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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Neva Goodwin and Julie A. Nelson |
| Abstract: | It can be difficult to incorporate ecological and feminist concerns into introductory courses based on neoclassical analysis. We have faced these issues head-on as we have worked on writing introductory economics textbooks, Microeconomics in Context (Goodwin, Nelson, Ackerman and Weisskopf, 2005) and Macroeconomics in Context (in progress). In this essay, we will describe how we have modified the introductory curriculum to encompass these perspectives. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dae:daepap:05-05&r=env |
| By: | Boter, Jaap (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie (Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics Sciences, Business Administration and Economitrics); Rouwendal, Jan; Wedel, Michel |
| Abstract: | Since recently, a number of studies have applied non-market valuation techniques to measure the value of cultural goods. All studies are single case applications and rely mostly on stated preferences, such as contingent valuation techniques. We compare the relative value of multiple, competing goods and show how revealed preferences, in particular travel costs, may be used for this. In addition, we account for heterogeneity. Using a unique transaction database with the visiting behavior of 80,821 Museum Cardholders to 108 Dutch museums, we propose a latent class application of a logit model to account for the different distances of museums to the population and for differences in willingness-to-travel. |
| Keywords: | museums; non-market valuation; revealed preferences; travel cost method |
| Date: | 2004 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:vuarem:2004-11&r=env |
| By: | Salnykov Mykhaylo; Zelenyuk Valentin |
| Abstract: | Various measures of technical efficiency, such as output distance function, input distance function and directional distance function can be used as sustainability indicators in the case when some outputs produced are undesirable, such as pollution. Shadow prices of environmental pollution asses short run perspectives of increase in pollution when desirable output is increased and may serve as a reference value for environmental taxes and prices for international emission trade. We make an attempt to estimate environmental efficiencies of countries (based on the output distance function with general directional vector) as well as shadow prices for selected pollutants (CO2, SO2 and NOx). Two alternative estimation approaches are employed: parametric (Translog specification) and nonparametric (DEA). Statistical characteristics of the obtained parametric estimates are assessed using the smooth homogeneous bootstrap technique. Our results indicate that, on average, countries value pollutants proportionally to their direct impact on human health (i.e. the most hazardous pollutants have the highest shadow prices). We find that in general both rich and poor countries can be fully environmentally efficient, while most of the countries in transition (CITs) turned out to be inefficient. Our findings imply that under emission permit trade agreements CITs will generally be permit sellers. By selling permits they will hamper their future ability of economic growth, thus some restrictions (which we propose) must be made in such agreements to limit their unsustainability for CITs. Our estimates show that currently global wealth and pollution are allocated inefficiently. We determine that different estimation techniques provide with statistically different estimates. The work provides with illustrative examples of using the estimates to draw forecasts on environmental effect of economic growth; to determine price range on international pollution permit markets and to estimate economically justified rates of environmental taxation. Finally, we provide policy implications and outline potential directions for the future studies in the field. |
| Keywords: | Russia, pollution, environmental efficiency, shadow prices, bootstrap, countries in transition, parametric and nonparametric techniques, bootstrap |
| JEL: | Q56 H23 C67 D24 C15 |
| Date: | 2005–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eer:wpalle:05-06e&r=env |
| By: | Joëlle Noailly (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh (Free University); Cees A. Withagen (Free University and Tilburg University) |
| Abstract: | Conditions for the emergence of cooperation in a spatial common-pool resource game are studied. This combines in a unique way local and global interactions. A fixed number of harvesters are located on a spatial grid. Harvesters choose among three strategies: defection, cooperation, and enforcement. Individual payoffs are affected by both global factors, namely, aggregate harvest and resource stock level, and local factors, such as the imposition of sanctions on neighbors by enforcers. The evolution of strategies in the population is driven by social learning through imitation. Numerous types of equilibria exist in these settings. An important new finding is that clusters of cooperators and enforcers can survive among large groups of defectors. We discuss how the results contrast with the non-spatial, but otherwise similar, game of Sethi and Somanathan (1996). |
| Keywords: | Common property, Cooperation, Evolutionary game theory, Global interactions, Local interactions, Social norms |
| JEL: | C72 Q2 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2005.78&r=env |
| By: | Joëlle Noailly (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis); Cees A. Withagen (Free University and Tilburg University); Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh (Free University) |
| Abstract: | We study the conditions for the emergence of cooperation in a spatial common-pool resource game. We consider three types of agents: cooperators, defectors and enforcers. The role of enforcers is to punish defectors for overharvesting the resource. Agents are located around a circle and they only observe the actions of their two nearest neighbors. Their payoffs are determined by both local and global interactions and they modify their actions by imitating the strategy in their neighborhood with the highest payoffs on average. Using theoretical and numerical analysis, we find that a large diversity of equilibria exists in this game. In particular, we derive conditions for the occurrence of equilibria in which the three strategies coexist. We also discuss the stability of these equilibria. Finally, we show that introducing resource dynamics favors the occurrence of cooperative equilibria. |
| Keywords: | Common property, Evolutionary game theory, Local interactions game, Self-organization, Cooperation |
| JEL: | C72 Q2 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2005.79&r=env |
| By: | Valentina Bosetti (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei); Barbara Buchner (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei) |
| Abstract: | Within the political, scientific and economic debate on climate change, the process of evaluating climate policies ex-ante, during and/or ex-post their lifetime, is receiving increasing attention from international institutions and organisations. The task becomes particularly challenging when the aim is to evaluate strategies or policies from a sustainability perspective. The three pillars of sustainability should then be jointly considered in the evaluation process, thus enabling a comparison of the social, the environmental and the economic dimensions of the policy’s impact. This is commonly done in a qualitative manner and is often based on subjective procedures. The present paper discusses a data-based, quantitative methodology to assess the relative performances of different climate policies, when long term economic, social and environmental impacts of the policy are considered. The methodology computes competitive advantages as well as relative efficiencies of climate policies and is here presented through an application to a sample of eleven global climate policies, considered as plausible for the near future. The proposed procedure is based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a technique commonly employed in evaluating the relative efficiency of a set of decision making units. We consider here two possible applications of DEA. In the first, DEA is applied coupled with Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) in order to evaluate the comparative advantages of policies when accounting for social and environmental impacts, as well as net economic benefits. In the second, DEA is applied to compute a relative efficiency score, which accounts for environmental and social benefits and costs interpreted as outputs and inputs. Although the choice of the model used to simulate future economic and environmental implications of each policy (in the present paper we use the FEEM RICE model), as well as the choice of indicators for costs and benefits, represent both arbitrary decisions, the methodology presented is shown to represent a practical tool to be flexibly adopted by decision makers in the phase of policy design. |
| Keywords: | Climate, Policy, Valuation, Data envelopment analysis, Sustainability |
| JEL: | H41 Q51 Q54 C61 |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2005.82&r=env |
| By: | Reungsang, Pipat; Kanwar, Ramesh S.; Jha, Manoj; Gassman, Philip W.; Ahmad, Khalil; Saleh, Ali |
| Abstract: | A validation study has been performed using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model with data collected for the Upper Maquoketa River Watershed (UMRW), which drains over 16,000 ha in northeast Iowa. This validation assessment builds on a previous study with nested modeling for the UMRW that required both the Agricultural Policy EXtender (APEX) model and SWAT. In the nested modeling approach, edge-of-field flows and pollutant load estimates were generated for manure application fields with APEX and were then subsequently routed to the watershed outlet in SWAT, along with flows and pollutant loadings estimated for the rest of the watershed routed to the watershed outlet. In the current study, the entire UMRW cropland area was simulated in SWAT, which required translating the APEX subareas into SWAT hydrologic response units (HRUs). Calibration and validation of the SWAT output was performed by comparing predicted flow and NO3-N loadings with corresponding in-stream measurements at the watershed outlet from 1999 to 2001. Annual stream flows measured at the watershed outlet were greatly under-predicted when precipitation data collected within the watershed during the 1999-2001 period were used to drive SWAT. Selection of alternative climate data resulted in greatly improved average annual stream predictions, and also relatively strong r2 values of 0.73 and 0.72 for the predicted average monthly flows and NO3-N loads, respectively. The impact of alternative precipitation data shows that as average annual precipitation increases 19%, the relative change in average annual streamflow is about 55%. In summary, the results of this study show that SWAT can replicate measured trends for this watershed and that climate inputs are very important for validating SWAT and other water quality models. |
| Date: | 2005–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12375&r=env |
| By: | Gassman, Philip W.; Williams, Jimmy R.; Benson, Verel W.; Izaurralde, R. César; Hauck, Larry M.; Jones, C. Allan; Atwood, Jay D.; Kiniry, James R.; Flowers, Joan D. |
| Abstract: | The development of the field-scale Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) model was initiated in 1981 to support assessments of soil erosion impacts on soil productivity for soil, climate, and cropping conditions representative of a broad spectrum of U.S. agricultural production regions. The first major application of EPIC was a national analysis performed in support of the 1985 Resources Conservation Act (RCA) assessment. The model has continuously evolved since that time and has been applied for a wide range of field, regional, and national studies both in the U.S. and in other countries. The range of EPIC applications has also expanded greatly over that time, including studies of (1) surface runoff and leaching estimates of nitrogen and phosphorus losses from fertilizer and manure applications, (2) leaching and runoff from simulated pesticide applications, (3) soil erosion losses from wind erosion, (4) climate change impacts on crop yield and erosion, and (5) soil carbon sequestration assessments. The EPIC acronym now stands for Erosion Policy Impact Climate, to reflect the greater diversity of problems to which the model is currently applied. The Agricultural Policy EXtender (APEX) model is essentially a multi-field version of EPIC that was developed in the late 1990s to address environmental problems associated with livestock and other agricultural production systems on a whole-farm or small watershed basis. The APEX model also continues to evolve and to be utilized for a wide variety of environmental assessments. The historical development for both models will be presented, as well as example applications on several different scales. |
| Date: | 2005–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12376&r=env |
| By: | Anders Hammer Strømman (Norwegian University of Science & Technology Department of Energy and Process Technology, Industrial Ecology Program H¿yskoleringen 5, 7491 Trondheim, Norway); Edgar G. Hertwich (Norwegian University of Science & Technology Department of Energy and Process Technology, Industrial Ecology Program Høyskoleringen 5, 7491 Trondheim, Norway); Faye Duchin (Department of Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY 12180-3590, USA) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how changes in the international division of labor can contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. The mitigation potential and costs implied by this mechanism are analyzed. Implications for the aluminium sector are assessed, including changes in the price of aluminium when global carbon emissions are constrained and the constraints are progressively tightened. The analysis makes use of the World Trade Model with Bilateral Trade (WTMBT), a linear program based on comparative advantage with any number of goods, factors, and regional trade partners. Minimizing factor use, WTMBT determines regional production, bilateral trade patterns, and region-specific prices. The model is extended for this study through the application of multi-objective optimization techniques and is used to explore efficient trade-offs between reducing CO2 emissions and increasing global factor costs. This application demonstrates how the WTMBT, with its global scope and regional and sectoral production detail, can be used to build bridges between global objectives and concerns about a specific industry in specific regions. This capability can extend the reach of more traditional studies in industrial ecology. |
| JEL: | F18 C61 C67 Q56 |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rpi:rpiwpe:0508&r=env |