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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2013‒06‒04
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Deschenes, Olivier (University of California, Santa Barbara) |
| Abstract: | In recent years the prospect of 'green jobs' or 'green growth' policies have become increasingly prominent, proposed to solve both the environmental challenges associated with global climate change and the persistent unemployment problems observed in many industrialized countries. This short article begins by describing the conceptual, definitional, and measurement issues related to green jobs. I then review the existing evidence from the primarily simulation-based studies that attempt to assess the impact of green policies on employment. I draw two main conclusions from this exercise. First, my descriptive analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on green jobs highlights that green jobs currently represent a small share of overall employment in the U.S, and one that has seen relatively weak growth in the last decade. Second, due to the sizable heterogeneity in the scope and assumptions made in the existing simulation studies of the labor market impacts of green policies, it is difficult to make a definitive conclusion about their likely impact. More careful and detailed empirical research is needed to assess the job creation potential of green job policies. |
| Keywords: | green jobs, green growth, employment, labor markets |
| JEL: | J08 J23 Q48 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp62&r=res |
| By: | Kyriakopoulou, Efthymia (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Xepapadeas, Anastasios (Dept of International and European Economic Studies, Athens University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | Environmental conditions and pollution levels have been proven to affect firms' and households’location decisions in various ways. In this paper, we study the optimal and equilibrium distribution of industrial and residential land in a given region. Industries produce a single good using land and labor and generate emissions of a pollutant, and households consume goods and residential land and dislike pollution. The trade-off between the agglomeration and dispersion forces, in the form of industrial pollution, environmental policy, production externalities, and commuting costs, determines the emergence of industrial and residential clusters across space. We also show that the joint implementation of a site-specific environmental tax and a site-specific labor subsidy can reproduce the optimum as an equilibrium outcome.<p> |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration; land use; spatial policies; pollution; environmental tax; labor subsidy |
| JEL: | H23 R14 R38 |
| Date: | 2013–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0566&r=res |
| By: | Maximilian Auffhammer; Solomon M. Hsiang; Wolfram Schlenker; Adam Sobel |
| Abstract: | Economists are increasingly using weather data and climate model output in analyses of the economic impacts of climate change. This article introduces weather data sets and climate models that are frequently used, discusses the most common mistakes economists make in using these products, and identifies ways to avoid these pitfalls. We first provide an introduction to weather data, including a summary of the types of datasets available, and then discuss five common pitfalls that empirical researchers should be aware of when using historical weather data as explanatory variables in econometric applications. We then provide a brief overview of climate models and discuss two common and significant errors often made by economists when climate model output is used to simulate the future impacts of climate change on an economic outcome of interest. |
| JEL: | Q0 Q54 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19087&r=res |
| By: | Huijuan, Cao; Fujii, Hidemichi; Managi, Shunsuke |
| Abstract: | Beijing organized the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and the main goal of the Chinese government regarding this event was to hold a Green Olympics. A difference-in-differences approach was used to estimate the environmental impact the Olympic Games on air quality improvement in Beijing, compared to improvements in other areas in China. The results indicate that compared to other regions, air quality in Beijing improved for a short period of time. These improvements were largely due to the implementation of several temporary measures, including factory closures and traffic control. However, there is no evidence indicating that the Olympic Games reduced the concentration of sulfur dioxide in Beijing. -- |
| Keywords: | Olympic Games,Beijing,air pollution,impact estimate,difference-in-differences approach |
| JEL: | Q51 Q53 L83 G14 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201330&r=res |
| By: | Parcell, Joe; Gedikoglu, Haluk |
| Abstract: | Agricultural production can degrade water sources through leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural land to surface and ground water sources. To minimize the pollution from agricultural production, the U.S. Department of Agriculture promotes adoption of conservation practices. Previous studies that analyzed adoption of new technologies did not incorporate the two important features of technologies that are primarily used to conserve the environment; common resource and interaction between farmers. The current study develops a conceptual framework using a differential game to analyze adoption of new technologies that impact the water quality. The results of the current study show that the single agent optimization models of the previous studies would not lead to the optimal solution of the differential game. Current study also shows that if farmers act cooperatively, they devote more capital to conserve the environment. |
| Keywords: | Technology Adoption, Water Quality, Optimal Control, Differential Game, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2013–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea13:149619&r=res |
| By: | Ina, Porras |
| Abstract: | The Payments for Environmental Services (PES) Programme is one of several instruments addressing conservation issues in Costa Rica. It pays private landowners directly for the positive effect their sustainable land management has on the environment. The Programme is part of a mix of instruments, which includes stricter laws on deforestation, zoning and conservation in protected areas. The product of learning by doing, PES has provided a fertile ground for policy and technological experiments, generating considerable capacity building in the process. Fair Ideas conference, held in June 2012, provided a platform for a prominent group of expositors from different levels to share their experience on PES, from the Minister of Environment, state and NGO facilitators, national and international academics, to farmers and indigenous groups. This document compiles the key points of these presentations, and provides links to the organisations they represent. |
| Keywords: | Payments for environmental services, Costa Rica |
| JEL: | Q0 Q5 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47186&r=res |
| By: | Kishan Khoday (UNDP); Leisa Perch (International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth) |
| Abstract: | This June sees world leaders and civil society convene for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). It will focus on reviewing progress in achieving the goals of the original 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (the 1992 Rio Earth Summit). A main issue at the heart of the sustainable development paradigm, and the Rio+20 Summit, will be the extent to which the world has been able to find synergies between dual challenges of poverty reduction and ecological protection. As we look back over the past twenty years, an important trend has been the rise of rights-based approaches and a transnational environmental justice movement in which citizens confront both the State and the international community on the impacts of growth on social and ecological well-being. The escalating development challenges, defined by the nexus between poverty and ecological degradation, are also conditioned by the lack of accountability and rule of law surrounding natural resource use and the control of pollution. Vulnerable communities are the ones who most suffer the burden of ecological change, while being least able to mobilize against these trends. For the poor, unsustainable resource use and pollution bring risks to their ability to earn a livelihood and live a healthy life; it is the new face of long-term structural inequality. (...) |
| Keywords: | Green Equity: Environmental Justice for more Inclusive Growth |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:pbrief:19&r=res |
| By: | Ronaldo Seroa da Motta (IPEA) |
| Abstract: | Through the Copenhagen Accord and the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) in Cancun, Brazil has confirmed its national voluntary reduction targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with reductions between 36.1 per cent and 38.9 per cent of projected emissions by 2020. These targets were defined in the National Climate Change Policy (PNMC, in Portuguese) approved by the National Congress (Law No. 12.187, dated 29 December 2009). These national targets focus on controlling deforestation, which represents a comparative advantage for Brazil. Reducing deforestation is certainly less restrictive to economic growth than mitigation actions related to energy consumption and industrial activities that other emerging economies would have to adopt. (?) |
| Keywords: | The Brazilian Policy on Climate Change: Regulatory and Governance Aspects |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:154&r=res |