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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | John C. Whitehead; Peter A. Groothuis; Rob Southwick; Pat Foster-Turley |
| Abstract: | We estimate the economic values of Saginaw Bay coastal marshes with multiple methods. First we estimate the value of coastal marsh recreation with two variations of the travel cost method: the single-site recreation demand model and the recreation site selection or random utility model. Using the single site model the current level of day trip recreation in the Saginaw Bay coastal marsh area is valued at almost $16 million each year. The present value is $239 million. Using the site selection travel cost model, an increase in 1125 acres of coastal marsh is valued at about $94,000 annually. The present value is $1.83 million. Willingness to pay for recreation and other values of coastal marsh protection is estimated using the contingent valuation method. The annual value of protection of 1125 acres of coastal marsh is $113,000. The present value is $2.2 million. |
| Keywords: | Q51 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:06-10&r=env |
| By: | Manuel Couret Branco (Department of Economics, University of Évora); Dália Cristóvão (University of Évora) |
| Abstract: | The decision-making process concerning the co-incineration of industrial dangerous waste in Portugal has most certainly been transformed into a conflict centered on the unequal distribution of risks to the environment and to public health, opposing local population to the government. It is also a good example of the conflict between scientific and democratic rationalities as the government’s decision is supposed to receive its legitimacy by science whereas those most affected by government decisions, local people, are impelled by democratic rationality. Based on a case study, the paper concludes that, despite a long period of public involvement there was no real public participation in the decision making process. |
| Keywords: | Participation, Environmental Equity, Sustainable Development, Risk Management, Democracy, Dangerous Waste |
| JEL: | Q53 Q56 Z1 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:evo:wpecon:11_2006&r=env |
| By: | Minh Ha-Duong (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - [CNRS : UMR8568] - [Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales][Ecole Nationale du Génie Rural des Eaux et des Forêts][Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées]); Pierre Matarasso (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - [CNRS : UMR8568] - [Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales][Ecole Nationale du Génie Rural des Eaux et des Forêts][Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées]) |
| Abstract: | Les modèles « intégrés » économie-énergie-climat sont des modèles numériques interdisciplinaires destinés à étudier ces questions d'impact, d'adaptation et de réduction du changement climatique. Ils visent à traduire les débats discursifs sur la précaution en faisceaux d'arguments logiquement organisés, basés sur des connaissances scientifiques mesurables. Ils sont construits dans l'espoir de permettre aux citoyens, aux instances de décision nationales et internationales de prendre des décisions mieux informées. Les modèles intégrés sont le socle d'une accumulation de connaissances qui nous permettront d'explorer une vaste gamme de situations possibles et de nous préparer ainsi à de nombreuses éventualités, tant du côté des évolutions climatiques que de celui des manières de réduire les émissions anthropiques. |
| Keywords: | modélisation intégrée, énergie, climat, économie |
| Date: | 2006–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00078623_v2&r=env |
| By: | Alexandrine Jamin (CES - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - [CNRS : UMR8174] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I]); Antoine Mandel (CES - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - [CNRS : UMR8174] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I]) |
| Abstract: | Each Party of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change must achieve quantified green-house gases emission reduction. one of the major policy instrument to be used to comply with these commitments is the opening of an emission allowances market. This paper analyzes, in the general equilibrium framework, the effects of the opening of such a market on the economic equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | General Equilibrium Theory ; emission allowances ; general pricing rules ; sensitivity. |
| Date: | 2006–07–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00084002_v1&r=env |
| By: | Warwick J. McKibbin; Peter J. Wilcoxen |
| Abstract: | To succeed in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, a climate policy must establish credible long-term incentives for investments in the new energy-sector capital and in research and development. We argue that credibility implies that international agreements should focus on enhancing coordination and collaboration between countries, rather than on coercion. At the national level, credibility requires political and economic incentives that can be provided by long-term tradable emission permits, but it needs more flexibility than can be provided by a conventional permit system. We argue that the best mechanism for providing credible long-term incentives is a hybrid system of long and short term emissions permits. Key aspects of the system would be coordianted across countries but the permits would be issued and traded solely within national borders. |
| Date: | 2006–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:camaaa:2006-15&r=env |
| By: | Pizer, William A. (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | This paper argues against the common-sense conclusion that climate change demands a global market-based solution, such as international emissions trading. First, current experience suggests global cooperation is not necessary for initial mandatory actions. Second, when domestic targets vary across nations, there are a variety of reasons why international emissions trading, even though it creates aggregate economic gains for all nations, may not be desirable. These reasons include concerns over legitimizing target variations for future negotiations, real and perceived consequences of capital flows across nations, and distributional impacts within nations. Finally, the underlying need for global technology solutions suggests domestic mitigation policies that balance clear emissions price signals, incentives for technology development and deployment, and mechanisms to finance deployment to developing countries. International efforts, in turn, might focus on encouraging these domestic actions, facilitating the developing country investment mechanisms, and providing credible reviews of national action. |
| Keywords: | climate, change, international, treaty, Kyoto, emissions trading |
| JEL: | H87 Q54 D62 D63 |
| Date: | 2006–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-06-04&r=env |
| By: | Goulder, Lawrence H.; Pizer, William A. (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | Global climate change poses a threat to the well-being of humans and other living things through impacts on ecosystem functioning, biodiversity, capital productivity, and human health. Climate change economics attends to this issue by offering theoretical insights and empirical findings relevant to the design of policies to reduce, avoid, or adapt to climate change. This economic analysis has yielded new estimates of mitigation benefits, improved understanding of costs in the presence of various market distortions or imperfections, better tools for making policy choices under uncertainty, and alternate mechanisms for allowing flexibility in policy responses. These contributions have influenced the formulation and implementation of a range of climate change policies at the domestic and international levels. |
| Keywords: | climate change, global warming, energy |
| JEL: | Q40 Q50 Q54 |
| Date: | 2006–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-06-06&r=env |
| By: | Siikamäki, Juha (Resources for the Future); Layton, David F. |
| Abstract: | This study assesses the potential cost-effectiveness of incentive payment programs relative to traditional top-down regulatory programs for biological conservation. We develop site-level estimates of the opportunity cost and the nonmonetized biological benefits of protecting biodiversity hotspots in Finnish nonindustrial private forests. We then use these estimates to compare and contrast the cost-effectiveness of alternative conservation programs. Our results suggest that incentive payment programs, which tacitly capitalize on landowners’ private knowledge about the opportunity costs of conservation, may be considerably more cost-effective than traditional top-down regulatory programs. |
| Keywords: | biodiversity conservation, incentive payments, cost-effectiveness, opportunity cost, biological benefits, non-industrial private forests |
| JEL: | C42 Q15 Q20 Q21 Q23 Q57 |
| Date: | 2006–06–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-06-27&r=env |
| By: | Palmer, Karen (Resources for the Future); Butraw, Dallas (Resources for the Future); Kahn, Danny (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | Policies to cap emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), such as the recently announced agreement among seven northeastern states, are expected to have important effects on the electricity industry and on the market value of firms that own electricity generation assets. The economics literature finds large efficiency advantages for initial distribution of tradable emissions allowances through an auction so as to direct revenues to tax relief or other public investments. However, an auction raises the costs for the regulated firms. This paper identifies rules for an initial distribution that satisfy a compensation goal for firms that is achieved through free distribution of a portion of the allowances, while maximizing the value of allowances that can be directed to public purposes. The paper employs a detailed simulation model to calculate numerical results for the market value of generation assets under the CO2 cap-and-trade program in the northeastern United States. |
| Keywords: | emissions trading, allowance allocations, electricity, air pollution, auction, grandfathering, output-based allocation, cost-effectiveness, greenhouse gases, climate change, global warming, carbon dioxide, asset value |
| JEL: | Q2 Q25 Q4 L94 |
| Date: | 2006–06–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-06-28&r=env |
| By: | Michele Baggio (Dipartimento di Scienze economiche (Università di Verona)); Jean-Paul Chavas (Research Assistant,Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a methodology for the valuation of the taste for diversity. The concerns about the contribution of diversity in the valuation of consumer goods typically arise when it is believed that the total value is The methodology we propose infers the economic value of diversity through fish market price by using a system of inverse demands to model the nature of this particular commodity. We develop our analysis of the consumer value of diversity using Luenberger’s benefit function (Luenberger, 1992). In this context, we show that the benefit function provides a conceptual framework to conduct a welfare analysis of the value of diversity in a system framework. |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ver:wpaper:35&r=env |