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on Regulation |
| By: | Delgado, Michael S.; Khanna, Neha |
| Keywords: | Altruism, Voluntary Pollution Abatement, Regulation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q52, Q58, K32, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103886&r=reg |
| By: | Evita Paraskevopoulou |
| Abstract: | The focal point of this paper is the study of the process of emergence of novel institutions and the identification of factors that may influence the outcome of this process. We view inst accepted sets of rules that influence We consider regulations as endogenously emerging institutions that evolve in accordance to other socioeconomic factors and analyze the regulatory process at each of its stages adopting an evolutionary approach. Evidence shows that the regulatory process resembles the innovation process as it can be viewed as a process of knowledge accumulation and transmission that is facilitate empirically contextualized in the European political system, the detergents industry and specific regulations formed at European level. Data is drawn by secondary resour of public and private stakeholders participating in the process |
| Keywords: | Evolutionary theory, Institutions, Regulation, Policy |
| JEL: | K20 L50 L65 O25 O43 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wbrepe:wb111305&r=reg |
| By: | Sherzod N. Tashpulatov |
| Abstract: | Price fluctuations that partially comove with demand are a specific feature inherent to liberalized electricity markets. The regulatory authority in Great Britain, however, believed that sometimes electricity prices were significantly higher than what was expected and, therefore, introduced price-cap regulation and divestment series. In this study, I analyze how the introduced institutional changes and regulatory reforms affected the dynamics of daily electricity prices in the England and Wales wholesale electricity market during 1990-2001. The research finds that the introduction of price-cap regulation did achieve the goal of lowering the price level at the cost of higher price volatility. Later, the first series of divestments is found to be successful in lowering price volatility, which however happens at the cost of a higher price level. Finally, the study also documents that the second series of divestment was more successful in lowering both the price level and volatility. |
| Keywords: | electricity prices, seasonality, Fourier transform, conditional volatility, regulation. |
| JEL: | C22 C51 L50 L94 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp439&r=reg |
| By: | Kabata, Tshepelayi |
| Abstract: | This study aims at assessing the environmental performance the U.S. agriculture with respect to GHG emissions across states. To reach this objective, this paper utilizes alternative non-parametric approaches: a graph measure of technical efficiency under strong disposability and weak disposability and a modified output oriented Malmquist index. The graph measure of technical efficiency accounting for undesirable outputs reveals that regulations of agriculture GHG emission would be effective in all states but Delaware, as they would be binding and impose a âcostâ in terms of reduction of desirable output. Results show also that on average regulations would improve technical efficient for about 3.5%. States operating on the frontier shift from one to seven when the regulation is accounted for. But the opportunity cost of binding to this regulation amounts to 3.7% reduction of agricultural output. The approach Malmquist index and its components reveal that on average the efficiency change has been invariant to the treatment of the undesirable output as input. The average productivity growth is 2.2 percent when GHG emissions are treated as input whereas it is 2 percent when they are complementally ignored. In both cases, the productivity growth is driven by technological change. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, Technical Efficiency, environmental performance, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103427&r=reg |
| By: | Pouliot, Sebastien |
| Abstract: | The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 is new legislation that mandates, among other things, new food safety standards. The act includes a clause that exempts small firms from new regulatory requirements. This paper investigates the effects of a small firm exemption from more stringent food safety standards. The model compares food safety, total output and the number of market participants for different food safety regulation with and without an exemption for small firms. The numerical examples show that a more stringent food safety regulation increases food safety, increases the price of food, decreases the total output and decreases the number of firms. A new food safety standard with an exemption for small firms increases the average food safety but not as much as with a new standard alone. An exemption for small firms causes the total number of firms to increase. |
| Keywords: | Food safety, heterogeneous firms, regulation, regulatory exemption, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, D21, M31, Q10, Q18, |
| Date: | 2011–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103885&r=reg |
| By: | Slade, Peter; Hailu, Getu |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103866&r=reg |
| By: | Bi, Xiang; Deltas, George; Khanna, Madhu |
| Abstract: | Interest in promoting Pollution Prevention (P2) has been increasing since 1991, following the passage of the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) of 1990. As part of the PPA, facilities that are subject to the Toxics Releases Inventory (TRI) are required to disclose the number of incremental P2 activities for each listed chemicals from 1991 onward. Though the disclosure is required by the PPA, the adoption of P2 remains a voluntary initiative by firms. To promote P2 ethic among firms, the U.S.EPA has established several voluntary programs and P2 information clearinghouse. P2 technologies were more likely to be facility- and operation- specific and involved considerable information costs and uncertainty. Firms might learn about P2 technologies from their peers through information spillovers. Furthermore, the adoption of P2 technologies might have been motivated in part by regulatory pressures and in part by voluntary commitments. To investigate the role of information spillover, regulatory pressure and voluntary commitment in motivating the adoption of P2 technologies, we focus on the first voluntary program initiated by the U.S. EPA, the 33/50 program. The objective of the program was to reduce the releases of 17 chemicals by 33% by 1992 and by 50% by 1995. It also sought to promote P2 as the preferred method to achieve the reduction. We conduct the empirical analysis on 6974 facilities that were eligible for the 33/50 program from 1991 to 1995. We estimate the number of P2 technologies adopted for 33/50 chemicals and other TRI chemicals at the facility level with respect to program participation, compliance costs to regulations, prior P2 experience by the neighbors on the respective chemicals, and the program participation ratio in the neighborhood. We address the endogeneity of program participation with instrumental variables, and control for location and industry fixed effects. We find that facilities were more likely to learn about adoption of P2 technologies from their industry peers. The direct impact of program participation was only evident for 33/50 chemicals, and the presence of program participants did not significantly motivate P2 adoption in the neighborhood. |
| Keywords: | Pollution prevention, Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), Voluntary 33/50 program, Information spillover, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q55, C21, L51, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103741&r=reg |
| By: | Liu, Zheng; Schieffer, Jack; Hu, Wuyang; Pagoulatos, Angelos |
| Abstract: | A growing share of water pollution in the U.S. can be attributed to nonpoint sources (USEPA 2002). Some of this trend can be attributed to declining point source (PS) emissions as a result of regulation under the Clean Water Act (CWA). However, fertilizer-intensive practices used to improve agricultural productivity over recent decades have also increased nitrate loads and resulted in water quality impairments. Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution from agricultural practices is generally exempt from federal regulation. However, some voluntary programs allow point sources subject to the CWAâs effluent limitations to meet their standards by purchasing offset credits reflecting reductions in NPS discharges to the same waters (USEPA 2004). Such water quality trading (WQT) programs have been implemented in a number of states to reduce pollution abatement costs (Breetz et al 2004). In this setting, NPS supply pollution abatement when they implement best management practices (BMP) that reduce nutrient loads, and the cost of BMPs form a supply curve for credits. WQT programs are supported by the EPA as an important means for efficiently pursuing water quality goals (USEPA 2003a). Among the BMPs available for water quality management, riparian buffer strips have proven effective in mitigating the movement of nutrients and other pollutants into surface waters (Qiu et al 2006). Estimates of riparian buffer costs would be valuable for developing policy related to WQT and other conservation programs. This paper estimates the annual costs of buffer strips in six counties in the Lower Kentucky River Basin, as part of a project evaluating the feasibility of WQT programs in that area. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103633&r=reg |
| By: | Horan, Richard D.; Shortle, James S. |
| Abstract: | Increasingly, environmental problems are recognized to involve linkages across multiple environmental variables (e.g., pollution and a fishery). Prior work on managing these complex, linked systems generally focuses on efficiency rather than implementation. However, implementation is important and will generally involve involve changing human behaviors within the multiple economic sectors that impact upon the multiple environmental variables. Tradable permit markets are generally seen as a coordinating mechanism, within a particular regulated sector, that enhances efficiency by incentivizing agents to respond to behavioral choices of others within the sector. However, prior work stops short of coordinating behaviors across multiple sectors for cases where society benefits from regulation in both sectors and one sector harms the other. We analyze a multi-sector permit market involving both the externality-generating sector and the affected sector. This multi-sector market provides a mechanism for agents in one sector to respond to environmental behaviors made within the other sector. Moreover, unlike traditional permit markets in which the regulated externality sector incurs only costs, we show that the multi-sector market generates efficiency gains that may be redistributed using appropriate allocations of initial endowments. Accordingly, the multi-sector market may generate gains that benefit both sectors, resulting in a win-win outcome for both sectors. We use a simple example of a polluted fishery to illustrate the approach. |
| Keywords: | Permit trading, fisheries, pollution, Shapley values, bioeconomics, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103591&r=reg |
| By: | Florian Baumann (Department of Economics, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany); Tim Friehe (Department of Economics, University of Konstanz, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Motivated by the German postal market, this paper analyzes the effects of regulatory uncertainty about labor costs for investment into a liberalized market. We distinguish between the external investment margin (market entry) and the internal investment margin (technology) and establish that regulatory uncertainty affects these margins differently, encouraging market entry but discouraging investment at the internal margin. As a consequence, the impact of regulatory uncertainty on competition in liberalized markets is the result of these two countervailing forces. |
| Keywords: | regulatory uncertainty, investment, market entry, minimum wage |
| JEL: | D43 J38 L13 |
| Date: | 2011–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:knz:dpteco:1108&r=reg |
| By: | Huang, Rui; Bonanno, Alessandro |
| Abstract: | Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, 20 December 2006, requires functional foods manufacturers operating in Europe to provide evidence that the health claims reported on the packaging are truthful. However, most applications reviewed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have been rejected, leaving food manufacturers with the option of either selling products deprived of their claims or discontinuing their production. This paper analyzes changes in welfare (both producersâ and consumersâ) that would occur if the implementation of Reg. (EC) No 1924/2006 resulted in a large-scale health-claim de-labeling of functional food products. To that end, we use one year (2007) of monthly scanner data of sales of conventional and functional yogurt in the Italian market and a discrete-choice random coefficient logit demand model which accounts for consumersâ heterogeneity using the MPEC algorithm developed by Dube et al. (2009) to improve numerical efficiency and accuracy, to assess the issue. Preliminary results show that both producers and consumers can be severely impacted if reporting health-claims on functional products is not allowed; as our results indicate that consumersâ welfare losses are twice as large than producersâ a loosening of EFSAâs requirements might be required to avoid such losses. |
| Keywords: | Health claims regulation, EFSA, welfare, random coefficients, MPEC., Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Industrial Organization, Marketing, Q18, L66, M38, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103809&r=reg |
| By: | Thure Traber; Claudia Kemfert |
| Abstract: | Under perfect competition on the output market, first best technology subsidies in the presence of learning by doing are justified by knowledge spill overs that are not accounted for by individual companies. First best output subsidies are thus depending directly on the learning effects and are, if applicable, positive. Considering electricity markets, a setting of imperfect competition is more appropriate. We show that the second best output subsidy for learning by doing in renewable energies takes the market distortion due to imperfect competition into account and is of ambiguous sign. Based on simulations with a European electricity market model, we find that second best renewable energy subsidies are positive and only insignificantly impacted by market power. By contrast, the welfare gains from an optimal subsidy are considerably higher compared to a hypothetical situation of perfect competition. |
| Keywords: | energy policy, renewable energy, learning by doing, imperfect competition, emission trading |
| JEL: | L13 L94 O33 Q42 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1126&r=reg |
| By: | Key, Nigel; Sneeringer, Stacy |
| Abstract: | Biogas recovery systems that use methane from manure to generate electricity have not been widely adopted in U.S. mainly because the costs of constructing and maintaining these systems have exceeded the value of the benefits provided. Climate change mitigation and renewable energy policies could increase profits for the operators of such systems thereby making digester adoption more widespread. For the U.S. Dairy sector, we examine digester adoption rates, emissions reductions, net returns, electricity generation, and program costs under different policy scenarios. We find that 3% or fewer dairies would need to adopt digesters to meet the policy goals of reducing 25% of greenhouse gas emissions from dairy manure or generating one million megawatt hours of electricity per year. A carbon pricing program provides the highest net social benefits for almost all policy goals considered. |
| Keywords: | anaerobic digester, methane, dairy, renewable electricity, subsidy, carbon offsets, climate change, Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, Q5, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103440&r=reg |
| By: | Hitoshi Saito (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the mutual reference behavior of local governments in Japan. The Japanese public education system was decentralized in the previous decade. For example, actual fixed number of classes was relaxed in 2001 and 2003. This relaxation of regulations caused an increase in the expenditure of local governments on Japanese public education. After national regulation relaxed under the condition of children decline, local governments tended to reference the decision making of other local governments. Consequently, this paper analyzed the mutual reference behavior in Japanese public education. In addition, it inferred that population aging had some impact on public education expenditure. This paper provides a tentative conclusion on the relaxation of regulations on education. The expenditure of local governments on public education is positively affected by the expenditure of other local governments. Local governments should increase expenditure on public education if other local governments do so. In addition, the decision making of local governments is affected by not only neighboring governments but also all other governments. If this decision making were affected only by neighborhood, the effect of mutual reference behaviors would probably be small. In addition, this paper also shows that local governments may decrease public education expenditure, considering the progressive aging of society. |
| Keywords: | Public education, Educational finance, Aging, Local government behaviors |
| JEL: | I22 I28 H75 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1115&r=reg |
| By: | Li, Xiaoqian; Saghaian, Sayed H. |
| Abstract: | This study investigates how the implementation and standards harmonization of HACCP regulation affects U.S. seafood exporting based on the method of Gravity Model and Spatial Error model. The analysis includes top 32 countries that importing seafood from U.S. The results indicate that HACCP standards benefit U.S. seafood exporting in the long time period but do not have significant impact in the short term period. Moreover, the way of performance standards is better for HACCP implementation and standards harmony. |
| Keywords: | HACCP, U.S. seafood exports, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, |
| Date: | 2011–07–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103504&r=reg |
| By: | Nygaard, Knut (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | The recently introduced gender quota on Norwegian corporate boards dramatically increased the share of female directors. This reform offers a natural experiment to investigate changes in corporate governance from forced increases in gender diver- sity, and whether these changes in turn impact firm performance. I find that investors anticipate the new directors to be more effective in firms with less information asymmetry between insiders of the firm and outsiders. Firms with low information asymmetry experience positive and significant cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) at the introduction of the quota, whereas firms with high information asymmetry show negative but insignificant CAR. |
| Keywords: | Natural experiment; Regulation; Corporate governance; Gender quota. |
| JEL: | G34 G38 |
| Date: | 2011–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2011_005&r=reg |
| By: | Maguire, Karen |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the role of electricity markets and renewable energy regulation in wind development across the United States. My findings, using a random effects Tobit model with a 25-state sample, from 1994-2008, indicate that the implementation of state Renewables Portfolio Standards (RPS), Green Power Purchase programs (GPP), and the Federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) positively influenced a stateâs added wind capacity. The influence of GPP programs continued to increase in the years after implementation, while for RPS it diminished. Also, other programs such as State Loan and Grant programs directed at increasing renewable energy development have not had a significant impact on wind capacity. The role of market factors is less significant, although there is some evidence that increases in natural gas prices had a positive influence. |
| Keywords: | Wind Energy, Energy Policy, Renewable Energy Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103599&r=reg |
| By: | Kim, Hyun Seok; Koo, Won W. |
| Abstract: | The policies that regulate greenhouse gas emissions would provide a significant burden to emission industries as well as final consumers, which can lead to a strong influence on international trade flows of commodities. This study examines the impact of regulating greenhouse gas emissions on livestock trade flows using a commodity specific gravity model approach. This study finds that regulating greenhouse gas emissions has a negative effect on livestock trade flows from countries restricting greenhouse gas emissions to unrestricting countries, from restricting to restricting countries, and from unrestricting to restricting countries. |
| Keywords: | gravity model, livestock, regulating greenhouse gas emission, trade, Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea10:61861&r=reg |
| By: | Habermacher, Florian |
| Abstract: | A fundamental question of high practical relevance for climate policy design is whether price controls such as CO2 taxes, or quantity restrictions such as emission quotas should be preferred. I show that as the reach of climate policies is limited in terms of either suboptimally low reduction targets or the policy's extent over only parts of the world, the likelihood of price measures to be more advantageous in terms of minimizing uncertainty related welfare losses increases. The increase of the relative advantage of the price mechanisms over quantity measures may be more than proportional to the regional limitedness of the policy, suggesting that even for relatively important climate coalitions the identified factor implies a clear advantage for price measures. This analysis of the prices vs. quantities question is closer to so far on a high political level seriously discussed climate policies, not to speak of already implemented local or regional climate policies, than previous theoretical literature addressing the issue, which typically relied on the assumption of first bests (i.e. global) policies. Illustrating the main thought of the analysis, I explain why in the example of policies with an extent corresponding to the current Kyoto mechanism, the simple theoretical weighting of the price vs. the quantity approach seems to favor price mechanisms independently of the exact form of the global abatement cost and benefit curves. |
| Keywords: | prices versus quantities, greenhouse gas tax, emission quotas, tradable permits, uncertainty, emission abatement costs, climate change costs, emission abatement benefits, regional climate policy, unilateral climate policy. |
| JEL: | Q54 Q52 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2011:18&r=reg |
| By: | Lin, C.-Y. Cynthia; Zhang, Wei; Umanskaya, Victoria I. |
| Abstract: | In a typical driving restriction, vehicle use is restricted based on the vehicleâs license plate; one cannot drive vehicles with certain license plate numbers on certain days. Driving restrictions have been used as a method to reduce urban air pollution or traffic congestion because they are easy and inexpensive to implement. We investigate whether driving restrictions introduced in São Paulo, Bogotá, Beijing and Tianjin have improved air quality. Across different versions of the driving restrictions there is no evidence that the overall air quality at different places has been improved. However, several important results show up in this extensive analysis. Temporal shifting of driving is likely to appear when the restrictions are only effective during certain hours of weekdays. Driving restrictions could potentially reduce the extreme concentrations of air pollutants. Driving restrictions can only be expected to alleviate air pollution when implemented with an extended schedule or in an extended region. The effects of the driving restrictions are primarily on the concentrations of CO and PM10. |
| Keywords: | driving restriction, air quality, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103381&r=reg |
| By: | Coatney, Kalyn T.; Tack, Jesse B. |
| Abstract: | The goal of our analysis is to enhance the understanding of the value of antitrust regulatory activities, specifically the impact of investigations of anticompetitive behavior. The results suggest that prices significantly increased as soon as the targets of the investigation were made aware they were being investigated. Higher prices are suggestive of a more competitive market outcome, which in turn suggests that the benefits of an investigation begin accruing immediately upon awareness by the offending party. The higher prices remained as long as the investigation was open. After the investigation was closed, market prices systematically declined to the same low pre-knowledge state. |
| Keywords: | Antitrust, Auctions, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, K42, D44, C23, |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103548&r=reg |
| By: | Koksal, Aycan; Wohlgenant, Michael |
| Abstract: | In this study, we employ a rational addiction framework to analyze the effects of smoking bans on alcohol consumption in bars/restaurants. We use pseudo panel data approach which has many advantages compared to panel data. Although cigarettes and alcohol are complements in consumption, our findings suggest that smoking bans in restaurants do not have a significant effect on the restaurant alcohol consumption. It is possible that smoking bans at restaurants cause a decrease in the restaurant alcohol consumption of smokers, but lead to an increase in the restaurant alcohol consumption of nonsmokers. If this is the case, the net effect of smoking bans on overall restaurant alcohol consumption would be zero. These results are just preliminary, and further analyses are required. |
| Keywords: | cigarette, alcohol, smoking ban, rational addiction, pseudo panel, Demand and Price Analysis, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103600&r=reg |
| By: | Niels Petersen (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | There is a considerable debate in the legal literature about the purpose of antitrust institutions. Some argue that antitrust law merely serves the purpose of economic growth, while others have a broader perspective on the function of antitrust, maintaining that the prevention of economic concentration is an important means to promote democratization and democratic stability. This contribution seeks to test the empirical assumptions of this normative debate. Using panel data of 154 states from 1960 to 2007, it analyzes whether antitrust law actually has a positive effect on democracy and economic growth. The paper finds that antitrust law has a strongly positive effect on the level of GDP per capita and economic growth. However, there is no significant positive effect on the level of democracy. It is suggested that these results might be due to the current structure of existing antitrust laws, which are designed to promote economic efficiency rather than to prevent economic concentration. |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2011_03&r=reg |