New Economics Papers
on Agricultural Economics
Issue of 2013‒12‒29
24 papers chosen by



  1. Working Paper 192 - Empirical Analysis of Agricultural Credit in Africa: Any Role for Institutional Factors By Salami, Adeleke Oluwole; Damilola Felix Arawomo
  2. Reduced U.S. Funding of Public Agricultural Research and Extension Risks Lowering Future Agricultural Productivity Growth Prospects By Jin, Yu; Huffman, Wallace E.
  3. How Does Risk Management Influence Production Decisions? Evidence From a Field Experiment By Xavier Gine; James Vickery; Shawn Cole
  4. Examining the determinants of food prices in developing Asia Hypothesis? By Hyeon-seung Huh; Cyn-Young Park
  5. The Agricultural Productivity Gap in Europe By Wenbiao Cai; Manish Pandey
  6. Flip the Switch: The Spatial Impact of the Rural Electrification Administration 1935-1940 By Carl Kitchens; Price Fishback
  7. Crop Failures and Export Tariffs By Pio Baake; Steffen Huck
  8. Risk, Insurance and Wages in General Equilibrium By Mark Rosenzweig; Ahmed Musfiq Mobarak
  9. The Impact of Retail Mergers on Food Prices: Evidence from France By Marie-Laure Allain; Claire Chambolle; Stéphane Turolla; Sofia Villas-Boas
  10. Obesity and smoking: can we catch two birds with one tax? By Davide, Dragone; Francesco, Manaresi; Luca, Savorelli
  11. Rainfall Risk and Religious Membership in the Late Nineteenth-Century US By Philipp Ager; Antonio Ciccone
  12. Multiple Paths of Development: Knowledge Bases and Institutional Characteristics of the Swedish Food Sector By Zukauskaite , Elena; Moodysson , Jerker
  13. FOOD COMPETITION IN WORLD MARKETS: SOME EVIDENCE FROM A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS OF TOP EXPORTING COUNTRIES By Donatella Baiardi; Carluccio Bianchi; Eleonora Lorenzini
  14. Estimation of residential water demand with imperfect price perception By Marie-Estelle Binet; Fabrizio Carlevaro; Michel Paul
  15. Economic incentives for biodiversity conservation: What is the evidence for motivation crowding? By Rode, Julian; Gómez-Baggethun, Erik; Krause, Torsten
  16. Local consumption and territorial based accounting for CO2 Emissions By Kristinn, Hermannsson; Stuart G., McIntyre
  17. Green Growth and Poverty Reduction: Policy Coherence for Pro-poor Growth By Michael King
  18. Group Lending or Individual Lending? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment in Rural Mongolia By Attanasio, O.; Augsburg, B.; Haas, R. de; Fitzsimons, E.; Harmgart, H.
  19. Food for Thought? Breastfeeding and Child Development By Emla Fitzsimons; Marcos Vera-Hernandez
  20. Conscientious consumers? Preferences, personality and expenditure in the UK By Benjamin Volland
  21. Can subjective questions on economic welfare be trusted ? evidence for three developing countries By Ravallion, Martin; Himelein, Kristen; Beegle, Kathleen
  22. Environmental policies in competitive electricity markets. By Langestraat, R.
  23. Environmental regulation of a global pollution externality in a bilateral trade framework: The case of global warming, China and the US By Gwatipedza, Johnson; Barbier, Edward B.
  24. Changing Eating Habits - A Field Experiment in Primary Schools By Michèle, Belot; Jonathan, James; Patrick, Nolen

  1. By: Salami, Adeleke Oluwole (African Development Bank); Damilola Felix Arawomo
    Abstract: A strong and efficient agricultural sector has the potential to enable a country feed its growing population, generate employment, earn foreign exchange and provide raw materials for industries. It is however ironical that despite the great potentials Africa has in agricultural production; the continent is a net importer of food. Aside the problem of poor access to land and modern technology, the major bane of Africa’s agricultural development commonly cited in the literature is low investment or credit. It is in the light of the above that this study examined the extent of agricultural credit and the factors responsible for the level of agricultural credit in Africa. The agricultural credit model was estimated using the panel data covering 1990-2011 generated for ten countries selected across the five sub-regions in the continent. Both fixed and random effects models were estimated and compared with the Pooled OLS. Our finding reveals that higher savings rate produces greater agricultural credit in the continent. Although, savings rate is generally low in Africa, the impact of savings on agricultural credit is still massive. All the four governance variables- Corruption index, Rule of Law index, Regulatory quality index, and Government Effectiveness index- have negative impact on agricultural credit in the continent. The interest rates being charged by the various financial institutions especially commercial banks have adverse effects on credit to the agriculture sector. Land available for agriculture has positive significant impact on agricultural credit in Africa. Overall, governance issues are crucial to addressing the challenges of low and dwindling agricultural credit in Africa.
    Date: 2013–12–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adb:adbwps:995&r=agr
  2. By: Jin, Yu; Huffman, Wallace E.
    Abstract: The objective of this paper is to provide policymakers with new estimates of the separate returns to public agricultural research and extension and a perspective on future agricultural productivity growth. This requires fitting an econometric model that contains separate regressors for the stock of public agricultural research and public agricultural extension. We use net measures to create our public agricultural research and extension variables. Our model is fitted to data for the U.S. contiguous 48 states, 1970-2004. It yields statistically significant estimates of within-state and spillin stocks of public agricultural research and of within-state agricultural extension. The econometric model of state agricultural TFP yields somewhat optimistic forecasts for agricultural total factor productivity over 2004-2010. The social rate of return to public investments in agricultural research and extension are shown to remain large—both are in excess of 60 percent, which is large by any standard.
    Keywords: states; agriculture; returns to research; multifactor productivity; U.S.; forecasts
    Date: 2013–12–18
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:36796&r=agr
  3. By: Xavier Gine (World Bank); James Vickery (Federal Reserve Bank of New York); Shawn Cole (Harvard Business School)
    Abstract: Rainfall variation and other weather shocks are a key source of risk for many firms and households, particularly in the developing world. We study how the availability of risk management instruments designed to hedge rainfall risk affects investment and production decisions of small- and medium-scale Indian farmers. We use a field experiment approach, involving randomized provision of rainfall insurance to farmers. While we find little effect on total expenditures, increased insurance induces farmers to substitute production activities towards high-return but higher-risk cash crops, consistent with theoretical predictions. Our results support the view that financial innovation may help ameliorate costs associated with weather variability and other types of risk.
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed013:676&r=agr
  4. By: Hyeon-seung Huh (Yonsei University); Cyn-Young Park (Asian Development Bank)
    Abstract: How the price of food is determined has become a critical issue, given the drastic surges in prices in recent years and the prevailing expectation of further increases. Along this line, this paper examines the sources of food price fluctuations in 11 developing Asian countries. The working model is a block Vector AutoRegression (VAR), and 10 variables for each country are classified into three blocks?world, region, and country?depending on their origin and nature. Empirical evidence shows that the regional shock plays a pivotal role in explaining the variations of domestic food prices, particularly at medium- to long-term horizons. Contrary to conventional belief, the world food price shock contributes little to the dynamics of domestic food prices in developing Asia. The findings suggest Asian food markets are more integrated regionally than with the world market. The short-run movements of domestic food prices are accounted for largely by the country¡¯s own shock. Taken together, our findings suggest that promoting food price stability would require efforts at the regional level as well as at the domestic level, reflecting the influence of region-specific factors. Extensions to the developing countries in other regions produce similar findings on the determination of food prices.
    Keywords: Food price; Developing Asia; Shocks; Block VAR business cycles
    JEL: C32 F15 Q11
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yon:wpaper:2013rwp-62&r=agr
  5. By: Wenbiao Cai; Manish Pandey
    Abstract: For fifteen European countries over the 1970-2004 period we establish that there is a large and persistent agricultural productivity gap, the ratio of labor productivity in non-agriculture to that in agriculture. Correcting for under-reporting of self-employment income in both agriculture and non-agriculture significantly reduces the measured agricultural productivity gap. For countries with information on years of school and experience at the sector level, we also find substantially higher human capital in non-agriculture than in agriculture. Our findings suggest that measured labor productivity differences between agriculture and non-agriculture in European countries are not an indicator of resource misallocation, but possibly an artifact of mismeasurement of value added and sectoral differences in human capital.
    JEL: E01 O47 O52 Q10
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:win:winwop:2013-05&r=agr
  6. By: Carl Kitchens; Price Fishback
    Abstract: To isolate the impact of access to electricity on local economies, we examine the impact of the Rural Electrification Administration low-interest loans in the 1930s. The REA provided loans to cooperatives to lay distribution lines to farms and aid in wiring homes. Consequently, the number of rural farm homes electrified doubled in the United States within 5 years. We develop a panel data set for the 1930s and use changes within counties over time to identify the effect of the REA loans on a wide range of socio-economic measures. The REA loans contributed significantly to increases in crop output and crop productivity and helped stave off declines in overall farm output, productivity, and land values, but had much smaller effects on nonagricultural parts of the economy. The ex-ante subsidy from the low interest loans was large, but after the program was completed, nearly all of the loans were fully repaid, and the ultimate cost to the taxpayer was relatively low.
    JEL: N12 O13 O38
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19743&r=agr
  7. By: Pio Baake; Steffen Huck
    Abstract: We analyse a stylized model of the world grain market characterized by a small oligopoly of traders with market power on both the supply and demand side. Crops are stochastic and exporting countries can impose export tariffs to protect domestic food prices. Our first results is that export tariffs are strategic complements and that for poor harvests equilibrium tariffs can explode (shedding some light on recent volatility in world food prices). We also show that the strategic interplay between governments of export countries and traders can give rise to a number of peculiar comparative statics. For example, it can be in the interest of traders to have poor harvests in one of the countries. Finally, we demonstrate that traders as well as consumers in import countries can benefit from cooperation between grain exporting countries.
    Keywords: Grain markets, food prices, export tariffs, oligopoly and oligopsony
    JEL: D43 F12 L13 Q17
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1342&r=agr
  8. By: Mark Rosenzweig (Economic Growth Center, Yale University); Ahmed Musfiq Mobarak (Economic Growth Center, Yale University)
    Abstract: We estimate the general-equilibrium labor market effects of a large-scale randomized intervention in which we designed and marketed a rainfall index insurance product across three states in India. Marketing agricultural insurance to both cultivators and to agricultural wage laborers allows us to test a general-equilibrium model of wage determination in settings where households supplying labor and households hiring labor face weather risk. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find that both labor demand and equilibrium wages become more rainfall sensitive when cultivators are offered rainfall insurance, because insurance induces cultivators to switch to riskier, higher-yield production methods. The same insurance contract offered to agricultural laborers smoothes wages across rainfall states by inducing changes in labor supply. Policy simulations based on our estimates suggest that selling insurance only to land-owning cultivators and precluding the landless from the insurance market (which is the current regulatory practice in India and other developing countries), makes wage laborers worse off relative to a situation where insurance does not exist at all. The general-equilibrium analysis reveals that the welfare costs of curren regulation are borne by landless laborers, who represent the poorest segment of society and whose risk management options are the most limited.
    Keywords: Index insurance, Agricultural Wages, General Equilibrium Effects
    JEL: O17 O13 O16
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:1035&r=agr
  9. By: Marie-Laure Allain (Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X, CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - INSEE - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique); Claire Chambolle (Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X, INRA - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)); Stéphane Turolla (INRA - UMR 1302); Sofia Villas-Boas (UC Berkeley - University of California - University of California, Berkeley)
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of a merger in the French retail sector on food prices, using a consumer panel data. We perform a di fference-in-diff erences analysis by comparing price changes in stores for which the local market structure is aff ected by the merger to unaff ected stores. In addition, we empirically investigate economic forces behind the observed price changes. On average, we fi nd that the merger signifi cantly raised competitors' prices contemporaneously with merging firms' price increases. Further, we show that competitor prices increase more in local markets that experience larger structural changes in concentration and chain diff erentiation.
    Keywords: Ex-post merger evaluation, Retail grocery sector, Diff erence-in-diff erences.
    Date: 2013–12–18
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00920460&r=agr
  10. By: Davide, Dragone; Francesco, Manaresi; Luca, Savorelli
    Abstract: The debate on tobacco and fat taxes often treats smoking and eating as independent behaviors. However, the available evidence shows that they are interdependent, which implies that policies against smoking or obesity may have larger scope than expected. To address this issue, we propose a dynamic rational model where eating and smoking are simultaneous choices that jointly affect body weight and addiction to smoking. Focusing on direct and cross-price effects, we compare tobacco taxes and food taxes and we show that a single policy tool can reduce both smoking and body weight. In particular, food taxes can be more effective than tobacco taxes at simultaneously fighting obesity and smoking.
    Keywords: Addiction, Fat Tax, Obesity, Smoking, Tobacco,
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:sirdps:466&r=agr
  11. By: Philipp Ager; Antonio Ciccone
    Abstract: Insurance among the members of religious organizations should be more valuable in communities facing greater risk, making membership in religious organizations more attractive in high-risk environments. We examine the link between rainfall risk and church membership as well as seating capacity across US counties in the second half of the nineteenth century. Our results indicate that church membership and seating capacity were significantly larger in counties likely to have been subject to greater rainfall risk. This link is present among the most agricultural counties and among counties with low population densities, but not among less agricultural or more densely populated counties. Among the most agricultural counties, a one-standard-deviation increase in rainfall risk is associated with an increase in church seating capacity of around 32 percent in 1890 and 65 percent in 1860.
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2013-17&r=agr
  12. By: Zukauskaite , Elena (CIRCLE, Lund University); Moodysson , Jerker (CIRCLE, Lund University)
    Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explain the complex development of the food sector in Southern Sweden in the past decades, focusing on the relation between institutions and innovation practices and taking into account the diversity of actors composing the sector. The paper develops a theoretical framework combining concepts of path dependency and knowledge bases, and applies it empirically. The three paths identified in the paper resemble path development via radical change, incremental change and diversification.
    Keywords: Food sector; Innovation; Sweden; Institutions; Knowledge base
    JEL: B52 O31 R11
    Date: 2013–12–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2013_046&r=agr
  13. By: Donatella Baiardi (Dipartimento di Economia, Metodi Quantitativi e Strategie d’Impresa Università Bicocca, Milano); Carluccio Bianchi (Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia); Eleonora Lorenzini (Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia)
    Abstract: This paper investigates the relationships between export price and income elasticities, average unit values (AUVs) and market shares for the top world food exporters in the time period 1992-2011 using a panel data framework. Emerging countries and Spain show a high price elasticity unlike other advanced countries. Moreover, an inverse relationship between price elasticities and AUVs is found to exist. The overall analysis enables the conclusion that advanced countries can maintain a specialization in low-tech sectors only if high prices, as indicators of high quality, are accompanied by a rigid foreign demand and a satisfactory income elasticity of exports.
    Keywords: Clothing, Price elasticity, Income elasticity, Export Performance, Product Quality, Panel Granger causality
    JEL: F14 L66 Q17 C23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pav:demwpp:060&r=agr
  14. By: Marie-Estelle Binet (CREM - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management - CNRS : UMR6211 - Université de Rennes 1 - Université de Caen Basse-Normandie); Fabrizio Carlevaro (Département d'économétrie et Centre universitaire d'étude des problèmes de l'énergie - Université de Genève); Michel Paul (CERESUR - Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Economique et Sociales de l'Université de La Réunion - Université de la Réunion)
    Abstract: Using data from a household survey carried out in the French overseas territory of Réunion, we investigate the price of drinking-water perceived by households faced with an increasing, multi-step pricing scheme. To this purpose we use an improved version of the method introduced by Shin (1985) to estimate the demand for residential water when consumers are imperfectly informed about their pricing schedule. The empirical results suggest that Réunion households underestimate the price of water and thus consume more than what is economically rational. Providing information to households about the marginal price of water may be an innovative means of inducing them to respond to pricing policies designed to promote water conservation.
    Keywords: Artificial nesting, increasing block tariffs, non nested models, price information policies, price perception, residential water demand.
    Date: 2013–12–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00918147&r=agr
  15. By: Rode, Julian; Gómez-Baggethun, Erik; Krause, Torsten
    Abstract: As economic incentives for biodiversity and ecosystem service protection (e.g., payments for ecosystem services) have become widespread in environmental science and policy, a major concern among conservationists and environmental scientists is that economic incentives may undermine people's intrinsic motivations to conserve biodiversity. In this paper we review the theoretical insights and empirical findings on motivation crowding effects with economic instruments for biodiversity protection. First, we synthesize the psychological mechanisms behind motivation crowding effects relevant for environmental behavior as identified in the specialized literature. We then conduct a systematic review of the empirical evidence. Our results show that, although several empirical studies suggest the existence of crowding-out and crowding-in effects, evidence remains inconclusive due to i) methodological limitations for empirical studies to demonstrate crowding effects, ii) lack of adequate baseline information about pre-existing intrinsic motivations, iii) weak comparability of results across case studies resulting from inconsistent terminology and methods, and iv) the complexity stemming from cultural and contextual heterogeneity. We conclude that, as economic instruments for conservation are increasingly implemented, it becomes paramount to develop robust methodologies for assessing pre-existing intrinsic motivations and changes in people's motivational structures. To address possible detrimental long term effects for conservation outcomes we call for caution in situations where high uncertainties remain. --
    Keywords: biodiversity,policy instruments,economic incentives,motivation crowding
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ufzdps:192013&r=agr
  16. By: Kristinn, Hermannsson; Stuart G., McIntyre
    Abstract: We examine the complications involved in attributing emissions at a sub-regional or local level. Speci cally, we look at how functional specialisation embedded within the metropolitan area can, via trade between sub-regions, create intra-metropolitan emissions interdependencies; and how this complicates environmental policy implementation in an analogous manner to international trade at the national level. For this purpose we use a 3-region emissions extended input-output model of the Glasgow metropolitan area (2 regions: city and surrounding suburban area) and the rest of Scotland. The model utilises data on commuter flows and household consumption to capture income and consumption flows across sub-regions. This enables a carbon attribution analysis at the sub-regional level, allowing us to shed light on the signi cant emissions interdependencies that can exist within metropolitan areas.
    Keywords: CO2 emissions, environmental accounting, regional interdependencies, metropoli- tan areas, commuting,
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:sirdps:441&r=agr
  17. By: Michael King
    Abstract: This paper explores the policy coherence for development (PCD) dimensions of green growth strategies pursued by OECD member states. The coherence challenge is to design OECD green growth policies in order to maximise the positive synergies and minimise the negatives effects on pro-poor growth in developing countries. Coherence issues across three cross-cutting themes, climate change, biodiversity and innovation policy, are considered, before a comprehensive set of PCD issues related to agricultural livelihoods, fisheries livelihoods and the energy and minor sectors in developing countries are discussed. In doing so three PCD case studies, Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the reform of EU biofuels policy and EU fisheries access, are presented and lessons for the green growth agenda are derived.
    Keywords: intellectual property rights, policy coherence for development, biofuels Policy, Pro-poor Growth, fisheries policy, green growth
    Date: 2013–12–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:dcdaaa:14-en&r=agr
  18. By: Attanasio, O.; Augsburg, B.; Haas, R. de; Fitzsimons, E.; Harmgart, H. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research)
    Abstract: Abstract: We present evidence from a randomized field experiment in rural Mongolia on the comparative poverty impact of group versus individual microcredit. We find a positive impact of group loans but not of individual loans on entrepreneurship and food consumption. Moreover, group borrowers are less likely to make informal transfers to families and friends while the opposite holds true for individual borrowers. This suggests that joint liability may deter borrowers from using loans for non-investment purposes with stronger impacts as a result. We find no difference in repayment rates between both types of microcredit.
    Keywords: Microcredit;poverty;randomized field experiment
    JEL: G21 D21 I32
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2013074&r=agr
  19. By: Emla Fitzsimons (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Marcos Vera-Hernandez (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London)
    Abstract: We show that children who are born at the weekend or just before are less likely to be breastfed, owing to poorer breastfeeding support services at weekends. We use this variation to estimate the effect of breastfeeding on children's development for a sample of uncomplicated births from low educated mothers. We find that breastfeeding has large effects on children's cognitive development, but not on non-cognitive development or health. Regarding mechanisms, we estimate how breastfeeding affects parental investments in the child and the quality of the mother-child relationship.
    Date: 2013–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:13/31&r=agr
  20. By: Benjamin Volland
    Abstract: While the importance of personality for understanding differences in labor market outcomes has come to be increasingly appreciated by economic scholars, little research has so far focused on the question whether these measures also explain some of the individual heterogeneity in demand behavior. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, this study provides evidence for the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and expenditures for food away from home and other leisure activities. Additionally, we assess the relationship between dimensions of personality and individual preferences in predicting expenditure on these categories. Results indicate that aspects of personality predict a non-negligible part of expenditure behavior, and that these effects are independent of the individual’s preference stock. Our results provide empirical support for approaches that include personality as a constraint into economic models of human behavior.
    Keywords: Personality, Five Factor Model, Expenditures, Leisure, UK
    JEL: D12
    Date: 2013–12–18
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2013-05&r=agr
  21. By: Ravallion, Martin; Himelein, Kristen; Beegle, Kathleen
    Abstract: While self-assessments of welfare have become popular for measuring poverty and estimating welfare effects, the methods can be deceptive given systematic heterogeneity in respondents'scales. Little is known about this problem. This study uses specially-designed surveys in three countries, Tajikistan, Guatemala, and Tanzania, to study scale heterogeneity. Respondents were asked to score stylized vignettes, as well as their own household. Diverse scales are in evidence, casting considerable doubt on the meaning of widely-used summary measures such as subjective poverty rates. Nonetheless, under the identifying assumptions of the study, only small biases are induced in the coefficients on widely-used regressors for subjective poverty and welfare.
    Keywords: Rural Poverty Reduction,Economic Theory&Research,Biodiversity,Poverty Lines,Regional Economic Development
    Date: 2013–12–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6726&r=agr
  22. By: Langestraat, R. (Tilburg University)
    Abstract: Abstract: In this thesis we model and analyze several environmental policies in an existing mathematical representation of a perfectly competitive electricity market. We contribute to the literature by theoretically and numerically establishing a number of effects of environmental policies on investment strategies and prices. We provide a theoretical benchmark for environmental regulators aiming to achieve certain policy goals, and present a way to use numerical tools in case a complete theoretical analysis cannot be obtained. Two policies that charge firms for their carbon emissions, namely cap-and-trade and carbon taxation, are modeled into both a stylized deterministic and a two-stage stochastic framework. In the former we characterize equilibria, leading to key results on the dispatching order of technologies and identification of unused technologies. The latter framework is analyzed through a sampling study and focuses on the effectiveness of the policies in the presence of network limitations. We successively study a renewable energy obligation, which indirectly subsidizes electricity production from renewable resources through green certificates. We additionally explore the effects of technology banding, meaning that different renewable technologies are eligible for a different number of certificates. To account for some of the drawbacks of the existing UK technology banding system, we introduce an alternative banding policy. Finally, a feed-in tariff (FIT) is a direct subsidy on electricity production from renewable resources. In a stochastic framework we derive analytically that under linear cost assumptions, this price based instrument cannot guarantee that quantity based policy targets are met. Assuming non-linear convex cost, we find that the opposite holds and that a regulator has the freedom to set FITs in such a way that any desired mixture of renewable technologies can be attained at equilibrium. These FITs are derived analytically or, when necessary, estimated using the numerical tools that we propose.
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:tilbur:urn:nbn:nl:ui:12-5930365&r=agr
  23. By: Gwatipedza, Johnson; Barbier, Edward B.
    Abstract: Bilateral trade and capital flows have increased substantially between the United States and China yielding economic gains to both countries. However, these beneficial bilateral relations also bring about global environmental consequences including greenhouse gas emissions. We develop a footloose capital model of international trade between the North (United States) and the South (China) in the presence of a global pollution externality. Each country's share of global pollution depends on its share of world capital. We show that, if the disutility of pollution in the United States is high, there will be pressure on the US to raise environmental regulations on industry. Capital will move to China. Because the increased pollution in China has global effects, the US may not benefit from the environmental restrictions and a joint regulation of pollution by both parties may be a preferred outcome. We also show that the implementation of differential control policies by the parties may also be optimal. --
    Keywords: global pollution externality,agglomeration,environmental regulation,global warming,greenhouse gas emissions
    JEL: D43 Q54 F18
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201360&r=agr
  24. By: Michèle, Belot; Jonathan, James; Patrick, Nolen
    Abstract: We conduct a field experiment in 31 primary schools in England to test whether incentives to eat fruit and vegetables help children develop healthier habits. The intervention consists of rewarding children with stickers and little gifts for a period of four weeks for choosing a portion of fruit and vegetables at lunch. We compare the effects of two incentive schemes (competition and piece rate) on choices and consumption over the course of the intervention as well as once the incentives are removed and six months later. We find that the intervention had positive effects, but the effects vary substantially according to age and gender. However, we find little evidence of sustained long term effects, except for the children from poorer socio‐economic backgrounds.
    Keywords: Incentives, Health, Habits, Child nutrition, Field experiment,
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:sirdps:471&r=agr

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