW) Program, and rank candidate scenarios using a conservation return on investment (ROI) measure. The results suggest that the benefits from a single ecosystem service of nutrient retention can exceed the cost of the tax deductions for both forest conservation scenarios considered but not for the current CFW enrollment. In particular, expanding the CFW program in contaminated sub-watershed yields a higher ROI than expanding the CFW program along river forks. Consequently, substantial savings can be achieved by applying the ROI analysis to guide conservation policies, compared to prioritization merely on the quantity measures of nutrient retention service or compared to program expansion that is not spatially targeted. |
| Keywords: | Nutrient retention, Conservation ROI, Forest conservation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Financial Economics, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236154&r=env |
| By: | Scheitrum, Daniel P.; Parker, Nathan C. |
| Abstract: | Natural gas is a growing portion of transportation fuel consumed in California. While, natural gas has a slight environmental benefit relative to the use of conventional liquid fuels such as gasoline and diesel, the environmental performance of natural gas can be greatly improved by procuring the gas from renewable sources. We estimate the supply curves of producing natural gas from four renewable sources: (1) dairy manure, (2) municipal solid waste, (3) wastewater treatment plants, and (4) landfill gas. We also evaluate how the production of RNG will respond to California's Low Carbon Fuel Policy (LCFS) and compare the welfare impacts of the LCFS policy to an equivalent carbon tax. |
| Keywords: | Natural Resource Economics, Environmental Policy, Food and Agricultural Policy, Carbon Emissions, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235883&r=env |
| By: | Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) |
| Abstract: | Climate change is a global concern of special relevance to Southeast Asia, a region that is both vulnerable to the effects of climate change and a rapidly increasing emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs). This study focuses on five countries of Southeast Asia that collectively account for 90% of regional GHG emissions in recent years—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam. It applies two global dynamic economy–energy–environment models under an array of scenarios that reflect potential regimes for regulating global GHG emissions through 2050. The modeling identifies the potential economic costs of climate inaction for the region, how the countries can most efficiently achieve GHG emission mitigation, and the consequences of mitigation, both in terms of benefits and costs. Drawing on the modeling results, the study analyzes climate-related policies and identifies how further action can be taken to ensure low-carbon growth. |
| Keywords: | indonesia, malaysia, philippines, thailand, viet nam, southeast asia, ghg, climate change, greenhouse gas, emissions mitigation, low-carbon growth, climate policy |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:asd:wpaper:rpt157821-2&r=env |
| By: | Gammans, Matthew; Mérel, Pierre; Oriz-Bobea, Ariel |
| Abstract: | Climate change is predicted to reduce crop productivity in several world regions. A growing literature has examined climate change impacts on crop yields by statistically estimating the historical relationship between weather variables and yield and projecting it into predicted future climate. We estimate a flexible statistical model using panel data from France over the period 1950-2014 to investigate the impacts of climate change on winter wheat, winter barley, and spring barley yields. For winter crops, our model captures the differential impacts of weather on yield growth over cold (fall-winter) and warm (spring-summer) seasons. Temperatures above 33 °C during the warm season appear harmful to all three crops. For winter crops, cold-season temperatures have a negligible effect on crop growth. Cereal yields are predicted to decline due to climate change under a wide range of climate models and emissions scenarios. Impacts are almost exclusively driven by increased heat exposure during the warm season. Under the most rapid warming scenario (RCP8.5) and holding growing areas constant, our model ensemble predicts a 16% decline in winter wheat yield, a 20% decline in winter barley yield, and a 42% decline in spring barley yield by the end of the century. Under this scenario, uncertainty stemming from climate model projections clearly dominates that stemming from the historically estimated climate-yield relationship. A comparison of our results with those from a recent study for Kansas wheat points to the critical role of local climatology on the marginal yield response to extreme temperature exposure. |
| Keywords: | climate change, agriculture, wheat, barley, yield, Crop Production/Industries, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235570&r=env |
| By: | Samaniego, Joseluis; Schneider, Heloísa |
| Abstract: | Quantifying the resources mobilized to tackle climate change makes it possible to ascertain the region’s status in this area and the opportunities it offers. It provides countries with the detailed information they need to move forward and prepare to meet the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). With accurate, up-to-date information on climate finance flows, countries can define their strategies for the transition to more sustainable development scenarios with a smaller environmental footprint and fiscal agents can identify gaps between supply and demand for specific financial instruments. The hope is that, rather than investment by fund providers and managers in sustainable initiatives with a smaller environmental footprint being an exception or anomaly, it will become a business model that gradually decouples economic development, investment and social inclusion from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. |
| Keywords: | CAMBIO CLIMATICO, FINANCIACION, DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE, BANCOS DE DESARROLLO, INSTITUCIONES FINANCIERAS, FONDOS, CLIMATE CHANGE, FINANCING, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, DEVELOPMENT BANKS, FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, FUNDS |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col022:40154&r=env |
| By: | Dulys, Elena; Swinton, Scott M.; Klammer, Sarah |
| Abstract: | Timber residues, a wood production byproduct, are a low cost source of biomass that avoids the environmental and food market consequences of other feedstocks. We studied the effect that price, acreage owned, environmental amenities, and disamenities have on the decision to harvest for non-commercial private forest owners in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. Over 60% of landowners were willing to provide timber residues at timber harvest or stand improvement (tree thinning) at prices starting at just $15 per acre. Important drivers of willingness to supply timber residues include the price offered for timber residue, single-species forest acreage owned, bioenergy attitudes, and the aversion to disamenities, but the price effect is relatively small. The propensity to supply timber residues was highest among owners of larger scale, single-species forest and ones favoring bioenergy. |
| Keywords: | Bioenergy, timber residue, willingness to accept, non-industrial private forest, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q23, Q42, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235752&r=env |
| By: | Howard, Peter H.; Derek, Sylvan |
| Abstract: | The social cost of carbon (SCC) is one of the primary tools used to shape greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction policies in the United States. The U.S. government’s SCC estimates are derived from three integrated assessment models (IAMs), developed by four climate economists. However, some economists – most prominently Robert Pindyck (2015) – argue that IAMs are over-reliant on the opinions of their modelers and fail to capture the wider consensus of experts. Pindyck (2015) recommends abandoning IAMs altogether, and calculating a simple “average SCC” to reflect the general opinion of experts on climate change. We propose and test an alternate approach: instead of replacing IAMs, we use expert elicitation as a method for calibrating key uncertain parameters in IAMs (Nordhaus (1994), Schauer (1995) and Roughgarden and Schneider (1999) used similar efforts in the 1990s). This approach ensures that official U.S. SCC estimates reflect the wider consensus of the economic community. To test this methodology, we conduct a 15-question online survey of all those who have published an article related to climate change in a highly ranked, peer-reviewed economics or environmental economics journal since 1994. This survey included questions on the appropriate inter-generational discount rate and expected climate damages – two important, highly uncertain parameters in IAMs. We sent the survey to 1,103 experts who met our selection criteria, and received 365 completed surveys. We find strong evidence that expert consensus has shifted since the last expert elicitation studies on the economics of climate change were conducted, more than 20 years ago. In particular, the consensus discount rate has declined and expected damages have increased, such that IAMs – which have been relatively stagnant in their discount rate and damage assumptions – do not reflect the current economic consensus. Our data can help establish a baseline for IAMs, in addition to providing other useful information for policymakers. To illustrate this point, we use the results from this survey to re-calibrate an IAM (DICE-2013R) to reflect the current state of expert opinion on expected climate damages and discount rates, and re-calculate the SCC. In general, we find a significant increase in the SCC – more than 10-fold under most scenarios – supporting the hypothesis that current IAMs do not reflect the current scientific consensus. |
| Keywords: | social cost of carbon, integrated assessment models, climate damage functions, inter-inter-generational discount rate, expert, expert elicitation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty, Q54, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235639&r=env |
| By: | Liu, Wan Yu |
| Abstract: | Appropriate forest thinning is beneficial for growing forests and protecting ecological environments. To find a beneficial way for both economic and environmental aspects, carbon sequestration and emission due to forest thinning activities can be traded. However, previous works on forest planning did not consider forest thinning, nor carbon trading. Hence, this study proposes the spatial forest thinning planning problem with carbon trading, which decides forest thinning schedules over a planning period so that the total thinned timber volume over the period and the revenue from carbon trading are maximized, under some spatial constraints. This study creates a novel mathematical programming model. |
| Keywords: | Forest thinning, carbon trading, spatial forest planning, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–08–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235463&r=env |
| By: | Holderieath, Jason |
| Abstract: | Species are often viewed as either beneficial or detrimental. The determination of beneficial or detrimental depends on the evaluator, often with disagreement within disciplines such as agriculture or wildlife biology. One common argument against a species revolves around its status as native or non-native, with the latter as a negative characteristic. Defining native and non-native is highly subjective, with a common North American delineation as an introduction before and after Columbus, respectively (Nelson 2010). However, in the past, native species such as the American buffalo (Bison bison) have been targets of eradication campaigns and even today white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and Canadian geese (Branta Canadensis) populations are managed to limit the damage they inflict on agriculture. It is also acknowledged that these example species have intrinsic value in the ecosystem and value as a recreationally hunted species in the case of white-tailed deer and Canadian geese. Non-native species can be viewed beneficially, as most agricultural species are introduced, for recreational use, and even as a replacement for extirpated native species (Schlaepfer, Sax and Olden 2011; Zivin, Hueth and Zilberman 2000). In the US, one contentious species is feral swine (Sus scrofa). Federal removal and control efforts are underway as some private landowners encourage their growth on their property (Bevins et al. 2014; Bannerman and Cole 2014). Feral swine are a vector for diseases, cause ecosystem damage, and inflict physical losses to agriculture (Pimentel, Zuniga and Morrison 2005; Cozzens 2010; Seward et al. 2004). However, feral swine are a valuable recreational species. With benefits and costs often accruing to different people, conflict over management is inevitable. As in most externality problems, property lines do not inhibit damage. Unique to most externality problems is the way the damage causing agent can multiply and spread unaided once introduced. Stakeholders include agricultural landowners, recreational landowners, private conservationists, and government entities. Agriculturalists may be sensitive to crop damage and unwilling to sell hunting licenses on their property to offset the damage. Recreational users may enjoy the opportunity to hunt feral swine or may be sensitive to habitat damage and predation of other game species. Private individuals may also own land with the expressed purpose of native habitat conservation. This division between agriculturalist, recreationists, and conservationists is in reality too strong. Landowners are often a mix of the three. Landowners may also exhibit inconsistent preferences or a lack of information, implying a need to relax rationality assumptions. Rational choice theory, or the rationality assumptions, require that a consumer's actions exhibit completeness, transitivity, and perfect information. Finally, government entities are responsible for many goals including preservation of native species, maintenance of protective structures such as levees, and preventing outbreaks of dangerous diseases. These varying objectives can result in inconsistent policymaker actions (Karp et al. 2015). Management decisions by one stakeholder will affect the outcomes of all stakeholders. The variety of opinions and the interaction between landowners, government agencies, and the swine themselves make an optimal policy solution, here defined as the policy solution with the highest total welfare gain, hard to determine. Previous work has ignored interaction between people and swine, spatial issues, temporal characteristics of feral swine spread, or the variety of values held among stakeholders. To address these shortcomings, an agent-based modeling approach is used to determine the optimal management solution, as well as how varying stakeholder opinions and rationality can change the optimal solution. Agent-based modeling promises to be able to model a rich diversity in objectives across time and space (Heckbert, Baynes and Reeson 2010). Applications of agent-based modeling demonstrate its capabilities with interactive heterogeneous agents and spatiotemporally explicit modeling (Evans and Kelley 2004; Schreinemachers et al. 2009; Berger and Troost 2014). Agents can be modeled maintaining traditional compatibility with economic theory (e.g. utility maximizing rational agents), with varying degrees of rationality and awareness of their surroundings, and established tools such as linear programming can be used to help agents make decisions (Berger 2001; Schreinemachers et al. 2009). ABMs have been shown to be suited for analysis of policy intended to address previously unseen events such as the effects of climate change or a new trade agreement (Berger 2001; Berger and Troost 2014). This paper will demonstrate the importance of the interaction between individuals across time and space over management decisions in a way that has not previously been published. Management paths have been established for heterogeneous groups of agriculturalists, recreational land users, private conservationists and governmental entities with varying motivations. The setting for the simulations is a hypothetical rural environment with the potential for feral swine and damage to crops, livestock, and habitat. Results from these simulations are being compared to situations with individuals of heterogeneous preferences. Preliminary results indicate that both locality and individual characteristics matter in determining the optimal outcome. The code for the ABM is being written in a program that provides striking visuals in addition to the quantitative data needed for analysis. These visualizations, the research goals, and the subject matter of feral swine have not failed to generate substantial discussion when presented. The model, properly calibrated, can be used to simulate a potential management area to determine the best path forward. Results of the analysis are expected to inform policymakers to help guide hunting license protocol and public management efforts to manage feral swine in a humane, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible manner. |
| Keywords: | feral swine, wild pigs, ABM, agent-based modeling, wildlife, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Land Economics/Use, Q15, Q18, Q59, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235850&r=env |
| By: | Sina Ahmadzadeh Mashinchi (University of Auckland) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the potential environmental and macroeconomic impacts of implementing GHG mitigation policies, notably an Environmental Tax Reform (ETR), in New Zealand using the E3M3 model, a global macroeconometric model that links the world’s economies to their energy systems and associated emissions. A number of different scenarios including a baseline are constructed to investigate the performance of the NZ ETS and other complementary mitigation policies over the commitment period (2021-2030). In the light of the model results, it is notable that the higher carbon prices especially in the early years would be necessary to achieve the ambitious GHG emissions target in New Zealand. The results also suggest that a combined NZ ETS and carbon tax approach with revenue recycling could lead to significant economic benefits. Therefore, a double dividend effect could be achievable, if New Zealand’s government recycles the revenues from carbon taxes efficiently. |
| Keywords: | Environmental tax reform, GHG mitigation policies, NZ ETS, Energy–environment–economy modelling, Carbon tax |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3506060&r=env |
| By: | Osei, Edward |
| Abstract: | The Upper Washita River basin in southwestern Oklahoma has been the subject of extensive research since the 1930s and is also a participating watershed in the long-term USDA Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) effort. Much of the research has focused on developing and testing computer models and tools to simulate the impacts of agricultural management practices on soil and water resources. While a substantial portion of these research efforts have focused on the environmental impacts of management practices, economic considerations are now receiving greater attention since funding agencies are better appreciating the link between farm economics and producer adoption of the conservation practices. This paper contributes to a better understanding of how resource conservation benefits of limited available funds can be maximized by optimal distribution of the practices based on publicly available spatial distributions of the biophysical attributes of agricultural lands. We specifically determine optimal conservation practice distributions for two sub-basins of the Upper Washita River basin: the Fort Cobb Reservoir Experimental Watershed (FCREW) and the Little Washita River Experimental Watershed (LWREW). |
| Keywords: | optimization, conservation practices, economics, no-till, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q15, Q34, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236013&r=env |
| By: | Connolly, Cristina; Livy, Mitchell R. |
| Abstract: | The presence of environmental degradation results in significant costs to residents that are likely to affect location choices at the micro-level. This paper utilizes unique Census tract level pollution data to examine the extent that homeowners sort across measurable environmental quality, and to endogenizes the grant process for high-pollution communities. Initial results indicate that drinking water and PM 2.5 pollution burden levels significantly impact sorting behaviors. |
| Keywords: | Residential sorting, environmental quality, location choice, pollution., Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235654&r=env |
| By: | Doruk Ä°riÅŸ; Alessandro Tavoni |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of loss-aversion and the threat of catastrophic damages, which we jointly call threshold concerns, on international environmental agreements. We aim to understand whether a threshold for dangerous climate change is an effective coordination device for countries to overcome the free-riding problem, so that they abate emissions sufficiently to avoid disaster. We focus on loss-averse countries negotiating under the threat of either high environmental damages (loss domain) or low damages (gain domain). Under symmetry, when countries display identical degrees of threshold concern, we show that such beliefs have a positive effect on reducing the emission levels of both signatories to the treaty and non-signatories, leading to weakly larger coalitions of signatories. We then introduce asymmetry, by allowing countries to differ in the degree of concern about the threat of disaster. We show that stable coalitions are mostly formed by the countries with higher threshold concerns. When enough countries have no threshold concern, coalition size may diminish, regardless of whether the other countries have mild or strong threshold concerns. |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp239&r=env |
| By: | Silva, Felipe; Fulginiti, Lilyan; Perrin, Richard |
| Abstract: | Agriculture has led to deforestation in the northern states of Brazil during the last decades, generating a tradeoff between forest and agricultural commodities. In this study we estimate this tradeoff for the Brazilian Amazon region. To calculate the tradeoff, we use a directional distance function to estimate a production possibility frontier and the marginal rate of transformation between deforestation and agricultural activities. Using this information and market prices we calculate the shadow price of deforestation in terms of agricultural GDP foregone. Results indicate that, on average, US$ 129.48 in agricultural GDP has to be foregone to keep one hectare of virgin tropical forest. Marginal rates of transformation suggest a higher tradeoff between livestock and deforestation given the currently extensive production in the region. Also, we found that these rates vary across states due to the relevance of each agricultural activity for them, illustrating the heterogeneity of the region with respect to agricultural production. We also found an average perpetuity shadow price of a ton of CO2 emissions of US$4.16. A market-price equilibrium for tCO2 at this average price would lead to a reduction of at least 468 thousand hectares, around 43% of 2006 deforestation. |
| Keywords: | Amazon Forest, Agriculture, Deforestation, Trade-off., Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, Q51, Q54, C61, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235800&r=env |
| By: | Todd Gerarden; W. Spencer Reeder; James H. Stock |
| Abstract: | Coal mined on federally managed lands accounts for approximately 40% of U.S. coal consumption and 13% of total U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions. The U.S. Department of the Interior is undertaking a programmatic review of federal coal leasing, including the climate effects of burning federal coal. This paper studies the interaction between a specific upstream policy, incorporating a carbon adder into federal coal royalties, and downstream emissions regulation under the Clean Power Plan (CPP). After providing some comparative statics, we present quantitative results from a detailed dynamic model of the power sector, the Integrated Planning Model (IPM). The IPM analysis indicates that, in the absence of the CPP, a royalty adder equal to the social cost of carbon could reduce emissions by roughly 3/4 of the emissions reduction that the CPP is projected to achieve. If instead the CPP is binding, the royalty adder would: reduce the price of tradeable emissions allowances, produce some additional emissions reductions by reducing leakage, and reduce wholesale power prices under a mass-based CPP but increase them under a rate-based CPP. A federal royalty adder increases mining of non-federal coal, but this substitution is limited by a shift to electricity generation by gas and renewables. |
| JEL: | Q38 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22214&r=env |
| By: | Bigano, Andrea; Śniegocki, Aleksander; Zotti, Jacopo |
| Abstract: | Economic activities affect the environment through a multiplicity of channels. Besides generating GHG emissions that induce climatic changes, every modern economy is connected to the environment throughout a continuous flow of materials. To generate economic wealth, a modern economy demands natural resources, and produces a continuous flow of waste. The scarcity of natural resources and the negative externalities arising along the life cycle of the resources from the extraction of the resources to their transformation, the use of the final products and eventually the final disposal of the latter seem natural motivations for the current policy push towards a more dematerialized and a more circular economy. The EU in particular appears to be approaching a new frontier of the environmental policy. The main contribution of this paper is a qualitative assessment of this strategy. To this aim, we first investigate the theoretical and political rationale for the EU to foster dematerialization, and on this basis, we provide an economic assessment of the effective feasibility of the initiative. From a theoretical economics point of view, the paper provides an overview of the main externalities arising from materials’ extraction, use and disposal. In a policy perspective, the paper reviews the state of affairs of the major world countries (USA, Japan and China in particular) on this issue, and contextualizes the EU action in a global perspective. This paper investigates whether in this policy field the EU can globally play a decisive role by itself or its role may be limited to providing a good example for other countries to follow, as in the case of the reduction of GHG emissions. In the second part of the paper we discuss some of the most promising policies put forward by the DYNAMIX project. On the basis of the qualitative policy assessment performed in DYNAMIX, we illustrate why these measures might be worth serious consideration. A discussion regarding the political economy of the policies under scrutiny complements the analysis of their effectiveness and efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Dematerialization, Absolute Decoupling, Resource Efficiency, Policy Mixes, Qualitative Assessment, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, H23, O44, Q01, Q32, |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemei:236241&r=env |
| By: | Mahaffey, Harry; Taheripour, Farzad; Tyner, Wallace E. |
| Abstract: | The objective of this research is to assess the global economic and greenhouse gas emission impacts of GMO crops. This is done by modeling two counterfactual scenarios and evaluating them apart and in combination. The first scenario models the impact of a global GMO ban. The second scenario models the impact of increased GMO penetration. The focus is on the price and welfare impacts, and land use change greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with GMO technologies. Much of the prior work on the economic impacts of GMO technology has relied on a combination of partial equilibrium analysis and econometric techniques. However, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modelling is a way of analyzing economy-wide impacts that takes into account the linkages in the global economy. Though it has been used in the context of GMO crops, the focus has been on the effects of various trade policies and regulatory regimes. Here the goal is to contribute to the literature on the benefits of GMO technology by estimating the impacts on price, supply and welfare. Food price impacts range from an increase of 0.27% to 2.2%, depending on the region. Total welfare losses associated with loss of GMO technology total up to $9.75 billion. The loss of GMO traits as an intensification technology has not only economic impacts, but also environmental ones. The full environmental analysis of GMO is not undertaken here. Rather we model the land use change owing to the loss of GMO traits and calculate the associated increase in GHG emissions. We predict a substantial increase in GHG emissions if GMO technology is banned. |
| Keywords: | GMO Crops, Productivity, Computable General Equilibrium, Economic Impacts, Land Use Change, Land Use Emissions, Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235591&r=env |
| By: | Lee, Gi-Eu |
| Abstract: | An emerging body of research about climate change impacts has explored temperature effects on human activities. However, most studies use simpler identification strategies that can only explore one or two attributes relating to temperature or to its abnormalities. These simpler strategies limit the understanding of temperature effects, and there is dispute about the effectiveness of simple identification strategies. To better understand complex temperature effects on human activities, this study uses residential energy consumption as an example and develops identification strategies to capture the temperature effects resulting from temporal patterns (temperature fluctuation), abnormality (temperature departure from normal), and the interdependence among these attributes. For comparison, we use the same data set and model specification as in Deschênes and Greenstone (2011) except for specifications to capture complex temperature effects. We construct variables to capture additional temperature attributes and create the interaction terms among these attributes and temperature levels. Our findings verify the existence of complex temperature effects on energy consumption, and our paper may provoke the discussion of different strategies to better capture climate impacts on human activities. |
| Keywords: | Complex Temperature Effects, Energy Consumption, Climate Change, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q5, Q4, |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235739&r=env |
| By: | Harker, Amanda; Landry, Craig; Bergstrom, John |
| Abstract: | Since the OPEC oil embargo of the 1970’s, U.S. energy policy has been increasingly concentrated on the advancement of domestic renewable energy resources. In order to reduce environmental impacts, promote energy security, and provide energy for an ever-growing population the U.S. has started to transition away from conventional fossil fuels and push forward towards the use of renewables. According to the Energy Information Administration (2015), the production and consumption of one renewable resource in particular, wind energy, has experienced a substantial increase over the past decade. Wind energy is often favored due to its inexhaustible nature, capacity to produce zero greenhouse gas emissions, positive impact on local job growth, and overall cost effectiveness. However, proponents of wind energy are frequently averse to the construction of turbines due to inadequate available land, possible decreases in property values generated by increased noise levels, impaired visual aesthetics, and the intermittence of the wind resource. The objective of our study is to estimate changes in economic welfare resulting from offshore wind farm expansion in coastal North Carolina. Specifically we estimate a fixed effects negative binomial model using a combination of both revealed and stated preference data. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235991&r=env |
| By: | Almeida, Alexandre N.; Santos, Augusto S.; Halmenschlager, Vinícius; Gilio, Leandro; Diniz, Tiago B.; Ferreira, Alexandre A. S. |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the fleet of flex-fuels vehicles and CO2 emissions in Brazil. We analyzed the robustness of parametric and semiparametric analyses using a panel data set at the state level from 1998 to 2013. In both analyses, we find that there is a strong negative correlation between CO2 emissions and flex-fuels vehicles. Moreover, our results also suggest that there are: 1) there is evidence of an Environment Kuznets Curve for flex-fuel vehicles; 2) a negative relationship between sugar cane cropped area (due to carbon sequestration) and CO2 emissions and; 3) a positive relationship between livestock and CO2 emissions. |
| Keywords: | flex-fuels vehicles, CO2 emissions, semiparametric models, Brazil, Environmental Economics and Policy, C14, O13, Q53, |
| Date: | 2016–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235733&r=env |
| By: | Nuñez, Hector M. |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to develop a framework to forecast biofuel policies impacts about fifteen years ahead in Mexico, where there have been several attempts to introduce biofuels into the market but so far no success. Technically, we develop an endogenous-price mathematical programming model emphasizing the Mexican agricultural and fuel sectors, which are embedded in a multi-region, multi-product, spatial partial equilibrium model of the world economy. There is a module for the U.S. and another for Rest of the World. Mexico is disaggregated into 193 crop districts. Production functions are specified for 14 major crops as well as livestock. Biofuel can be produced both from dedicated crops and from agroindustrial residues. We consider three policy alternatives as well as a base case in which, as now, liquid fuels are all derived from fossil sources. The first alternative consists of subsidies to biofuel producers, the second of blending mandates and the third of both combined. Biofuel imports are allowed in all cases. Results show some losses for fuel and agricultural consumers, that are not offset by both ethanol producer and GHG emissions reduction gains. This suggests that some compensating redistribution may be needed if these policies are to be seen as politically sustainable. |
| Keywords: | Mexico, Land Use, Biofuels, Gasoline, Fuel Policies, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, C61, Q10, Q42, Q48, Q54, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236067&r=env |
| By: | Meng, Bo; Xue, Jinjun |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an alternative input-output based spatial-structural decomposition analysis to elucidate the role of domestic-regional heterogeneity and interregional spillover effects in determining China's regional CO2 emission growth. Our empirical results based on the 2007 and 2010 Chinese interregional input-output tables show that the changes in most regions' final demand scale, final expenditure structure and export scale give positive spatial spillover effects on other regions' CO2 emission growth, the changes in most regions' consumption and export preference help the reduction of other regions' CO2 emissions, the changes in production technology, and investment preference may give positive or negative impacts on other region's CO2 emission growth through domestic supply chains. For some regions, the aggregate spillover effect from other regions may be larger than the intra-regional effect in determining regional emission growth. All these facts can significantly help better and deeper understanding on the driving forces of China's regional CO2 emission growth, thus can enrich the policy implication concerning a narrow definition of "carbon leakage" through domestic-interregional trade, and relevant political consensus about the responsibility sharing between developed and developing regions inside China. |
| Keywords: | Environmental problems, Global warming, Input-output tables, Regional heterogeneity, Spillover effect, CO2 emissions, Input-output, Supply chain |
| JEL: | C65 Q56 R15 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper576&r=env |
| By: | Lyu, Ya-Pin; Chang, Ching-Cheng; Chen, Shu-Ling |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to unveil the nature of individual’s preference for PPP flood insurance alternatives under climate change using the choice experiment method and a case study in Tainan City in Taiwan. Our estimates shows that respondents who perceived increasingly higher risks in agriculture and fishery industry were less likely to buy flood insurance. Several reasons could account for their inactiveness in insurance purchase, including insufficient knowledge and financial capacity, over-reliance on government relief, and the lack of diverse insurance alternatives to meet local industrial needs. The simulated market penetration under different climate scenarios also reveals the market potentials do exist and will grow in the future while climate conditions get worse. |
| Keywords: | Private-Public-Participation, Flood Insurance, Choice Experiment, Market Penetration, Risk Perception, Demand and Price Analysis, Financial Economics, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Risk and Uncertainty, Q54, Q58, G22, G32, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235983&r=env |
| By: | Valentina Giannini (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici); Alessio Bellucci (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici); Silvia Torresan (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici) |
| Abstract: | The need to cope with the expected impacts of climate change on socio-ecological systems calls for a closer dialogue between climate scientists and the community of climate information users (e.g. decision makers belonging to public institutions). We describe an interactive process designed to bridge this gap by establishing a two-way communication, based on mutual learning. We analyse the need of climate information for the integrated assessment of climate change impacts on the coastal zone of the Northern Adriatic Sea, which is considered to be particularly vulnerable to several climate-related phenomena, e.g. heavy rainfall events, pluvial flood, and sea-level rise, causing potentially high damages to coastal eco-systems and urban areas (e.g. acqua alta in the Venice Lagoon). A participatory process is designed engaging representatives from both the scientific and local stakeholders communities, and facilitated by a boundary organization, embodied by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change. |
| Keywords: | Decision Making, Climate Products, Climate Services, Risk Assessment, Northern Adriatic, Participatory Process, CLIM-RUN |
| JEL: | O1 Q2 R5 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2016.38&r=env |
| By: | Clancy, Matthew; Moschini, GianCarlo |
| Abstract: | We use a novel modeling framework that incorporates free entry into the R&D sector and uncertainty about technological opportunity to evaluate three policy regimes (relative to laissez faire) designed to address a market with negative environmental externalities: a carbon tax, an R&D subsidy, and a mix of the two instruments. We show carbon taxes on their own are sufficient to obtain most of the welfare gains achieved by an optimal policy mix, and that the optimal carbon tax level is relatively robust to changing modeling assumptions, in contrast to optimal R&D subsidies. We also show R&D subsidies tend to produce more disperse outcomes than a carbon tax: either more R&D entrants (when technological opportunity is favorable) or none at all (when technological opportunity is unfavorable). |
| Keywords: | Carbon tax, Incentive, Innovation, Renewable energy, R&D subsidy, Welfare, Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, H23, O31, Q42, Q55, Q58, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235710&r=env |
| By: | Younoh Kim (Department of Economics, Eastern Michigan University); Scott Knowles; James Manley (Department of Economics, Eastern Michigan University); Vlad Radoias (Department of Economics, Towson University) |
| Abstract: | While many studies in the medical literature documented causal relationships between air pollution and negative health outcomes immediately following exposure, much less is known about the long run health consequences of pollution exposure. Using the 1997 Indonesian forest fires as a natural experiment, we estimate the long term effects of air pollution on health outcomes. We take advantage of the longitudinal nature of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), which collects detailed individual data on a multitude of health outcomes, in both 1997 and 2007. We find significant negative effects of pollution, which persist in the long run. Men and the elderly are impacted the most, while children seem to recover almost completely from these early shocks. |
| Keywords: | Air Pollution, Health, Indonesia. |
| JEL: | I1 Q53 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tow:wpaper:2016-11&r=env |
| By: | David Newbery |
| Abstract: | Given the agreed urgency of decarbonizing electricity and the need to guide decentralized private decisions, an adequate and credible carbon price appears essential. The paper defines and quantifies the useful concept of the break-even carbon price for mature zero-carbon electricity investments. It appears an attractive alternative given the difficulty of measuring the social cost of carbon, but modelling shows it extremely sensitive to projected fuel prices, the rate of interest, and the capital cost of generation options, all of which are very uncertain. This has important implications, and justifies combining a carbon price floor with suitable long-term contracts for electricity investments. The same sensitivity demonstrated for the break-even carbon price translates into similar sensitivities for marginal abatement cost curves. |
| Keywords: | carbon price, electricity, investment, renewables, marginal abatement cost |
| JEL: | C65 Q42 Q48 Q51 Q54 |
| Date: | 2016–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1614&r=env |
| By: | Gabriel Bachner (University of Graz); Birgit Bednar-Friedl (University of Graz) |
| Abstract: | Climate change impacts and public adaptation have manifold effects on public budgets both on the expenditure and revenue side, which calls for instruments to mitigate these effects such that the provision of fundamental public services such as health or education can remain at the same level as without climate change. This paper therefore compares different instruments to counterbalance expenditure cuts induced by climate change impacts and adaptation within a CGE framework. When comparing the climate change scenario to the baseline scenario, we find that revenues – and thus expenditures – decline. When adding different instruments to counterbalance this effect, we find that there are large differences in budgetary and macroeconomic consequences across instruments. While an increase in capital or output taxes reduces the welfare losses of climate change, higher labor taxes amplify welfare losses. Also increased foreign lending has positive macroeconomic effects but leads to a higher deficit. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change Adaptation; Public Finance; Tax Policy; Policy Analysis; CGE |
| JEL: | Q54 Q58 H23 C68 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grz:wpaper:2016-07&r=env |
| By: | Zhiyang Shen (IESEG School of Management (LEM 9221-CNRS)); Jean-Philippe Boussemart (University of Lille 3 and IESEG School of Management (LEM 9221-CNRS); CNRS-LEM 9221 and IESEG School of Management) |
| Abstract: | Most of previous research about Total Factor Productivity (TFP) at the macro level only emphasizes technical effect and technological progress at the country level, but it ignores structural effect for a group of countries at the aggregate level. This paper attempts to measure the green productivity evolution incorporating carbon dioxide emissions based on the Luenberger TFP indicator for a group of 30 OECD countries over the period of 1971-2011. We propose a novel decomposition for green productivity growth at the aggregate level which separates TFP changes into three components: technological progress, technical efficiency change, and structural efficiency change. The structural effect captures the heterogeneity in the combination of input and output mixes among countries that can impact TFP growth at a more aggregate level. In the literature, this effect has not been quantified for a group of nations such as the OECD countries. Our results indicate that the traditional TFP index underestimates green growth which is motivated by the effective and efficient environmental policies of the OECD. The green productivity growth is mainly driven by technology progress which has become a dominant force in the 21st century. |
| Keywords: | Undesirable Output; Carbon Dioxide Emissions; Total Factor Productivity; Weak Disposability |
| JEL: | O44 O47 Q50 D24 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ies:wpaper:e201603&r=env |
| By: | Gilliland, Ted E.; Sanchirico, James N.; Taylor, J. Edward |
| Abstract: | Protecting degraded open-access natural resources while maintaining or improving individuals’ livelihoods is a major challenge, particularly in developing countries. Tourism (especially ecotourism) is often viewed as a win-win solution that can shift natural resource users away from resource extraction and increase local incomes. Existing studies examining the impacts of tourism on natural resource use and livelihoods fail to account for the full suite of effects tourism has on local economies. We offer a new methodology to assess the impacts of tourism growth by combining local economy-wide impact evaluation (LEWIE) techniques from development economics with bioeconomic modeling techniques from natural resource economics. We construct our “Bio-LEWIE” model using a novel data set of microeconomic and biological data from the western Philippines. We simulate the impact of a 10 percent increase in tourism expenditures on fishing pressure and local incomes for different socioeconomic groups (e.g., poor households versus nonpoor households). We find that if fish cannot be traded with outside markets, fishing pressure increases and real incomes decrease for most households in the long-run; this counteracts some of the benefits of tourism. In contrast, if fish can be imported, fishing pressure decreases and real incomes increase for most households in the long-run; this reinforces potential gains from tourism growth and may even counteract losses by poorer socioeconomic groups. The Bio-LEWIE model predicts the costs and benefits of tourism growth, when they will occur, and for whom. This framework can help policy-makers in the developing world find synergies between natural resource protection, sustainable livelihoods, and economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Natural resources, Fisheries, Poverty, Tourism, Bioeconomic models, CGE, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q22, O12, Z32, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236214&r=env |
| By: | Howard, Peter H; Sterner, Thomas |
| Abstract: | In the United States, the social cost of carbon (SCC) is one of the foremost tools for calibrating the socially optimal approach for climate change policy. The SCC is estimated using climate-economic models with implicit temperature-damage relationships. Given the vast uncertainty surrounding climate impacts, meta-analyses of global climate damage estimates are a key tool for determining the relationship between temperature and climate damages, so as to communicate the current state of knowledge to model developers. Using a larger dataset than previously assembled in the literature, this paper highlights several methodological improvements that address bias present in previous meta-analyses of the temperature-damage relationship. Specifically, due to limited data availability, previous meta-analyses of global climate damages potentially suffered from multiple sources of bias: duplication bias, measurement error, omitted variable bias, and publication bias. By expanding our dataset (to include additional published and grey literature estimates), including methodological variables, and correcting the specification of temperature (to account for different reference periods), we are able to address and test for these biases. Estimating the relationship between temperature and climate damages using weighted least squares with cluster robust standard errors at the model level, we find strong evidence of duplicate bias. Using these results as an input in the DICE model – to update the DICE damage function – we determine that duplication and omitted variable bias significantly impact the damage-temperature relationship in past meta-analyses and the resulting SCC estimates. Focusing exclusively on non-catastrophic climate impacts, we find that the temperature-damage relationship estimated in Nordhaus and Sztorc (2013) is biased downwards by approximately 179% to 264%, depending on how climate change’s impacts on productivity are treated. This implies a downward bias in DICE’s SCC estimate by 203% to 314%, depending on the treatment of productivity. If we also consider catastrophic impacts, the potential bias in the SCC increases to 344% to 469%. |
| Keywords: | social cost of carbon, integrated assessment models, climate change, meta-analysis, top-down approach, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty, Q54, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235696&r=env |
| By: | Carriquiry, Miguel; Elobeid, Amani; Goodrich, Ryan |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a review of several of the major factors that will determine the need to incorporate additional land to production in response to a demand increase, for example as a result of biofuel policies. Among the factors reviewed are the potential for yield intensification in response to higher returns (intensification effects), and the limited existing evidence in yield drags as areas are incorporate to crop production (extensification effects). We conduct a review of the recent trends on Amazon deforestation, highlighting the recent interventions and seemingly sustained lower rates than in earlier years. These lower rates, which may be the results of more stringent regulations and control, occur in a period of high agricultural price and demand for land, which calls for some additional research on the direct link between global agricultural demand and deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. Scenario analysis using an augmented version of the CARD/FAPRI agricultural modeling system (augmented to include planted forests in Brazil) seem to provide evidence in this line. Systematic work in this line is scarce and clearly more research is needed to truly understand the implications of adding the competition with planted forests, different levels of policy enforcement, and potentials for yield (both in terms of crops and pastures) increases on evaluations of agricultural price change, land use change, and environmental impacts. |
| Keywords: | land use change, land use change models, planted forests models, Agricultural and Food Policy, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235888&r=env |
| By: | Howlader, Aparna; Ando, Amy W. |
| Abstract: | Forest protected areas are mostly located in developing countries, where forests are a main source of the traditional rural livelihood. This creates potential for conflict between local communities and biodiversity conservation. To explore this issue, we examine the case of forest protected areas (PAs) in Nepal. In the period of 1995-2003, the Nepalese government established several new protected areas (PAs) throughout the country. Using Nepal Living Standard Survey collected in 1995/1996 and 2003/2004, we evaluate the effects of these new PAs on household consumption and wood-collection effort by combining differences across regions with differences across time. The estimates suggest that the PA establishment has reduced average forest-good consumption by almost 30% to 70% compared to the pre-establishment period and this decrease has not translated into a larger market participation in fuel purchase. However, as described in previous literature, the estimates on welfare variable (in terms of per-capita consumption expenditure) does not suggest spillover impacts on the households from PA-based ecotourism industry in the study period. The paper also explores whether protected areas could be affecting households in other ways, such as by migration or inducing changes in labor supply. |
| Keywords: | Protected Area, Land Conservation, Impact Evaluation, Nepal, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q560, Q570, Q580, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236272&r=env |
| By: | Madanat, Samer; Horvath , Arpad; Mao, Chao; Cheng, Han |
| Abstract: | Public transit systems with efficient designs and operating plans can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to low-occupancy transportation modes, but many current transit systems have not been designed to reduce environmental impacts. This motivates the study of the benefits of design and operational approaches for reducing the environmental impacts of transit systems. For example, transit agencies may replace level-of-service (LOS) by vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as a criterion in evaluating design and operational changes. Previous studies have demonstrated in an idealized singletechnology transit system the potential of reducing GHG emissions by lowering the transit level-of-service (LOS) provided to the users. In this research, we extend the analysis to account for a more realistic case: a transit system with a hierarchical structure (trunk and feeder lines) providing service to a city where demand is elastic. By considering the interactions between the trunk and the feeder systems, the study provides a quantitative basis for designing and operating integrated urban transit systems that can reduce GHG emissions and costs to both transit users and agencies. The study shows that highly elastic transit demand may cancel emission reduction potentials resulting from lowering LOS, due to demand shifts to lower occupancy vehicles, causing unintended consequences. However, for mass transit modes, these potentials are still significant. Transit networks with buses, bus rapid transit or light rail as trunk modes should be designed and operated near the cost-optimal point when the demand is highly elastic, while this is not required for metro. We also find that the potential for unintended consequences increases with the size of the city. The results are robust to uncertainties in the costs and emissions parameters. The study also includes a discussion of a current transit system. Since many current transit systems have not yet been optimally designed, it should be possible to reduce their GHG emissions without sacrificing the LOS. A case study of the MUNI bus system in San Francisco is used to validate this conjecture. The analysis shows that reductions in GHG emissions can be achieved when societal costs are reduced simultaneously. The cost-optimal MUNI bus system has a societal cost of 0.15 billion $/year and emits 1680 metric tons of greenhouse gases. These figures only amount to about half of the cost and a third of the emissions in the current MUNI bus system. The optimal system has a lower spatial availability but a higher temporal availability of bus service than the current system, which highlights the potential benefits of providing more frequent express bus services. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, transit system design, greenhouse gas emission, feeder transit, elasticity, cost minimization, continuum approximation |
| Date: | 2016–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt25x1b693&r=env |
| By: | Rickels, Wilfried; Dovern, Jonas; Hoffmann, Julia; Quaas, Martin F.; Schmidt, Jörn O.; Visbeck, Martin |
| Abstract: | The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes a set of 17 sustainable development goals (SDG) with 169 specific targets. As such, it could be a step forward in achieving efficient governance and policies for global sustainable development. However, the current indicator framework with its broad set of individual indicators prevents straightforward assessment of synergies and trade-offs between the various indicators, targets, and goals, thus, heightening the significance of policy guidance in achieving sustainable development. With our detailed analysis of SDG 14 (Ocean) for European Union (EU) coastal states, we demonstrate how the (complementary) inclusion of composite indicators that aggregate the individual indicators by applying a generalized mean can provide important additional information and facilitate the assessment of sustainable development in general and in the SDG context in particular. Embedded in the context of social choice theory, the generalized mean varies the specification of substitution elasticity and thus allows: (a) for a straightforward distinction between a concept of weak and strong sustainability and (b) for straightforward sensitivity analysis. We show that while in general the EU coastal states have a fairly balanced record at the SDG 14 level, certain countries like Slovenia and Portugal with a fairly balanced and a fairly unbalanced showing, respectively, rank very differently in terms of the two concepts of strong sustainability. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkie:141318&r=env |
| By: | Peng, Lizhong; Meyerhoefer, Chad; Chou, Shin-Yi |
| Abstract: | We investigate the health impacts of unconventional natural gas development of Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania between 2001 and 2013 by merging well permit data from Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection with a database of all inpatient hospital admissions. Through a difference-in-differences regression analysis that compares changes in hospitalization rates over time for air pollution-sensitive disease in counties with unconventional gas wells to changes in hospitalization rates in non-well counties, we find significant associations between shale gas development and hospitalizations for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), pneumonia, and upper respiratory infections (URI). In particular, we find that county-level hospitalization rates for AMI among young adults (aged 20-44) increased by 24 percent due to shale gas development. Hospitalizations for pneumonia and URI also increased by 8.5 percent and 17 percent, respectively, among the elderly. These adverse effects on health are consistent with higher levels of air pollution resulting from unconventional natural gas development. |
| Keywords: | shale gas development, air pollution, pneumonia, asthma, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, I15, Q53, O13, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235745&r=env |
| By: | Dumortier, Jerome |
| Abstract: | Farmland in the United States has undergone significant transformation over the last decades. Productivity increases, the introduction of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and the emergence of the biofuel industry have all contributed to significant land-use changes. The potential to produce cellulosic ethanol as well as climate change will continue to change the agricultural landscape. In this paper, we present preliminary results on the importance of the evolution of agricultural productivity in the future and how it changes the land-use allocation at the county level. In particular, we are interested in yield projections and their implications for ecosystem services. For this purpose, we use a simple optimization model predicting land-use at the county level for three crops and CRP land. Given differential yield increases varying by crop and county, the potential for land-sparing and distinct ecosystem services arises. |
| Keywords: | Yield projections, conservation reserve program, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235653&r=env |
| By: | Sneeringer, Stacy; Pon, Shirley |
| Abstract: | A much-touted policy tool to reduce nutrient pollution from livestock agriculture is the nutrient management plan (NMP). NMPs can be voluntary or required, and oblige farms to match the nutrients applied as manure or commercial fertilizer with the absorptive capacity of land and crops. However, little research examines whether these plans are implemented, even if farms have records of having plans. In this paper we use nationally-representative Agricultural and Resource Management Survey (ARMS) data on hog producers to compare the nutrient application practices of farms with and without NMPs to see whether having an NMP makes a farm less likely to over-apply nutrients, as well as to adopt other nutrient management practices. We also examine whether the effect of having an NMP on nutrient management is strengthened by state NMP requirements, proximity to urban areas, regional nutrient balance, and watershed water quality oversight. Our preliminary findings suggest that NMPs are effective in encouraging nutrient testing but not in reducing over application of nutrients to farmland; they have the most effect in states with more stringent regulation. |
| Keywords: | hogs, nutrient management, environment, regulation, livestock, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries, Q1, Q5, |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235681&r=env |
| By: | Alberto Pench (Department of Political Sciences, University of Pisa) |
| Abstract: | The paper addresses the problem of information asymmetry between a regulator and the polluting firms and proposes a very simple mechanism where the regulator is free to choose, without communicating in advance to the firms, between two instruments: an effluent fee or a standard: as a result in a real world setting this uncertainty might induce firms to a truthful revelation. Moreover, under the assumption of linear marginal abatement or marginal social damage functions, in many cases the resulting optimal behaviour might be an under reporting for some firms and an over reporting for others so that the resulting marginal aggregate benefit function might be not so far from the true one and the aggregate pollution level attained by the mechanism not so far from optimal. |
| Keywords: | Effluent Fee, Standards, Asymmetric Information, Truthful Revelation |
| JEL: | H23 Q5 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2016.20&r=env |
| By: | Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) |
| Abstract: | The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has issued its Sustainability Report every 2 years since 2007. For 2015, the Sustainability Report highlights the sustainability of ADB’s investments and organizational activities during 2013– 2014. A separate detailed Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) index contains the responses of ADB to standard and specific material disclosures in the GRI’s G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and G4 Financial Services Sector Guidelines. The Sustainability Report and detailed GRI Index are available online at www.adb.org/documents/ asian-development-bank-sustainability-report-2015. The Sustainability Report provides a single point of reference to which stakeholders interested in understanding ADB’s commitment to sustainable development can turn. The report has hyperlinks that direct readers to further information already available via the ADB web page , which in turn improves accessibility to information that ADB has published and stakeholders want to find. The content of the Sustainability Report and detailed GRI Index enables stakeholders to assess ADB’s sustainability performance during 2013-2014. The Sustainability Report focuses on (1) ADB’s investments in poverty reduction and inclusive economic growth, environment and climate change, regional integration, and infrastructure; (2) ADB’s private sector, finance and knowledge partnerships, and governance and safeguard matters; and (3) ADB’s human resource activities, environmental footprint, and community activities as topics that are material to ADB’s stakeholders in a sustainability context. |
| Keywords: | sustainability report, adb sustainability report, corporate sustainability report, csr, adb csr, environmental sustainability, corporate responsibility, green buildings, iso 14001 certification, sustainability report 2013–2014, adb csr 2013–2014 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:asd:wpaper:rpt157802-2&r=env |
| By: | Guojun He (Department of Economics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Division of Environment, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology); Jeffrey Perloff (Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | Surface water pollution has a significant, non-monotonic effect on the infant mortality rate in China. As surface water quality deteriorates, the infant mortality rate first increases and then decreases. Thus, moderate levels of pollution are the most dangerous. |
| Keywords: | water quality; water pollution; infant mortality |
| JEL: | Q53 I1 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hku:wpaper:201632&r=env |
| By: | Daniel Rais |
| Abstract: | Abstract Many political leaders of the Global South oppose linkages between trade liberalization and environmental protection. We examine whether citizens in developing countries share this position. Whereas a recent study finds that, in industrialized countries, environmental concerns are associated with protectionist sentiments, we hypothesize that citizens in poorer countries are likely to view the trade-environment nexus in a more positive light. We fielded a combination of surveys and conjoint experiments in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Vietnam to test this argument. The results show that citizens are concerned about negative environmental implications of trade. Yet, individuals with greener preferences are also more supportive of trade liberalization. Furthermore, and in contrast to prevailing government rhetoric, the majority of citizens support environmental clauses in trade agreements. These findings suggest that there might be room for more ambitious efforts to include environmental standards in international trade agreements. |
| Date: | 2015–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wti:papers:837&r=env |
| By: | Ahmadiani, Mona; Ferreira, Susana |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effect of extreme weather and climate events on the subjective wellbeing of US residents. We match forty two billion-dollar disaster events with individual survey data between 2005 and 2010. We find that being affected by a disaster has a negative and robust impact on life satisfaction that disappears 6 to 8 months after the event. In our sample severe storms are the main culprit in the reduction of life satisfaction; droughts also have a negative impact on life satisfaction and exhibit a more persistent effect. |
| Keywords: | Subjective well-being, extreme weather, disasters, climate change, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Public Economics, Q54, I31, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236259&r=env |
| By: | Morgan, Stephen N.; Mason, Nicole M.; Shupp, Robert S. |
| Abstract: | Agri-environmental programs often incorporate stakeholder participation elements in an effort to increase community ownership of policies designed to protect environmental resources (Hajer 1995; Fischer 2000). Participation – acting through increased levels of ownership – is then expected to increase individual rates of compliance with regulatory policies. Utilizing a novel lab experiment, this research leverages a public goods contribution game to test the effects of a specific type of stakeholder participation scheme on individual compliance outcomes. We find significant evidence that the implemented type of non-voting participation mechanism reduces the probability that an individual will engage in noncompliant behavior and reduces the level of noncompliance. At the same time, exposure to the open comment treatment also increases individual contributions to a public good. Additionally, we find evidence that exposure to participation schemes results in a faster decay in individual compliance over time suggesting that the impacts of this type of participation mechanism may be transitory. |
| Keywords: | Public Goods, Experiment, Regulation, Participation, Compliance, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Political Economy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235719&r=env |
| By: | Nemati, Mehdi; Zheng, Yuqing; Hu, Wuyang |
| Abstract: | Manufacturers have been increasingly relying on environmental management systems (such as ISO 14001 based ones) to comply with government regulations and reduce waste. In this paper, we investigated the impact of ISO 14001 certification on manufacturers’ toxic release by release level. We applied the censored quantile instrumental variable estimator (CQIV) to data on the U.S. transportation equipment manufacturing subsector facilities. Results show that ISO 14001 had a negative and statistically significant effect on the top 10% manufacturing sites in terms of on-site toxic release, but it did not reduce off-site toxic release. Therefore, one should not expect ISO 14001 to have a uniform impact on manufacturing sites’ environmental performance. For large firms, encouraging voluntary adoption of ISO 14001 might be an effective government strategy to reduce on-site pollution. However, for small firms and for the purpose of reducing off-site pollution, other economic incentives or regulations are warranted. |
| Keywords: | censored quantile regression, environmental performance, ISO 14001, manufacturing, Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, L620, Q23, Q24, Q530, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235645&r=env |
| By: | Shouro Dasgupta (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and CMCC); Enrica De Cian (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and CMCC); Elena Verdolini (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and CMCC) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates the effects of environmental policy, institutions, political orientation, and lobbying on energy innovation and finds that they significantly affect the incentives to innovate and create cleaner energy efficient technologies. We conclude that political economy factors may act as barriers even in the presence of stringent environmental policy, implying that, to move towards a greener economy, countries should combine environmental policy with a general strengthening of institutional quality, consider the influence of government’s political orientation on environmental policies, and the implications of the size of energy intensive sectors in the economy. |
| Keywords: | Energy Innovation, Environmental Policy, Patents, Political Economy |
| JEL: | C23 D02 O30 Q58 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2016.35&r=env |
| By: | Liu, Pengfei; Swallow, Stephen |
| Abstract: | This paper compares different preference elicitation methods used in choice ex- periments. We implemented four different methods to elicit individuals’ preference for a non-market good. Our four treatments include (1) a hypothetical referen- dum, (2) a real referendum lacking incentive compatibility, (3) a real choice with incentive compatibility and (4) a hybrid approach that combines (2) and (3). We develop a method to estimate the percentage of strategic choices in each treatment. We find that in the hypothetical referendum, about 75% to 92% individuals truth- fully reveal their preference and choose the option that gives the highest utility in a choice question. Adding policy consequentiality (e.g., the real referendum) and payment consequentiality (e.g., the hybrid approach) could increase the percentage of individuals truthfully reveal their preference. |
| Keywords: | Stated Preference, Policy Consequences, Incentive Compatibility, Wel- fare, Water Quality Trading, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Land Economics/Use, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q56, Q57, C72, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236209&r=env |
| By: | Ivan Muñiz Olivera (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Carolina Rojas; Carles Busuldu; Alejandro García; Mariana Filipe (Marc Quintana) |
| Abstract: | Esta investigación persigue dos objetivos, en primer lugar, calcular las emisiones de CO2 asociadas a la movilidad y a la vivienda de los habitantes de Concepción. El segundo objetivo es estimar el impacto de la forma y estructura espacial sobre el volumen de emisiones. A partir de un amplio cuestionario se estimaron las emisiones individuales en 19 barrios, dando como resultado un volumen llamativamente inferior al calculado en otros trabajos de naturaleza similar. En cuanto al impacto de la forma y estructura urbana, contrariamente a lo esperado, la densidad no parece ejercer impacto alguno sobre las emisiones de CO2. Sí lo hace en cambio la distancia al CBD, por lo que políticas urbanísticas orientadas a frenar la expansión suburbana pueden resultar indicadas para reducir el volumen total de emisiones. |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea1605&r=env |
| By: | Acemoglu, Daron; Akcigit, Ufuk; Hanley, Douglas; Kerr, William R. |
| Abstract: | We develop a microeconomic model of endogenous growth where clean and dirty technologies compete in production and innovation–in the sense that research can be directed to either clean or dirty technologies. If dirty technologies are more advanced to start with, the potential transition to clean technology can be difficult both because clean research must climb several rungs to catch up with dirty technology and because this gap discourages research effort directed towards clean technologies. Carbon taxes and research subsidies may nonetheless encourage production and innovation in clean technologies, though the transition will typically be slow. We characterize certain general properties of the transition path from dirty to clean technology. We then estimate the model using a combination of regression analysis on the relationship between R&D and patents, and simulated method of moments using microdata on employment, production, R&D, firm growth, entry and exit from the US energy sector. The model’s quantitative implications match a range of moments not targeted in the estimation quite well. We then characterize the optimal policy path implied by the model and our estimates. Optimal policy makes heavy use of research subsidies as well as carbon taxes. We use the model to evaluate the welfare consequences of a range of alternative policies. |
| Keywords: | carbon cycle, directed technological change, environment, innovation, optimal policy |
| JEL: | O30 O31 O33 C65 |
| Date: | 2015–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bof:bofrdp:2015_026&r=env |
| By: | Howlader, Aparna; Ando, Amy |
| Keywords: | Protected Area, Conservation, Impact Evaluation, Nepal, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q560, Q570, Q580, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236117&r=env |
| By: | Bozzola, Martina; Smale, Melinda; Di Falco, Salvatore |
| Abstract: | We explore how climate, climate risk and weather affect maize intensification among smallholders in Kenya. We find that each plays an important role in maize intensification choice. The economic implications of this choice are also analyzed. We find that the share of maize area planted to hybrid seeds contributes positively to expected crop income, without increasing exposure to income variability or downside risk. The promotion of maize hybrids is potentially a valuable adaptation strategy to support the well-being of smallholder farmers, especially if these prove tolerant to a wide range of conditions. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Maize, Smallholder farmer, Vulnerability, Kenya, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Food Security and Poverty, Productivity Analysis, Risk and Uncertainty, D81, O13, Q12, Q18, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235601&r=env |
| By: | Dsouza, Alwin; Mishra, Ashok. K. |
| Abstract: | Conservation agriculture (CA) has been promoted as sustainable agricultural system which can increase food production with economic use of resources and negligible impact on the environment. Given the well-established benefits of packaged technologies (defined as a collection of technologies/practices that fall under the three themes of CA), adoption as a package has not picked up in South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. Surprisingly, various isolated components of CA technologies, such as zero tillage drill, land laser leveling, direct seeded rice have been popular in this region. However, considering just a single CA technology would be unjustifiable as this would under-estimate the actual complementary nature of various technologies/practices. Under “partial” adoption and abandonment of CA technologies/practices in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, we found that social networks played an influential role both in the adoption and abandonment decisions while involvement of spouses only influenced the adoption of CA technologies/practices. These factors were found to positively influence adoption and negatively influence abandonment of CA. Results also reveal that education, better quality of information, labor constraints increase adoption of CA technologies/practices. Whereas, land constraints, credit constraints and poor quality of information are more likely to push towards abandonment of CA technologies/practices. |
| Keywords: | Conservation agriculture, adoption, abandonment, spouses, social networks, South Asia, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235243&r=env |
| By: | Hochman, Gal; Zilberman, David |
| Abstract: | We use data and estimates on biofuel impacts reported in the literature to assess some of the controversy surrounding the introduction of biofuels by conducting meta-analyses on the impacts of corn ethanol on food and fuel prices, greenhouse gases, employment, rural income, balance of trade, the United States government budget, and learning-by-doing. The meta-analyses suggest that corn ethanol has had a relatively significant impact on the income of agricultural and related agribusiness industries, employment in farm states, fuel security in terms of reducing the import of oil from abroad, and the overall balance of trade. These effects are likely the main drivers behind biofuel policies. |
| Keywords: | Biofuels, Energy policy, Impacts, Meta-analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Political Economy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q4, |
| Date: | 2016–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235467&r=env |
| By: | Liu, Min; Dries, Liesbeth; Heijman, Wim; Huang, Jikun; Deng, Xiangzheng |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the degree of divergences among different groups of stakeholders in allocation of the four types of rural land: cultivated, range, forest and other land, and the optimal allocation from the social perspective of balancing economic and ecological benefits. The preference of stakeholders stemming from stakeholders’ different ecological and economic interests on four types of rural land was quantified by the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Weights for stakeholders in the social welfare function were derived for three social-economic scenarios. Welfare economics was employed then to determine the ‘individual’ or ‘private’ optimal allocation of each stakeholder by maximizing its utility function, and social optimal allocation by maximizing the social welfare function. A county located in the eco-fragile areas of Northern China was taken as a case to present the empirical analysis. Our results provide policy insights on how to regulate the divergences and achieve an efficient allocation of rural land. |
| Keywords: | land tenure, private use, grassland condition, fixed effects, panel data, Agricultural and Food Policy, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae15:212052&r=env |
| By: | Buck, Steven; Nemati, Mehdi; Sunding, David |
| Abstract: | In response to the severe California drought, in April 2015, Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order mandating statewide reductions in water use. The mandate aimed to reduce the amount of water consumed statewide in urban areas by 25% from 2013 levels. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) proposed regulatory instructions that grouped urban water utilities into nine tiers, with conservation standards ranging from 8% to 36%. In this paper we evaluate welfare losses caused by this mandate. Understanding the proposed regulation’s welfare losses requires estimating water demand. Using fixed effect models and data from 2004 to 2009 on 111 urban water utilities, an annual demand curve is estimated. The estimated demand elasticity is between -0.61 and -0.1 which is heterogeneous across the regions and seasons. In the second step, we use the estimated annual demand function to recover price elasticities for a sample of 53 urban water utilities in California, which provide water for more than 20 million customers. We considered two scenarios to calculate welfare losses in Northern and Southern California: the governor’s mandate, and a hypothetical 25% uniform cut back. The results for Northern California indicate an average welfare loss of $6,132 per acre-foot of shortage for a governor’s mandate and $4,424 for a 25% uniform shortage. In Southern California, the average estimated welfare loss is $2,113 per acre-foot of shortage for a governor’s mandate and $2,171 for a 25% uniform shortage. Results indicate the monthly household-level willingness-to-pay to avoid the governor’s mandate is $36 in Northern California and $25 in Southern California. |
| Keywords: | California, demand, government policy, urban water utilities, water supply shortage, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, D61, L95, Q25, Q28, Q58, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236049&r=env |
| By: | Aiko Endo (Research Department, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature); Izumi Tsurita (Department of Cultural Anthropology, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo); Kimberly Burnett (University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa); Pedcris M. Orencio (Catholic Relief Service Philippines (Manila Office) Urban Disaster Risk Reduction Department) |
| Abstract: | 1. Study region Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. 2. Study focus The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze the water, energy, and food nexus and regions of study, nexus keywords and stakeholders in order to understand the current state of nexus research. 3. New hydrological insights Through selected 37 projects, four types of nexus research were identified including water-food, water-energy-food, water-energy, and climate related. Among them, six projects (16%) had a close linkage with water-food, 11 (30%) with water-energy-food, 12 (32%) with water-energy, and eight (22%) with climate. The regions were divided into Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. North America and Oceania had a tendency to focus on a specific nexus type, water-energy (46%) and climate (43%), while Africa had less focus on water-energy (7%). Regarding keywords, out of 37 nexus projects, 16 projects listed keywords in their articles. There were 84 keywords in total, which were categorized by the author team depending on its relevance to water, food, energy, climate, and combination of water-food-energy-climate, and 40 out of 84 keywords were linked with water and only 4 were linked with climate. As for stakeholders, 77 out of 137 organizations were related to research and only two organizations had a role in media. |
| Keywords: | nexus type; nexus region; nexus keywords; nexus stakeholders |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hae:wpaper:2016-7&r=env |
| By: | De Laporte, Aaron; Ripplinger, David |
| Abstract: | Changes in crop prices have encouraged farmers to consider alternatives, such as potential advanced bioenergy feedstocks, including energy beets. This paper employs an integrated biophysical, economic and GIS-based transportation model to examine the supply of beet-bioethanol from five sites in North Daktoa. The study finds that beet bioethanol could provide net benefits to farmers and ethanol producers in the state, under current market conditions, but only if the bioethanol plant site is carefully selected. More specifically, a 20,000,000 gallon ethanol plant in Valley City could have net returns of $436,049. This plant would acquire 760,000 tons of beets from around the plant site and further east toward the Red River Valley from 22,682 acres of cropland an average distance of 15.7 miles away. The average yield of the selected cropland is 33.5 tons/ac with average net farm returns of $26.09/acre above opportunity costs. Opportunity and transportation costs can substantially change the attractiveness of croplands for beet production. The current market opportunity presented by beet bioethanol at $1.50/gal ethanol is not particularly attractive, but as ethanol prices increase, this opportunity could become attractive at a number of sites throughout the state. |
| Keywords: | Energy Beets, Bioenergy Supply, Bioethanol, Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Industrial Organization, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2016–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235852&r=env |
| By: | Ray, Mukesh; Maredia, Mywish; Shupp, Robert |
| Keywords: | International Development, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2016–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235731&r=env |
| By: | Ben Fradj, Nosra; Jayet, Pierre-Alain |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to analyze the sensitivity of the supply of a perennial crop, i.e, miscanthus for which high interest arises when it is dedicated to second generation biofuels production. We develop a methodology based on the "Faustmann's rule" usually used in forest management fields. We first determine the yield growth function over time and the discounted present value of this crop in a deterministic case. Then, a stochastic process based on a beta distribution is introduced to manage the variability of miscanthus yield. A short-term agricultural model (AROPAj) is used to highlight the large scale impact of annual yield randomization. This analysis details the impact assessment regarding optimal length cycle, land use, N input demand and nitrate losses. Ideally, miscanthus would be grown on marginal land. However, miscanthus profitability causes farmers to cultivate it on the most productive land generally devoted to food crops. An increase in yield potential leads to significant direct and indirect land re-allocation, favoring therefore the competition between food and biofuel production.This change in land use leads to a substantial decrease in N-input application and, consequently, in nitrate losses. Results significantly changes when yields are affected by annual randomized variability. Throughout a sensitivity analysis, we notice that yields, renewal cycle costs and the discount rate may interact with yield randomization and significantly affect the future profitability of miscanthus. |
| Keywords: | bioenergy perennial crop, Faustmann rule, stochastic process, Present Net Value, optimal rotation age, land use change, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235775&r=env |
| By: | Riccardo Leoncini (University of Bologna (Italy); Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), University of Freiburg (Germany); IRCrES-CNR (Italy)); Alberto Marzucchi (Catholic University of Milan (Italy)); Sandro Montresor (Kore University of Enna (Italy)); Francesco Rentocchini (Southampton Business School, University of Southampton (UK)); Ugo Rizzo (University of Ferrara (Italy)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationships between green/non-green technologies and firm growth. By combining the literature on eco-innovations with industrial organisation and entrepreneurial studies, this relationship is investigated by considering its dependence on the pace at which firms grow and the moderating role of age. Based on a sample of 5498 manufacturing firms in Italy for the period of 2000-2008, we estimate longitudinal fixed effects quantile models in which age is set to moderate the effects of green and non-green patents on employment growth. The results indicate a positive role of green technologies in growth greater than the effect of non-green technologies. This result is valid with the exception of struggling and rapidly growing firms: the relevance of moderately growing firms thus emerges in contrast to the more celebrated “elite of superstar” growing companies. Age plays a moderating role in the growth effects of green technologies. Not completely inconsistent with the extant literature, this moderation effect is positive, indicating the importance of firm experience in benefiting from green technologies in terms of growth, possibly relative to the complexity of their management. |
| Keywords: | green technology; firm growth; age; quantile fixed effects |
| JEL: | L26 O33 Q55 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0616&r=env |
| By: | Koppmair, Stefan; Kassie, Menale; Qaim, Matin |
| Abstract: | Farm input subsidies are often criticized to be economically and ecologically unsustainable. The promotion of natural resource management (NRM) technologies are widely seen as more sustainable to increase agricultural productivity and food security. However, relatively little is known about how input subsidies affect farmers’ decisions to adopt NRM technologies. There are concerns of incompatibility, because NRM technologies are one strategy to reduce the use of external inputs in intensive production systems. However, in smallholder systems of Africa, where the average use of external inputs is low, there may possibly be interesting complementarities. Here, we analyze the situation of Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP). Using panel data from smallholder farm households, we develop a multivariate probit model and examine how FISP participation affects farmers’ decisions to adopt various NRM technologies, such as intercropping of maize with legumes, use of organic manure, water conservation practices, and vegetative strips. As expected, FISP increases the use of inorganic fertilizer and improved maize seeds. Yet, we also observe a positive association between FISP and the adoption of certain NRM technologies. For other NRM technologies we find no significant effect. We conclude that input subsidies and the promotion of NRM technologies can be compatible strategies. |
| Keywords: | fertilizer subsidy, technology adoption, sustainable agriculture, small farms, Africa, Malawi, Farm Management, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235313&r=env |
| By: | Amanda Barroso Lima (IPC-IG); Beatriz Abreu dos Santos (IPC-IG); Isadora Cardoso Vasconcelos (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | "In Brazil, smallholder farmers account for around 70 per cent of the food market for some crops. Family farming can contribute to reducing poverty and improving food security. Women are important actors in agriculture and rural development, accounting for 43 per cent of the total workforce in rural areas of developing countries (FAO 2015) and approximately 30 per cent of the total rural workforce in Brazil (IBGE 2006). Women spend an average of 372 hours per year on rural activities versus the 368 spent by men (FAO 2015)." (?) |
| Keywords: | challenges, perspectives, rural, women, Brazil, 2030 Agenda, Sustainable Development |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:319&r=env |
| By: | ANGELO COSTA GURGEL; CLAUDIA OCTAVIANO; SERGEY PALTSEV |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2014:195&r=env |
| By: | Wang, Tong; Luri, Moses; Janssen, Larry; Hennessy, David; Feng, Hongli; Wimberly, Michael; Arora, Gaurav |
| Abstract: | The extent of United States Great Plains grass agriculture has ebbed and flowed over decades in response to market incentives, government policies, technological innovations and weather patterns. Our thesis is that the land most responsive to these drivers is at the economic margin between grass-based production and cropping. Much of the eastern Dakotas is such an area, primarily under crop-based agriculture although grass remains an important land use. We surveyed land operators in the area on their views about motivators for land use choices. Their views are largely consistent with the economic margin viewpoint. The importance of crop output prices, crop input prices, innovations in cropping equipment and weather patterns on land use decisions grow as one moves north toward the economic margin. Land in more highly sloped areas is more sensitive to crop prices and crop insurance policies. Consistent with human capital theory, older operators are generally less responsive to factors that affect land use. Those renting more land, being more exposed to market forces, are more responsive. As farm size increases, respondents declared higher land use sensitivity to policy issues and technological innovations, suggesting that scale effects render land units more sensitive to land use change drivers. |
| Keywords: | cropping systems, ecosystem services, food-fuel-environment debate, grassland conversion, human dimensions to ecosystems, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2016–08–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235109&r=env |
| By: | Wetzstein, Brian; Florax, Raymond; Foster, Ken; Binkley, James |
| Keywords: | Marketing, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235944&r=env |
| By: | Haqiqi, Iman; Hertel, Thomas W. |
| Abstract: | This paper measures the importance of different drivers of change in irrigation water use regionally and globally. We followed Heckscher–Ohlin theory, Ricardian specific-factor model, and Melitz-type theories of trade to introduce a method for decomposing irrigated water use. We apply the decomposition method on the results of Liu et al. (2014) on the impacts of future irrigation shortfalls. We find that rain fed substitution (specific-factor impact) contributes to 62% of change in water use; substitution to non-crops (Heckscher–Ohlin impact) accounts for 16% of the change; and moving to farms with higher water productivity (Melitz impact) contributes to 7% of it, globally. The importance of drivers varies by region but usually these three drivers are the most important factors in adaptation to water shocks. |
| Keywords: | Water intensity, International agricultural trade, Irrigation, Adaptation, Heckscher–Ohlin, Melitz, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q25, F17, Q17, Q52, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236185&r=env |
| By: | Matthias Fripp (UHERO, University of Hawaii at Manoa) |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hae:wpaper:2016-1&r=env |
| By: | Codron, J.M.; Adanacioglu, H.; Aubert, M.; Bouhsina, Z.; El Mekki, A.A.; Rousset, S.; Tozanli, S.; Yercan, M. |
| Abstract: | Fresh produce growers are the main source of food contamination by chemical pesticides. In their choice of farming practices, producers are influenced by market forces as well as public and private safety regulations – or “macro-drivers” – as opposed to farm-level micro-drivers. Growers respond to their business and regulatory environment by implementing integrated pest management (IPM) and other good agricultural practices (GAP), where profitable through certification schemes. Our paper attempts to analyse the adoption of sustainable farming practices beyond farm and farmer characteristics, focusing on the role of structural and institutional macro-drivers. The empirical research is based on the comparison between Turkey and Morocco, two Mediterranean countries with high export activity in the fresh tomato sector but with contrasting features in terms of both sustainable farming practices and micro/macro-drivers. With regard to the latter, we simultaneously consider supply-side and demand-side aspects (i.e. the requirements of buyers in importing countries). The analysis draws on the literature examining both IPM/GAP adoption and the impact of food safety regulation on firms' strategies. We call on face-to-face interviews with a relatively large number of tomato growers in the main production areas (N=86 in Morocco and N=186 in Turkey). Our findings show that the average level of sustainable practices is greatly affected by national market and institutional particularities, in particular on the demand side. Moreover the surveys confirm the initial assumption of the major role played by private actors in managing safety risk when there are high business stakes, as in export chains oriented towards rich Western countries. ....French Abstract : La contamination des légumes frais par les pesticides se fait principalement au niveau de la production. Dans leur choix des pratiques agricoles, les producteurs sont influencés par des forces de type macro-économique qui se situent aussi bien au niveau du marché que des régulations publiques et privées. A cela se rajoute une troisième série de forces, qui sont cette fois-ci spécifiques de l'exploitation et de l'exploitant agricoles et donc de type micro-économique. Les producteurs répondent aux exigences de leur environnement commercial et réglementaire en mettant en œuvre des bonnes pratiques agricoles qu'ils font certifier et des systèmes de gestion raisonnée aptes à lutter contre les ravageurs et maladies. Notre papier vise à expliquer l'adoption de pratiques agricoles durables en mobilisant au-delà des caractéristiques de l'exploitant et de l'exploitation agricoles, les forces structurelles et institutionnelles de type macro-économique. La recherche empirique est basée sur la comparaison de ces forces dans deux pays méditerranéens, la Turquie et le Maroc, qui sont tous les deux d'importants exportateurs de tomate mais qui sont très contrastés au niveau des pratiques d'agriculture durable et des facteurs micro ou macro qui influencent ces pratiques. L'identification de ces forces nous conduit à considérer à la fois le côté de l'offre et celui de la demande aussi bien commerciale que réglementaire. Les théories prises en compte sont celles de l'adoption des standards de bonnes pratiques agricoles ou des systèmes de production raisonnée ainsi que celles de l'impact des régulations de sécurité alimentaire sur la stratégie des firmes. Les données ont été collectées en face à face auprès d'un relativement grand nombre de producteurs (N=86 au Maroc et N=186 en Turquie). Les résultats montrent que le niveau moyen des pratiques est fortement déterminé par le marché national et par les particularités institutionnelles, en particulier du côté de la demande. Par ailleurs, les enquêtes confirment l'hypothèse du rôle majeur joué par les acteurs privés dans la gestion du risque sanitaire lorsqu'il y a de gros enjeux économiques, ce qui est le cas des filières d'exportation tournées vers les pays riches occidentaux. |
| Keywords: | FOOD SAFETY; PESTICIDES; INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT; IMP; GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES; GAP; PRIVATE REGULATION; VERTICAL ORGANIZATION; FRESH VEGETABLES; SECURITE DES ALIMENTS; LUTTE RAISONNEE; BONNES PRATIQUES AGRICOLES; REGULATION PRIVEE; COORDINATION VERTICALE; LEGUMES FRAIS |
| JEL: | D23 Q13 Q18 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umr:wpaper:201603&r=env |
| By: | Liguo Lin (School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai) |
| Keywords: | taxation, China, pollution |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eep:report:rr2016041&r=env |
| By: | Nuva (Department of Resource and Environmental Economics, Bogor Agricultural University); Yusif (Bogor Agricultural University); Nia Kurniawati H. (Bogor Agricultural University); Hanna (Bogor Agricultural University) |
| Keywords: | Eco-labelling, Coffee, Indonesia |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eep:pbrief:pb20160445&r=env |
| By: | Takeshi Aida (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates how pesticide use by neighboring farmers affects a given farmer's pesticide use. Although it is common knowledge that pesticide use has spatial externalities, few empirical economic studies directly analyze this issue. Applying the spatial panel econometric model to the plot-level panel data in Bohol, the Philippines, this study shows that the pesticide use, especially for herbicides, is spatially correlated although there is no statistically significant spatial correlation in unobserved shocks. This implies that farmers apply pesticides by mimicking neighboring farmers' behavior rather than rationally responding to the intensity of infestation. |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:16-02&r=env |
| By: | Eskander, Shaikh; Janus, Thorsten; Barbier, Edward |
| Abstract: | We develop a game-theoretic framework of negotiation over sharing of trans-boundary resources between neighboring countries. The downstream country offers a non-water “leverage” good in exchange for water access and makes a take-it-or-leave-it offer to the upstream country. The downstream country can further invest in water provision before the negotiations. We compare three types of outcomes: the first-best outcomes where an “ex-ante social planner” choses both the water investment and the water and leverage goods exchanged in the negotiations; the outcome when an “ex-post social planner” only enters at the negotiation stage; and the outcome of bilateral negotiations. We argue that all three cases can be empirically realistic; show that the outcome with the ex-post social planner can distort the downstream country’s investment incentive; and that the bilateral negotiation outcome can lead to water investment either below or above the efficient/ex-ante planner’s preferred choice. |
| Keywords: | Trans-boundary water sharing, issue-linkage, negotiation., Environmental Economics and Policy, Political Economy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, F53, F51, Q25, R41, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235650&r=env |
| By: | Maertens, Annemie; Michelson, Hope |
| Abstract: | We combine panel survey data with a randomized controlled trial conducted among 250 villages in Malawi to test the effectiveness of a standard agricultural extension service. The two main tools of the service are a mid-season farmer field day and farmer club managed demonstration plots. We find that farmers in villages who were invited to attend the farmer field days display an increased knowledge of Integrated Soil Fertility Management Practices and a higher probability of adoption (plans), with the majority of the effects concentrated among non-attendees. However, when combined with in-village demonstration plots, farmers who participate in the demonstration plots display a higher knowledge of what we refer to as “detailed” production knowledge, such as types of inputs, quantity of inputs, and increased likelihood of planning to adopt these. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural technology adoption, ISFM, learning, demonstration plots, farmer field days, Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235475&r=env |
| By: | Ishizawa Escudero,Oscar Anil; Miranda Montero,Juan Jose |
| Abstract: | In the past decades, natural disasters have caused substantial human and economic losses in Central America, with strong adverse impacts on gross domestic product per capita, income, and poverty reduction. This study provides a regional perspective on the impact of hurricane windstorms on socioeconomic measures in the short term. Apart from modeling the socioeconomic impact at the macro and micro levels, the study incorporates and juxtaposes data from a hurricane windstorm model categorizing three hurricane damage indexes, which lends a higher level of detail, nuance, and therefore accuracy and comprehensiveness to the study. One standard deviation in the intensity of a hurricane windstorm leads to a decrease in growth of total per capita gross domestic product of between 0.9 and 1.6 percent, and a decrease in total income and labor income by 3 percent, which in turn increases moderate and extreme poverty by 1.5 percentage points. These results demonstrate the causal relationship between hurricane windstorm impacts and poverty in Central America, producing regional evidence that could improve targeting of disaster risk management policies toward those most impacted and thus whose needs are greatest. |
| Keywords: | Disaster Management,Climate Change Economics,Hazard Risk Management,Rural Poverty Reduction,Natural Disasters |
| Date: | 2016–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7692&r=env |
| By: | Singerman, Ariel; Useche, Pilar |
| Keywords: | biotechnology, genetically modified crops, Crop Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235840&r=env |
| By: | Komarov, Vladimir (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)); Kotsyubinskiy, Vladimir (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)) |
| Abstract: | It is shown that the ideology and strategy of socio-economic development can be based on the paradigm of sustainable development. This implies an increase of the national wealth as stocks of capital (human, natural, physical, social, cultural and structural) in time. The paper proposes measures for Russia's transition to the paradigm of sustainable development. |
| Keywords: | sustainable development, ideology, strategy |
| Date: | 2016–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:1034&r=env |
| By: | ANDRE CHANG FRANCA; ANGELO COSTA GURGEL |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2014:198&r=env |
| By: | Hochman, Gal; Zilberman, David |
| Abstract: | The presumption of this paper is that some governments value the environment, but others do not. Assuming political uncertainty and capital-intensive technologies, this circumstance yields a political economic process that emphasizes the effect of using current policy to influence future outcomes. The result of the analysis suggests that the optimal dynamic tax is larger than the Pigovian tax and that a standard results in more employment and output and yields higher adoption rates, thus achieving a predetermined pollution target with a lower political economic cost than a tax – with policy outcomes being more resilient to political change. |
| Keywords: | Embodied technologies, political uncertainty, standard, tax, environmental policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Political Economy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, L5, O2, O3, Q2, Q3, |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235258&r=env |
| By: | Njuki, Eric; Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235555&r=env |
| By: | María del Mar López Guerrero (Collaborates with the University of Cantabria, from Universidad of Malaga, Andalucia Tech); Clara Casado-Coterillo (Universidad de Cantabria); César Rubio (Universidad de Zaragoza); Carlos Téllez (Universidad de Zaragoza); Joaquín Coronas (Universidad de Zaragoza,); Ã ngel Irabien (Universidad de Cantabria) |
| Abstract: | Membranes are alternative solution for industrial and domestic separation processes, from water treatment, gas separation, and electrochemical devices. The urgency to limit landfill and petroleum dependency leads the development of new environmentally friendly and economic barrier materials as protective packaging applications (Piringer & Baner, 2000).Chitosan (CS) is a polysaccharide prepared by the deacetylation of chitin. Due to the inherent characteristics, CS has been highly studied as a promising material for membrane separation and active packaging. Poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) can be blended with CS to improve its mechanical properties without reducing hydrophilicity and ion exchange properties (García-Cruz et al. 2015). AM-4 is a layered titanosilicate built of TiO6 octahedra and SiO4 tetrahedra. UZAR-S3 is a layered stannosilicate prepared from isomorphously substitution of Ti by Sn of layered titanosilicate. Both offer a high ion exchange capacity because of the Na+ exchangeable cations between the layers and this contributes to the compatibility with the CS-PVA matrix and the final membrane properties. This work studies the preparation of AM-4- and UZAR-S3/CS-PVA mixed matrix membranes by the direct dispersion and exfoliation of small amounts of AM-4 and UZAR-S3 in the polymer solution. The membranes are characterized regarding their thermal, ion exchange, water uptake, chemical structure and gas barrier properties. The barrier properties were characterized by single gas permeation of N2, O2 and CO2 at 20ºC and 2 bar. The best ion exchange capacity and lowest mechanical swelling were those of the UZAR-S3/CS-PVA membrane, which had also lower gas permeability than the pristine CS-PVA membrane. The mechanical swelling of the membranes decreases in the order CS-PVA > AM-4/CS-PVA > UZAR-S3/CS-PVA, probably due to the lower alkylation of –O-H from free water in the latter membrane than in the others. This also agrees with the lowest permeability of UZAR-S3 compared to AM-4/CS-PVA. |
| Keywords: | chitosan; poly vinyl alcohol; layered titanosilicate AM-4; layered stannosilicate UZAR-S3; ion exchange; barrier |
| JEL: | Q53 Q56 Q55 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3605787&r=env |
| By: | Ghosh, Sanchari; Willett, Keith |
| Keywords: | Transboundary, integrated approach, net benefits, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q2, Q5, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235663&r=env |
| By: | PRADESHA, ANGGA; ROBINSON, SHERMAN |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Adaptation Strategies, Food Policy, Computable General Equilibrium, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236029&r=env |
| By: | Ifft, Jenny; Rajagopal, Deepak; Ryan, Weldzius |
| Keywords: | corn, ethanol refineries, biofuels, Renewable Fuel Standard, Conservation Reserve Program, agricultural land use, land use change, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Political Economy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q14, Q15, Q16, Q18, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236178&r=env |
| By: | LUCIO FLAVIO DA SILVA FREITAS; LUIZ CARLOS DE SANTANA RIBEIRO; KÊNIA BARREIRO DE SOUZA |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2014:184&r=env |
| By: | Thiyagarajah, Meena; Bi, Xiang; VanSickle, John. J |
| Abstract: | Waste management is a global conservation issue and efforts continue in an attempt to reduce, reuse and recycle waste that is collected.. In an effort to reduce the amount of waste entering landfills, the Florida Legislature adopted a goal that aims to achieve 75% recycling rate of municipal solid waste collected by 2020. This paper examines the current state policy tools in increasing recycling while controlling for socioeconomic factors that may affect recycling rate. We estimated the effect by difference in difference regression method and compared the pre- and post-treatment effects of these policies using county level panel data from 2001 to 2013. Our results indicate that that there is a positive treatment effect on recycling rate, especially with regards to public educational outreach. The existence of a mandatory commercial recycling policy also had a positive association with the increase in commercial recycling rate and influenced the overall recycling rate. |
| Keywords: | Recycling, socioeconomic, treatment, difference in difference, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236105&r=env |
| By: | Fan, Yubing; Wang, Chenggang; Nan, Zhibiao |
| Abstract: | A great challenge for agricultural production is to produce more food with less water, which can be possibly achieved by increasing crop water use efficiency (WUE). We systematically reviewed 51 cases from 48 empirical studies with field experimental results on wheat and cotton. We estimated the yield-water use relations under both furrow and micro irrigation systems, compared crop water use to achieve maximum WUE and maximum yield, and evaluated the effects of many influential factors using meta-regression analysis. Our results showed significant effects of micro irrigation adoption, farm management practices focusing on crop, soil and water, and some moderator variables related with the empirical studies on crop WUE. Assessments of the publication selection bias and genuine effects illustrated the application of weighted least squares in conducting meta-regression analysis. |
| Keywords: | Water use efficiency, micro-irrigation, farm management practices, wheat, cotton, meta-analysis, publication bias, Farm Management, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Q15, Q25, Q55, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236059&r=env |
| By: | Barham, Bradford L.; Mooney, Daniel F. |
| Keywords: | Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236060&r=env |
| By: | PAULO HENRIQUE ASSIS FEITOSA |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2014:155&r=env |
| By: | BLADIMIR CARRILLO BERMUDEZ; DANYELLE KARINE SANTOS BRANCO; JUAN CARLOS TRUJILLO LORA; JOÃO EUSTÁQUIO DE LIMA |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2014:187&r=env |
| By: | Lai, Wangyang |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first quasi-experimental evidence that pesticides adversely affect health outcomes through drinking water by linking provincial pesticide usage reports from several Chinese statistical yearbooks (1998-2011) with the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (1998-2011). First, we follow a difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) framework to compare health outcomes between people who drink surface water and ground water in regions with high and low intensity of rice pesticide use before and after 2004, when China shifted from taxing agriculture to subsidizing agricultural programs. Second, we measure the downstream effect of pesticide use from upstream provinces. Our results indicate that a 10% increase in rice pesticide use unfavorably alters the index of dependence (ADL) by 2.51% and 0.33% for local and downstream residents (65 and older), respectively. This is equivalent to 168.8 and 55.89 million dollars in medical costs and offspring’s human capital losses, respectively (in total, 1.92% of rice production profits). Our results are robust to a variety of robustness checks and falsification tests. |
| Keywords: | Pesticide, Drinking Water, Public Health, Triple Difference Estimator, Medical and Human Capital Costs, China, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Q1, Q5, I1, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235439&r=env |