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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Blackman, Allen (Resources for the Future); Lyon, Thomas P.; Sisto, Nicholas |
| Abstract: | Voluntary agreements (VAs) negotiated between environmental regulators and industry are increasingly popular. However, little is known about whether they are likely to be effective in developing and transition countries, where local and federal environmental regulatory capacity is typically weak. We develop a dynamic theoretical model to examine the effect of VAs on investment in regulatory infrastructure and pollution abatement in such countries. We find that under certain conditions, VAs can improve welfare by generating more private-sector investment in pollution control and more public-sector investment in regulatory capacity than the status quo. |
| Keywords: | voluntary environmental regulation, developing country |
| JEL: | Q28 O13 C72 |
| Date: | 2006–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-06-30&r=env |
| By: | Jean-Marie GRETHER; Nicole A. MATHYS; Jaime DE MELO |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the debate on the existence of pollution haven effects by systematically measuring the pollution content of trade (measured by the polluction content of imports (PCI)) and decomposing it into three components: a 'deep' (i.e. unrelated to the environmental debate) component and two components (factor endowments and environmental policies) that occupy centerstage in the debate on trade and the environment. The decomposition is carried out for 1986-88 for an extensive data set covering 10 pollutants, 48 countries and 79 ISIC 4-digit sectors. Illustrative decompositions presented for 3 of the 10 pollutants in the data set indicate a significant pollution haven effect and highlight the role of factor endowments in each region's PCI. However, because the bulk of trade is intra-regional with a high North-North share, these effects are small relative to the 'deep' determinants of the worldwide pollution content of trade. |
| Keywords: | trade and the environment; pollution haven |
| JEL: | F18 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lau:crdeep:06.04&r=env |
| By: | Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline (EUREQ - Equipe Universitaire de Recherche en Economie Quantitative - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I]); Mouez Fodha (EUREQ - Equipe Universitaire de Recherche en Economie Quantitative - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I]) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the double dividend and distributional issues within an overlapping <br />generations models framework with involuntary unemployment. We characterize <br />the necessary conditions for the obtention of a double dividend when the revenue of <br />the environmental tax is recycled by a variation of the labor tax rate. We show that an <br />employment dividend may occur without any efficiency dividend and that the young <br />generation is not always harmed by the fiscal reform, even without any<br /> intergenerational transfers. Therefore, three dividends <br />(environmental, efficiency and intergenerational equity) can simultaneously occur. |
| Keywords: | Environmental tax; Intergenerational equity; <br />Unemployment; Double dividend |
| Date: | 2006–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00089913_v1&r=env |
| By: | Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline (CES - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - [CNRS : UMR8174] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I]); Mouez Fodha (CES - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - [CNRS : UMR8174] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I]) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the double dividend issues within the framework of overlapping generations models. We characterize the necessary conditions for obtaining a double dividend, i.e. an improvement of environmental and non-environmental welfare when the revenue from the pollution tax is recycled into a change in the labor tax rate. We show that, depending on the initial capital stock and on the intertemporal elasticity of substitution, conditions may be defined to simultaneously allow (i) the obtaining of a long term double dividend, (ii) the economy to move closer to the modified golden rule and (iii) in the short term, an improvement in the welfare of the two present generations. |
| Keywords: | Environmental tax; Overlapping generations model; Golden rule; Double dividend |
| Date: | 2006–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00089895_v1&r=env |
| By: | Rabotyagov, Sergey S.; Feng, Hongli; Kling, Catherine L. |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the design of permit trading programs when the objective is to minimize the cost of achieving an ex ante pollution target, that is, one that is defined in expectation rather than an ex post deterministic value. We consider two potential sources of uncertainty, the presence of either of which can make our model appropriate: incomplete information on abatement costs and uncertain delivery coefficients. In such a setting, we find three distinct features that depart from the well-established results on permit trading: (1) the regulator’s information on firms’ abatement costs can matter; (2) the optimal permit cap is not necessarily equal to the ex ante pollution target; and (3) the optimal trading ratio is not necessarily equal to the delivery coefficient even when it is known with certainty. Intuitively, since the regulator is only required to meet a pollution target on average, she can set the trading ratio and total permit cap such that there will be more pollution when abatement costs are high and less pollution when abatement costs are low. Information on firms’ abatement costs is important in order for the regulator to induce the optimal alignment between pollution level and abatement costs. |
| Keywords: | delivery coefficient, ex ante pollution target, ex post pollution target, permit trading, total permit cap, trading ratio. |
| Date: | 2006–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12667&r=env |
| By: | Vajjhala, Shalini (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | Recent efforts to site renewable energy projects have provoked as much, if not more, opposition than conventional energy projects. Because renewable energy resources are often located in sensitive and isolated environments, such as pristine mountain ranges or coastal waters, siting these facilities is especially difficult. Moreover, the viability of different renewable energy projects depends not only on complex economic and environmental factors, but also on the availability of supporting infrastructures, such as transmission lines. This paper examines the spatial relationships between four types of renewable energy resources – wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass – and an empirical measure of state-level transmission-line siting difficulty. Analyses explore the locations of renewable resource potential relative to areas of high siting difficulty, state electricity demand and imports, and states with renewable portfolio standards (RPSs). Major results reveal that state resource potential varies, and siting is significantly more difficult in states that import electricity and those with RPSs. These results suggest that states with the greatest incentives to develop renewable energy also face the most serious obstacles to siting new facilities. |
| Keywords: | siting, renewable energy, transmission lines, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, geographic information systems (GIS), renewable portfolio standards (RPS) |
| JEL: | L94 L98 Q42 Q48 |
| Date: | 2006–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-06-34&r=env |
| By: | Bael, David; Sedjo, Roger A. (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the hypothesis that changes have been brought about in the forest industry that allow it to participate fully in globalization. The forest industry has undergone profound changes in recent years in large part by new technologies. Whereas traditionally it was primarily an extractive industry that relied on local sources for its basic resource—raw, industrial wood—today, intensively managed planted forests are replacing natural forests as the basic source of the wood resource, and modern biotechnology is being applied to create trees that both grow rapidly and have traits desired in industrial wood. These changes eliminate the traditional ties between forest processing and locations with abundant natural forests. Today, globalization allows investments, capital flows, and emerging technologies to move easily into regions where they are expected to be particularly productive. It also provides for the ready utilization of the human resources of foreign countries. Thus, offshore outsourcing is closely associated with globalization. The easy flow of productive factors results in the production of goods and services based on a mix of in-country and external contributions to production. In forestry, this process takes on an additional dimension in which the basic resource itself, the forest, can be relocated to capitalize on the cost advantages of particular regions. Additional changes have been driven by modern biotechnology, which has dramatically increased the variety of areas where productive forests can be grown, as well as overall forest productivity. We find that there is substantial evidence in this country-level forestry data to support our hypotheses of how globalization has begun to reshape the forest products industry. However, the evidence suggests that the changes have been more prominent in the pulp industry than in the structural wood sector. |
| Keywords: | forests, globalization, forest products, international, comparative advantage, technology |
| JEL: | F00 F2 L73 O30 Q23 |
| Date: | 2006–08–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-06-35&r=env |
| By: | International Water Management Institute (International Water Management Institute) |
| Keywords: | water resource management / water policy / water resources development / case studies / water shortage / irrigation management / water law / drinking water / wastewater/water pollution |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:polbrs:p03&r=env |
| By: | International Water Management Institute (International Water Management Institute) |
| Keywords: | water resource management / groundwater / institutional development / water policy / water resources development / case studies / water shortage / river basins / water conservation / irrigation management / water law / drinking water / cost recovery / water pollution / national planning / Asia / China/ Indonesia / Philippines / Sri Lanka / Thailand / |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:polbrs:p01&r=env |
| By: | Jha, Manoj; Arnold, Jeffrey G.; Gassman, Philip W. |
| Abstract: | The Raccoon River Watershed (RRW) in West-Central Iowa has been recognized as exporting some of the highest nitrate-nitrogen loadings in the United States and is a major source of sediment and other nutrient loadings. An integrated modeling framework has been constructed for the RRW that consists of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, the interactive SWAT (i_SWAT) software package, Load Estimator (LOADEST) computer program, and other supporting software and databases. The simulation framework includes detailed land use and management data such as different crop rotations and an array of nutrient and tillage management schemes, derived from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Inventory databases and other sources. This paper presents the calibration and validation of SWAT for the streamflow, sediment losses, and nutrient loadings in the watershed and an assessment of land use and management practice shifts in controlling pollution. Streamflow, sediment yield, and nitrate loadings were calibrated for the 1981-1992 period and validated for the 1993-2003 period. Limited field data on organic nitrogen, organic phosphorus, and mineral phosphorus allowed model validation for the 2001-2003 period. Model predictions generally performed very well on both an annual and monthly basis during the calibration and validation periods, as indicated by coefficient of determination (R2) and Nash-Sutcliffe simulation efficiency (E) values that exceeded 0.7 in most cases. A set of land use change scenarios based on taking cropland out of production indicated a significant benefit in reducing sediment yield at the watershed outlet. A second scenario set found that relatively small reductions in nutrient applications resulted in significant reductions in nitrate loadings at the watershed outlet, without affecting crop yields significantly. |
| Keywords: | calibration, management practices, Raccoon River Watershed, SWAT. |
| Date: | 2006–08–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12656&r=env |
| By: | Kenneth A. Small (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine); Seiji Steimetz (Department of Economics, California State University-Long Beach) |
| Abstract: | Housing rents and prices may be influenced not only by the characteristics of the house in question, but by those of nearby houses. Recent work has shown how this effect can be included in a hedonic housing-price equation by using a spatial autoregression model that includes “spatial lags” (prices of nearby properties) in the specification. But if there is a change that influences all prices simultaneously, such as a uniform pollution reduction, what role do spatial lags play in measuring the welfare effects arising from this change? One suggestion in the literature is that the full marginal value of an improvement in air quality is given by the reduced form equation of the autoregressive model, effectively applying a “spatial multiplier” to the directly-measured implicit price of air pollution. We show that this suggestion is correct only if the spatial price interdependence arises from technological spillovers, such that my utility depends on actions my neighbor takes as a result of that neighbor’s property value (e.g. better maintenance). In this case simply estimating a model without spatial lags may also provide a reasonably accurate welfare measure. On the other hand, the spatial inter-dependence could be from pecuniary spillovers, e.g. when real-estate agents use prices of nearby houses to estimate the true equilibrium price of a house being sold. In that case, correct benefit estimation requires the use of spatial lags to separate these pecuniary effects from the implicit prices of pollution. And because those implicit prices alone carry all the required information for benefit estimates, applying a spatial multiplier to them would overestimate benefits. |
| Keywords: | Spatial autocorrelation; spatial lag; welfare; willingness to pay; hedonic price function |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irv:wpaper:050631&r=env |
| By: | International Water Management Institute (International Water Management Institute) |
| Keywords: | water resource management / groundwater / institutional development / water policy / water resources development / case studies / water shortage / river basins / water conservation / irrigation management / water law / drinking water |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:polbrs:p02&r=env |
| By: | Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline (EUREQ - Equipe Universitaire de Recherche en Economie Quantitative - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I]) |
| Abstract: | La notion de double dividende se réfère au cas où l'instauration d'une taxe environnementale, à recettes budgétaires inchangées pour l'État, fait apparaître à la fois un bénéfice environnemental et un bénéfice de nature économique. Les premières études théoriques, en équilibre général, réfutaient cette hypothèse de double dividende et montraient qu'au contraire, les taxes environnementales exacerbent, plutôt qu'elles n'allègent, les distorsions fiscales préexistantes. Cependant, le rôle essentiel joué dans ces résultats par l'élasticité non compensée de l'offre de travail au pouvoir d'achat du salaire met l'accent sur les hypothèses fondamentales de ces études, à savoir la concurrence pure et parfaite et l'équilibre sur le marché du travail. Les imperfections de concurrence ainsi que l'existence de chômage involontaire rendent plus probable l'occurrence d'un double dividende au sens fort, de même que la prise en compte du rôle de la qualité de l'environnement dans les comportements des ménages ou dans la structure productive. |
| Keywords: | Double dividende; Taxe environnementale; Réforme fiscale; Emploi; Bien-être |
| Date: | 2006–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00089916_v1&r=env |
| By: | International Water Management Institute (International Water Management Institute) |
| Keywords: | water resource management / water policy / water resources development / land development / land management / land degradation / |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwt:polbrs:p04&r=env |