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on Environmental Economics |
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Issue of 2017‒08‒06
twenty-six papers chosen by Francisco S. Ramos Universidade Federal de Pernambuco |
| By: | Nicola De Vivo (IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca (Italy)); Giovanni Marin (Department of Economics, Society and Politics, University of Urbino 'Carlo Bo') |
| Abstract: | The European Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the central EU policy instrument aimed at mitigating climate change and to comply with the target agreed in the Kyoto protocol. The EU ETS could result in an harmful impact for the competitiveness of the European firms, as it was unilaterally introduced by the EU, and so firms could be induced to relocate their carbon-intensive production activities in countries with less stringent regulations for mitigating climate change (carbon leakage effect). For this reason, European Union decided to grant most of permits for free in its first phases and to exempt leakage-exposed sectors from auctioning in its third phase. According to Coase (1960), the level of emissions for each firm in equilibrium does not depend on the assignment of property rights over the emissions but this could not be the case in a real world system, with a lot of possible frictions, as transaction costs and behavioural anomalies. The aim of the paper is to exploit the asymmetry in the allocation mechanisms introduced from the third phase of the EU ETS to evaluate whether different allocation mechanisms are neutral in terms of emission abatement decisions. Results suggest a non-neutral role of the allocation mechanisms, with establishments that received allowances for free having greater emissions than plants that were forced to buy allowances through auctions. |
| Keywords: | EU ETS, grandfathering, auctioning, carbon leakage |
| JEL: | Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0417&r=env |
| By: | Boscow Okumu; Edwin Muchapondwa |
| Abstract: | Forest ecosystem services are critical for human well-being as well as functioning and growth of economies. However, despite the growing demand for these services, they are hardly given due consideration in public policy formulation. The values attached to these services by local communities are also generally unknown in developing countries. Using a case study of the Mau forest conservancy the study applied a choice experiment technique employing the efficient design criteria to value salient forest ecosystem services among forest adjacent communities. The values attached to various ecosystem services were estimated using the conditional logit, random parameter logit model and random parameter logit model with interactions. The results revealed high level of preference heterogeneity across households and that communities would prefer conservation programs that would guarantee them improved forest cover, reduced flood risk and high water quality and quantity for drinking but would experience a loss in welfare for choosing an alternative with medium wildlife population. One significant finding from the study is the altruistic nature of forest adjacent communities as revealed by the high willingness to pay for flood mitigation showing that they are not just concerned with the private benefits accruing to them but also the welfare of the society. Overall, we found that there is much appreciation for the role of forest ecosystem services and that forest adjacent communities are more pro conservation mainly motivated by the direct use and non-use values. In terms of policy, the information forms a basis for the design of market based incentives such as PES and the roll out, design and implementation of participatory forest management. Policy makers also need to focus on policy options with higher mean welfare impacts to deepen community involvement in forest conservation while taking into account the heterogeneity in preferences to ensure equity. |
| Keywords: | choice experiment, ecosystem services, Incentives, PES |
| JEL: | Q23 Q28 Q51 Q57 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:693&r=env |
| By: | Sushama Murty (Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Exeter) |
| Abstract: | We develop a methodology for (a) constructing unilateral profit (producer surplus)- increasing and emission-decreasing policy reforms and (b) measuring marginal abatement cost (MAC), when countries operate inefficiently in meeting their self-imposed emission caps and when instantaneous radical jumps from their inefficient status-quos to their emission-constrained optima are infeasible due to existing institutional and political constraints. Data from 118 countries combined with the theoretical methodology developed reveals that (a) allocative inefficiencies are pervasive, (b) our proposed unilateral-efficiency increasing reform can result in more than 8% increase in global profit and 30% reduction in net global emission of CO2 – the biggest gainers being USA, China, Japan, Russia, India, and several countries from western European, and (c) MACs range from zero to 3,000 USD per ton of carbon (USDptc) in 94% of countries in our sample. MAC is more than (resp., less than) 1,000 USDptc in 80% of OECD (resp., 61% of non-OECD) countries. While MACs are zero for many countries in the former Soviet block, they are more than 2,000 USDptc for countries in western Europe. These differences in MACs imply considerable scope for multilateral efficiency improvements in meeting voluntary emission reduction targets through international emission trading and other international climate initiatives. Length:74 pages |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:citdwp:16-02&r=env |
| By: | Mar Reguant (Northwestern University); Meredith Fowlie (UC Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | When a policy regulating greenhouse gas emissions applies to only a subset of emitting sources (i.e. the policy is ``incomplete"), a policy-induced shift in economic activity to exempt (or less stringently regulated) sources can substantially undermine policy effectiveness via emissions ``leakage". Under existing climate change policies, output-based rebating of compliance costs is the preferred means of mitigating this leakage risk. These implicit production subsidies have potentially significant implications for both economic efficiency and the distribution of policy impacts, so it is important to carefully target this leakage mitigation to those industries truly at leakage risk. We provide a theoretically sound basis for deriving industry-specific, output-based subsidies under different policy objective functions and market structures. Key components include industry-level measures of emissions intensity, industry-level measures of import and export intensity, and industry-level measures of how domestic output, import flows, and export flows respond to changes in relative energy prices. Using rich transaction and firm-level data from the U.S. Census, we estimate these components and calibrate industry-specific, output-based subsidies for manufacturing sectors in the United States. We assess the efficiency and distributional implications of implementing a domestic carbon policy with and without these leakage mitigation provisions. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:383&r=env |
| By: | Astghik Mavisakalyan (Bankwest Curtin Economic Centre, Curtin University); Yashar Tarverdi (Bankwest Curtin Economic Centre, Curtin University); Clas Weber (University of Western Australia, Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies a new source that explains environmental behaviour: the presence of future tense marking in language. We predict that languages that grammatically mark the future affect speakers’ intertemporal preferences and thereby reduce their willingness to address climate change. We first document that countries with a language that requires future tense marking adopt less stringent climate change policies. We then show that individuals within countries behave consistently: speakers of languages with future tense marking are less likely to adopt environmentally responsible behaviours. The results suggest that there may be deep and surprising obstacles for attempts to address climate change. |
| Keywords: | language; linguistic relativity, intertemporal preference, climate change, environmental policy. |
| JEL: | Q54 Q58 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ozl:bcecwp:wp1703&r=env |
| By: | Alex Marten; Stephen C. Newbold |
| Abstract: | The general equilibrium (GE) effects of environmental policies have long been a concern of stake-holders and researchers due to the potential for economy-wide feedbacks that could affect the efficiency and incidence of those policy interventions. Concerns about the potential economy-wide effects of environmental regulations are most often focused on the costs of compliance, while the beneficial outcomes of these policies are typically excluded from GE analyses. However, both regulators and researchers have recently shown interest in general equilibrium (GE) assessments of the benefits and economy-wide impacts of mortality risk reductions. GE models are able to capture feedbacks that may be important for understanding the welfare implications of environmental policies. In a study of the cumulative effects of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found estimates for the benefits of air quality improvements that were more than an order of magnitude smaller under a GE approach com- pared with a traditional partial equilibrium (PE) approach. It has been suggested that these results are evidence that the PE benefits of environmental regulations are implausibly large. However, previous GE analyses of environmental or public health policies have characterized the expected health improvements using highly simplified approximations whose validity have yet to be closely examined. We present the first explicit characterization of mortality risk changes in a GE model applied to environmental regulations. We find that reductions in mortality risks can have significant GE feedbacks and that these effects are important for estimating the benefits, economic impacts, and potentially the costs of environmental policies. Our results suggest that the previously used approximations for incorporating mortality risk reductions in GE models may be the main source of the large discrepancies between GE and PE benefits estimates in previous studies, and may introduce significant errors into estimates of the economy-wide impacts of environmental policies. |
| Keywords: | mortality risk reduction benefits, general equilibrium, air quality |
| JEL: | Q50 Q53 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nev:wpaper:wp201703&r=env |
| By: | Lyazzat Nugumanova (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies); Miriam Frey; Natalya Yemelina; Stanislav Yugay |
| Abstract: | We provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of environmental governance concerning air pollution, water problems and waste generation in Kazakhstan. The overview of the environmental and institutional framework in these fields reveals that major environmental problems exist in the country. Some steps have already been taken to ensure a proper management of air, waste and water. However, more coordinated cross-sectoral actions, both on the regional and the national level, need to be undertaken to ensure a productive cooperation between state institutions, business and the society. |
| Keywords: | air pollution, waste generation, water usage, environmental policy, institutions, Kazakhstan |
| JEL: | O13 O44 Q53 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ost:wpaper:366&r=env |
| By: | Lyazzat Nugumanova (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg); Miriam Frey |
| Abstract: | We provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of environmental governance and policy in Kazakhstan as the country is assumed to have a leading role in Central Asia in terms of green growth and sustainable development. The overview of the environmental and institutional framework in the country reveals that the significant steps towards an improvement of environmental governance have been undertaken. |
| Keywords: | shadow economy; environmental governance, environmental policy, institutions, Kazakhstan |
| JEL: | Q50 Q58 Q59 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ost:wpaper:365&r=env |
| By: | David M. Massey; Chris Moore; Stephen C. Newbold; Tom Ihde; Howard Townsend |
| Abstract: | We estimated the economic benefits of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL to commercial fish harvesters and consumers, recreational anglers, and other outdoor recreators. To forecast the impacts of the TMDL on harvested fish and shellfish stocks in the bay and connected Atlantic coast waters, we used a summary of judgments from an expert panel and a multi-species model of Chesapeake Bay fisheries. We estimated benefits to consumers in commercial fish markets using a multi-stage inverse demand system, which models price as a function of exogenous supply and accounts for substitution possibilities between 13 different species and as many as five regions. Models were estimated using monthly harvest data from the years 1991 to 2011. The estimated parameters of the inverse demand systems were then used to calculate compensating and equivalent variation from the changes in harvests between the baseline and TMDL scenarios. To estimate producer surplus changes, we assumed that fishing effort will remain fixed at recent levels in each fishery, so harvesting costs do not increase due to the TMDL. The resulting estimates of commercial fishing benefits range between $3 and $26 million per year. We also examined the implications of alternative assumptions about the management regime in each fishery, including fixed effort, open access, and maximum sustainable surplus. We calculated benefits to recreational anglers using a linked participation and site-choice recreation demand model. The model was estimated using angler intercept survey data from the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS). Catch rates were calculated using historic reported catch from the MRFSS. We accounted for the sample selection bias caused by the non-random intercept survey sampling design using weights based on historic visitation frequencies at each intercept site. The intercept data were used to estimate a random utility site-choice model, and counts of trips from respondent zip codes were used to estimate a negative binomial participation model conditional on the inclusive value of all sites as estimated by the site-choice model. The resulting estimates of recreational fishing benefits range between $5 and $59 million per year. We used a separate recreation demand model to estimate the benefits associated with other outdoor recreation activities. The model was estimated using aggregate data on the total number of visitors to national and state parks in Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. The aggregate visitation data alone are insufficient to estimate all parameters of the model, so these data were supplemented with survey data on the number of recreation trips taken to the Chesapeake Bay collected from a random sample of individuals in the study area. The marginal effects of water quality on recreators’ site choices were estimated in a second-stage regression, using estimates of site-specific constants from the first-stage site-choice model as the dependent variable and measures of average water quality conditions and other fixed site attributes as explanatory variables. The central estimates of the outdoor recreation benefits (exclusive of recreational fishing) are between $105 to $280 million per year. |
| Keywords: | Chesapeake Bay, water quality, TMDL, hypoxia, commercial fisheries, recreational fisheries, outdoor recreation demand model, inverse demand system, bioeconomic model |
| JEL: | Q22 Q26 Q51 Q57 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nev:wpaper:wp201702&r=env |
| By: | Ann E. Ferris; Richard Garbaccio; Alex Marten; Ann Wolverton |
| Abstract: | Concern regarding the economic impacts of environmental regulations has been part of the public dialogue since the beginning of the U.S. EPA. Even as large improvements in environmental quality occurred, government and academia began to examine the potential consequences of regulation for economic growth and productivity. In general, early studies found measurable but not severe effects on the overall national economy. While price increases due to regulatory requirements outweighed the stimulative effect of investments in pollution abatement, they nearly offset one another. However, these studies also highlighted potentially substantial effects on local labor markets due to the regional and industry concentration of plant closures. More recently, a substantial body of work examined industry-specific effects of environmental regulation on the productivity of pollution-intensive firms most likely to face pollution control costs, as well as on plant location and employment decisions within firms. Most econometric-based studies found relatively small or no effect on sector-specific productivity and employment, though firms were less likely to open plants in locations subject to more stringent regulation compared to other U.S. locations. In contrast, studies that used economy-wide models to explicitly account for sectoral linkages and intertemporal effects found substantial sector-specific effects due to environmental regulation, including in sectors that were not directly regulated. It is also possible to think about the overall impacts of environmental regulation on the economy through the lens of benefit-cost analysis. While this type of approach does not speak to how the costs of regulation are distributed across sectors, it has the advantage of explicitly weighing the benefits of environmental improvements against their costs. If benefits are greater than costs, then overall social welfare is improved. When conducting such exercises, it is important to anticipate the ways in which improvements in environmental quality may either directly improve the productivity of economic factors – such as through the increased productivity of outdoor workers – or change the composition of the economy as firms and households change their behavior. If individuals are healthier, for example, they may choose to reallocate their time between work and leisure. While introducing a role for pollution in production and household behavior can be challenging, studies that have partially accounted for this interconnection have found substantial impacts of improvements in environmental quality on the overall economy. |
| Keywords: | Economic impacts, environmental regulation, economic productivity, employment, plant location, social welfare, health benefits |
| JEL: | Q52 Q53 Q58 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nev:wpaper:wp201701&r=env |
| By: | N; a Kaji Budhathoki |
| Abstract: | The study investigates whether the farmers' perception of changes in climate have led toany changes in their farming practices over the last three decades. The study surveyed 496farmers living near 10 meteorological stations in Nepal for their understanding of climatechange between 1980 and 2014 and adaptation strategies in terms of farming practices inresponse to perceived change. The results show that nearly all farmers attributed changesin crops grown, in crop varieties, and other farming practices to technological, market,and other factors rather than climate change. A comparison of farmer perceptions andmeteorological data showed that farmers' perceptions of changes in minimum temperatureand rainfall over the period did not match actual trends in this period in the stations nearwhere they lived. However, their perception of changes in maximum temperature did matchthe observed trends at the stations quite well, possibly because the trends in this variablewere clearer than those for the minimum rates. The results of the study demonstrate that theclimate change signal in Nepal during the 1980-2014 period has not been clear and strongenough to have a consistent impact on farmers' perceptions or, even more so, on theiragricultural practices. The study found no evidence that adaptation to climate change hasoccurred. This suggests that for farmers to effectively adapt to future climate change, bettercommunication of expected changes in climate from responsible state and non-state actorsmay be necessary. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:snd:wpaper:123&r=env |
| By: | Inessa Love (University of Hawaii); Beata Javorcik (Department of Economics); Arlan Brucal (Grantham Institute, LSE) |
| Abstract: | The link between foreign ownership and environmental performance remains a controversial issue. This paper contributes to our understanding of this subject by analyzing the impact of foreign acquisitions on plant-level environmental performance. The analysis applies a difference-in-differences approach combined with coarsened exact matching to the data from the Indonesian Manufacturing Census for the period 1983-2001. It covers 264 acquisition cases where an acquired plant is observed a year before and at least three years after an ownership change and for which a carefully selected control plant exists. The results suggest that while foreign ownership increases the overall energy usage, due to expansion of output, it decreases the plant's energy intensity. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:306&r=env |
| By: | Tommaso Luzzati; Angela Parenti; Tommaso Rughi |
| Abstract: | Why do we observe increasing rates of new cancers cases? Is this mainly the outcome of higher life expectancy and better life conditions brought about by economic development? Do environmental degradation and changes in life-styles play also a role? To answer these questions we empirically assessed the relationship between per capita income and new cancer cases (incidence) by using a cross-sectional dataset from 121 countries. When looking at the overall incidence rate (i.e., all-sites cancer), we found no support for a cancer-EKC hypothesis (inverted-U relationship). Actually, incidence increases with per capita income, even after controlling for population ageing, improvement in cancer detection, and omitted spatially correlated variables. Hence, a role in cancer occurrence has to be attributed also to changes in lifestyles and to deterioration of environmental quality brought about by economic growth. Looking at the eight most common site-specific cancers not only confirms the existing evidence of different patterns in rich and poor countries, but also helps understanding the estimated relationship for the overall incidence rates. |
| Keywords: | Economic development; Cancer; Environmental Kuznets Curve; Environmental degradation; Spatial error models. |
| Date: | 2017–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2017/218&r=env |
| By: | Christian A. L. Hilber; Charles Palmer; Edward W. Pinchbeck |
| Abstract: | We explore the impact of historical preservation policies on domestic energy consumption. Using panel data for England from 2006 to 2013 and employing a fixed effects-strategy, we document that (i) rising national energy prices induce an increase in home energy efficiency installations and a corresponding reduction in energy consumption and (ii) this energy saving effect is significantly less pronounced in Conservation Areas and in places with high concentrations of Listed Buildings, where the adoption of energy efficiency installations is typically more costly and sometimes legally prevented altogether. Preservation policies increase private energy costs and the social cost of carbon per designated dwelling by around £8,000 and £2,550, respectively. These costs ought to be weighed against any benefits of preservation. |
| Keywords: | preservation policies, land use regulation, energy efficiency, energy consumption, climate change |
| JEL: | Q48 Q54 R38 R52 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0217&r=env |
| By: | Bas B. Jacobs (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Tinbergen Institute and CESifo; Tinbergen Institute, The Netherlands); Rick F. van der Ploeg (University of Oxford, Tinbergen Institute, CEPR and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses optimal corrective taxation and optimal income redistribution. Under general utility functions, the Pigouvian pollution tax is higher if pollution damages disproportionally hurt the poor due to equity weighting of pollution damages. Moreover, optimal pollution taxes should be set below the Pigouvian tax if the poor spend a disproportionate fraction of their income on polluting goods. However, if preferences for commodities are of the Gorman (1961) polar form, optimal pollution taxes should follow the first-best rule for the Pigouvian corrective tax even if the government wants to redistribute income and the poor spend a disproportional part of their income on polluting goods. The often-used quasi-linear, CES and Stone-Geary utility functions all belong to the Gorman polar class. If preferences are Gorman polar, and if pollution taxes are not optimized, Pareto-improving green tax reforms exist that move the pollution tax closer to the Pigouvian tax. Simulations demonstrate that optimal corrective taxes should be Pigouvian if the demand for polluting goods is derived from a LES demand system, but deviate from the Pigouvian taxes if demand for polluting goods demand is derived from a PIGLOG demand system. |
| Keywords: | redistributive taxation; corrective pollution taxation; Gorman polar form; Stone-Geary preferences; PIGLOG preferences; green tax reform |
| JEL: | H21 H23 Q54 |
| Date: | 2017–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20170070&r=env |
| By: | Petropoulos, G.; Willems, Bert (Tilburg University, TILEC) |
| Abstract: | Coordinating the timing of new production facilities is one of the challenges of liberalized power sectors. It is complicated by the presence of transmission bottlenecks, oligopolistic competition and the unknown prospects of low-carbon technologies. We build a model encompassing a late and early investment stage, an existing dirty (brown) and a future clean (green) technology and a single transmission bottleneck, and compare dynamic efficiency of several market designs. Allocating network access on a short-term competitive basis distorts investment decisions, as brown firms will preempt green competitors by investing early. Dynamic efficiency is restored with long-term transmission rights that can be traded on a secondary market. We show that dynamic efficiency does not require the existence of physical rights for accessing the transmission line, but financial rights on receiving the scarcity revenues generated by the transmission line suffice. |
| Keywords: | network access; congestion management; renewable energy sources; power markets |
| JEL: | L94 L13 C72 D43 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutil:f70cf82e-fedd-4e68-8e8f-a189636fd474&r=env |
| By: | Stefan Borsky (University of Graz); Alexej Parchomenko (Vienna University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the phosphorus balance as a result of manure application on the parish level for Denmark and investigate its local geographic distribution. For our analysis, we determine phosphorus loads for the five main animal groups and the phosphorus demand of the fifteen major crop categories. To identify statistical significant local patterns of phosphorus over- and undersupply we apply Getis-Ord Gi* hot spot analysis. Our results show that there is a large variability in the phosphorus balance within Denmark. Statistically significant hot spots appear mainly along the west coast, while cold spots are predominantly present on southern and eastern coasts towards the Baltic Sea. The proximity of oversupply areas to water bodies and other environmental sensitive areas reinforces the need for further phosphorus regulation. These findings show the importance of a spatial targeted regulation, which allows different levels of phosphorus application depending on local economic and environmental circumstances, e.g., distance to an environmental sensitive region. |
| Keywords: | Hotelling model, packaged goods, network effect, horizontal product differentiation |
| JEL: | L14 L15 L17 L86 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grz:wpaper:2017-04&r=env |
| By: | Ramos, Andrea (Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE)); Vergara, Karla (Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE)) |
| Abstract: | El objetivo de este estudio es identificar los cambios en las actividades agropecuarias de las cuencas del río Pampas (Huancavelica) y del río Ica mediante el análisis comparativo de los Censos Nacionales Agropecuarios (Cenagro) de 1994 y el 2012, en un contexto de cambio climático y estrés hídrico. |
| Keywords: | Cambio climático, Perú, Ica, Climate change, Peru |
| JEL: | Q2 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gad:avance:0027&r=env |
| By: | Singh, Rajesh; Weninger, Quinn |
| Abstract: | We evaluate management implications of cross-species flexibility in a multiple-species individual fishing quota regulation. We derive fishermen’s privately optimal harvesting and discarding choices under a joint-in-inputs, costly-targeting technology and the complex mapping between quotas set by the regulator and harvest and discard outcomes. Flexibility can reduce fishery rent due to reduced control of harvest outcomes. Empirical evidence from the Gulf of Mexico commercial reef fish fishery is presented to test model predictions. We find no evidence that flexibility reduced discards caused by random quota overages. Discarding in the data is attributed to a particularly small quota and a much larger quota set for jointly harvested species. |
| Date: | 2017–07–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genstf:201707260700001026&r=env |
| By: | Hancevic, Pedro; Margulis, Diego |
| Abstract: | Daylight saving time (DST) has been actively used as a mechanism for energy conservation and reduction of GHG emissions. In the case of Argentina, the most recent experiences with DST occurred during the austral summer periods of 2007-08 and 2008-09, when the policy was finally abandoned. The benefits of DST and the size of the (potential) energy savings are still part of an ongoing discussion in a country where energy subsidies imply a heavy fiscal burden. Using a difference-in-differences framework that exploits the quasi-experimental nature of the program implementation, we use hourly data for the 2005-2010 period at the province level and estimate the impact of DST on electricity consumption and on peak demand. The main results are: DST increases total electricity consumption between 0.4% and 0.6%, but decreases peak demand between 2.4% and 2.9%. |
| Keywords: | daylight saving time; electricity consumption; peak demand; energy conservation; air pollution |
| JEL: | L94 Q4 Q54 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80481&r=env |
| By: | Agüero, Jorge M. (Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE)); Balcázar, Carlos Felipe; Maldonado, Stanislao; Ñopo, Hugo (Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE)) |
| Abstract: | Los autores aprovechan la variación espacial y temporal generada por el boom de las materias primas para medir el efecto de los recursos naturales sobre la formación de capital humano en el Perú, un país con bajos indicadores de gobernanza. Al combinar las puntuaciones de las pruebas de más de dos millones de estudiantes y los datos administrativos a nivel de distrito sobre la producción minera y la redistribución de los impuestos mineros a los gobiernos locales, no se encontró ningún efecto de la producción. Sin embargo, la redistribución de los impuestos mineros aumenta los resultados de las pruebas de matemáticas en 0.23 desviaciones estándar. Los autores identifican las mejoras en la calidad de los docentes y en la infraestructura de la escuela, junto con el aumento en el empleo de los adultos y en los resultados de salud de adultos y niños, como mecanismos clave de la redistribución. Finalmente, en el documento se discuten las implicaciones de política para evitar la maldición de los recursos naturales. |
| Keywords: | Recursos naturales, Canon minero, Rendimiento académico, Gobierno local, Perú, Academic achievement, Natural resources, Local government, Peru |
| JEL: | N5 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gad:avance:0028&r=env |
| By: | Michio NAOI; Keiichi SATO; Yozo TANAKA; Hiroaki MATSUURA; Shingo NAGAMATSU |
| Abstract: | The Nankai Trough and its underlying fault are the major source of the future devastating earthquake, the Nankai Trough earthquake. The Central Disaster Management Council, which is a governmental committee for policy planning on disaster management, released the latest report on the predicted damage from the Nankai Trough earthquake in 2012. The new report estimated the maximum possible seismic movements and tsunami height for each municipality, which were updated from the previous ones released in 2003. We examine the causal impact of the municipality-level predicted seismic movements and tsunami heights on the net migration across municipalities. The Difference-in-Differences (DID) estimates suggest that the predicted tsunami height is significantly negatively associated with the municipality’s net migration rate. Further empirical analysis shows that the predicted tsunami height has a prolonged negative impact on the in-migration into the municipality, whereas it has only a short-term positive impact on the out-migration. Our empirical findings suggest that, after the dissemination of tsunami predictions, people tend to choose less risky locations, rather than engaging in other disaster-prevention activities. In addition, we found that the negative impact of tsunami heights on the in-migration is weaker in municipalities where public facilities that can serve as disaster relief or evacuation center are concentrated in the densely inhabited district. |
| Keywords: | Earthquake, Tsunami, Net migration JEL Classification: Q54, Q58, R23 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esj:esridp:335&r=env |
| By: | Renner, Michael, |
| Abstract: | This series of project publications aims to capture the tools, methods, and processes developed under the EC and ILO joint project entitled “Strengthening the Impact on Employment of Sector and Trade Policies", as well as the findings from implementing these in the ten partner countries. The literature on access to rural energy through renewable energy is expanding rapidly, as are manifold initiatives to achieve universal access. However, much of the literature is concerned with technical aspects, financing, and the policies needed to generate an enabling environment. Only a minor portion addresses the employment aspects in more than a cursory manner. This report marshals relevant information in an effort to assess existing and potential employment impacts. |
| Keywords: | renewable resources, energy source, rural development |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:994960192102676&r=env |
| By: | Izu, Akhenaton; Mulolo, Benedicte |
| Abstract: | DRC is one of 189 States of the United Nations which signed the declaration of the Millennium which gathers 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Year 2015 being that of the forfeiture of this program of development, the objective of this paper consisted in evaluating made progress, by the DRC, in the implementation of the MDG. While taking as a starting point the the method of notation retained by the ASC in 2012, we noted that on the 13 indicators used, only three indicators were reached with more than 85% and out of 7 analyzed objectives, only two were achieved with more than 85%: the DRC is thus a not very powerful country in the implementation of the MDG. To keep a coherent programming framework, to promote the good governance and to undertake structural reforms can facilitate the implementation of the SDG in DRC. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, Sustainable Development, Environment |
| JEL: | I32 O10 Q51 |
| Date: | 2017–01–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80493&r=env |
| By: | Mohanty, Ranjan Kumar (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy); Sahoo, Biresh K. (Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar) |
| Abstract: | The prime objective of the paper is to construct a robust macroeconomic performance (MEP) index of India using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. Six major macro indicators, namely, economic growth, employment rate, terms of trade, inflation rate, fiscal deficit, and pollution are used to computeMEP and Eco-MEP index of the Indian economy from 1980-81 to 2015-16. Overall, both the MEP and Eco-MEP index scores have quite similar best performing years, worst performing years, and have also captured the major events that adversely affected the economy during the last 35 years. This shows that the trend in overall performance of Indian economy was better in the 1980s and the 1990s but has deteriorated after the 2000s. The ARDL Bounds Testing approaches to cointegration methods are used to test the robustness/utility of these indices. The estimated results find that MEP and Eco-MEP have a positive impact on private investment, negative effect on current account deficit (CAD), and positive impact on foreign investment inflows (FIIs) and foreign direct investment (FDI). Hence, the suggested composite MEP index is stable, robust and truly captures the economic performance of India. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomic performance ; Eco-macroeconomic performance ; Data Envelopment Analysis ; Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) ; India. |
| JEL: | E60 C14 C32 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:npf:wpaper:17/202&r=env |
| By: | Leonidas Mantzos (European Commission – JRC); Tobias Wiesenthal (European Commission – JRC); Nicoleta Anca Matei (European Commission – JRC); Mate Rozsai (European Commission – JRC); Elena Navajas Cawood (European Commission – JRC); Ioanna Kourti; Anastasios Papafragkou; Peter Russ (European Commission – JRC); Antonio Soria Ramirez (European Commission – JRC.C6) |
| Abstract: | This report lays out the modelling approach that is implemented in the POTEnCIA modelling tool (Policy Oriented Tool for Energy and Climate Change Impact Assessment) and describes its analytical capabilities. POTEnCIA is a modelling tool for the EU energy system that follows a hybrid partial equilibrium approach. It combines behavioural decisions with detailed techno-economic data, therefore allowing for an analysis of both technology-oriented policies and of those addressing behavioural change. Special features and mechanisms are introduced in POTEnCIA in order to appropriately reflect the implications of an uptake of novel energy technologies and of changing market structures, allowing for the robust assessment of ambitious policy futures for the EU energy system. The model runs on an annual basis with a typical projection timeline to 2050. |
| Keywords: | energy system modelling, energy policy assessment, energy efficiency, renewable energy, technology dynamics, climate change. |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc100638&r=env |