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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2021‒08‒16
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Maximilian Konradt (IHEID, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva); Beatrice Weder di Mauro (IHEID, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) |
| Abstract: | What is the effect of climate policies on inflation and economic activity? Answering this question is critical for central banks trying to achieve price stability. This paper studies the experience from existing carbon taxes in Canada and Europe, introduced over the last 30 years. Based on two separate empirical approaches, we find that carbon taxes do not have to be inflationary and may even have deflationary effects. In particular, our evidence suggests that the increase in energy prices was more than offset by a fall in the prices of services and other non-tradables. Our results are robust for Europe and Canada, as well as a number of different country groupings. At least in case of British Columbia, a contraction in household incomes and expenditures, in particular among the richer households, could explain the deflationary effect. |
| Keywords: | Carbon taxes; carbon pricing; inflation; monetary policy; climate change |
| JEL: | E31 E50 Q54 Q43 |
| Date: | 2021–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp17-2021&r= |
| By: | Julia M. Puaschunder (The New School, Department of Economics, USA) |
| Abstract: | This article proposed three innovative and heterodox ways to aid understanding and unleashing a sustainable economy in Three Essays on Environmental Justice: First, behavioral insights are presented about real-world relevant, easily-implementable nudges to steer human into future-oriented discounting. Second, macroeconomic modelling highlights countries’ different economic prospects on a warming globe in order to find a redistribution of benefits and burdens of climate change to share the gains and losses of a warming globe equally within society, between countries and over time. Third, a creative financialization strategy is introduced in bonds that help weight the burden of climate change more equally between today’s and tomorrow’s society. |
| Keywords: | Climate Bonds, Climate Change, Economics of the Environment, Ecotax, Environmental Justice, Environmental Governance, Fiscal Policy, Green New Deal, Monetary Policy, Multiplier, Sustainability, Teaching |
| Date: | 2021–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:scmowp:01233&r= |
| By: | Elbaum Jean-David |
| Abstract: | This paper is a quasi-replication of Andersson (2019). I use the synthetic control method to estimate the effect of a carbon tax starting at $1.41 per tonne of CO2 and increased through successive reforms to $20 by 2011. The results show that, one year after the intervention, the tax reduced CO2 emissions from transport by around 10% relative to the synthetic counterfactual, composed from the weighted average of OECD countries. Five years after the intervention, the effect increases to almost 20% and in 2005, the last year of the dataset, the estimated effect is of around 48%. After some robustness checks, the estimated effect is a 15% reduction in 2005. My results are consistent with Andersson (2019), who finds a 12.5% reduction at the end of his studied period. My paper contributes to the thin literature analyzing the the effect of a carbon tax ex post, providing new evidence of the effectiveness of these instruments. |
| Keywords: | Solar systems; Carbon pricing; Emissions reduction; Environmental tax; Greenhouse gas emissions, Synthetic control method. |
| JEL: | H23 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irn:wpaper:21-05&r= |
| By: | Isaksen, Elisabeth; Johansen, Bjørn G. |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that differentiating driving costs by time of day and vehicle type help improve urban air quality, lower driving, and induce adoption of electric vehicles. By taking advantage of a congestion charge that imposed spatial and temporal variation in the cost of driving a conventional vehicle, we find that economic incentives lower traffic and concentrations of NO2. Exploiting a novel dataset on car ownership, we find that households exposed to congestion charging on their way to work were more likely to adopt an electric vehicle. We document strong heterogeneous patterns of electric vehicle adoption along several socioeconomic dimensions, including household type, income, age, education, work distance and public transit quality. |
| Keywords: | air pollution; electric vehicles; transportation policies; congestion charging; Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy; 267942; 302059; 295789 |
| JEL: | C33 H23 Q53 Q55 Q58 R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2021–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:111493&r= |
| By: | Nicholas Ryan (Cowles Foundation, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | Green energy is produced by relationship-speciï¬ c assets that are vulnerable to hold-up if contracts are not strictly enforced. I study the role of counterparty risk in the procurement of green energy using data on the universe of solar procurement auctions in India. The Indian context allows clean estimates of how risk affects procurement, because solar power plants set up in the same states, by the same ï¬ rms, are procured in auctions variously intermediated by either risky states themselves or the central government. I ï¬ nd that: (i) the counterparty risk of an average state increases solar energy prices by 10%; (ii) the intermediation of the central government eliminates this risk premium; (iii) higher prices due to risk reduce investment, because state demand for green energy is elastic. The results suggest that the risk of hold-up places developing countries at a disadvantage in the procurement of green energy. |
| JEL: | L14 O13 Q42 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2294&r= |