Environmental Economics Lunch Seminar
2016/2017: ce séminaire n’est plus actif au sein de PSE et se déroule désormais au sein du séminaire “
Régulation et Environnement”
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The lunch seminar in environmental and resource economics meets on a Thursday, alternating with the
Paris Environmental and Energy Economics Seminar.
It aims at providing an informal setting for rigorous discussion of work in progress by PhD students in the field. Occasionally, there may also be presentations by postdocs or visiting scholars at Paris School of Economics.
In the academic year 2015-2016, the seminar will take place between 12:30 and 13:30, room S/3 at the Maison des Sciences Economiques from September to January 7
th - then mainly in room S/17.
MSE, 106-112, boulevard de l’Hôpital, 75013 Paris. Métro: Campo Formio/Place d’Italie/Nationale.
To suggest a presentation or subscribe to the email list of the workshop: millock (at) univ-paris1.fr
The seminar is financed by Paris School of Economics and the Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne.
Upcoming events
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Archives
- Thursday 16 June 2016 12:30-13:30
- Assia Elgouacem (Sciences Po)
External Saving and Exhaustible Resource Exporters - Abstract
This paper examines the optimal saving and extraction policy of an exhaustible resource rich economy (ERRE) in a model with endogenous risk. The recent surge in current account surpluses held by several ERREs, and the even more recent downturn in commodity prices, begs the follows questions: 1) what are the main determinants of the demand for net foreign assets from ERREs; 2) and how does the precautionary motive to increase external savings interact with the rate of depleting the exhaustible resource? To answer these questions, the paper provides a characterization of endogenous risk in such an economy, and points to the key factors which govern the trade-off between keeping the resource underground and increasing external savings. I proceed to quantify the extent to which savings and the extraction rate respond to changes in uncertainty, prudence, impatience, the cost of extraction, and demographic growth. The model does well in capturing the dynamics of net foreign assets and the extraction path for the sample of countries over the last four decades.
- Thursday 26 May 2016 12:30-13:30
- Diane Aubert (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Environmental Taxation, Frictional Unemployment and Migration in a Two-Region Model - Abstract
This paper investigates how a rise in the pollution tax rate may affect unemployment, migration and welfare in a Harris–Todaro (HT) model. We build a two-regional model with imperfect labor markets, pollution externalities and non-homothetic preferences (Stone-Geary utility) on polluting consumption. This analysis shows that frictional unemployment and non-homothetic preferences bring about inter-region wage differential. Thus, an economy almost always exhibits distortions in the absence of government intervention. Green tax may exacerbate these distorsions by generating spillovers, if the labor market is initially more frictional in the region where the subsistence level of the polluting good is higher. Inter-region transfers that remove distortions, are explored as the solution.
- Thursday 19 May 2016 12:30-13:30
- Yassine Kirat (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
The actual impact of shale gas revolution on the U.S. manufacturing sector - Abstract
This paper investigates the comparative advantage allowed by the U.S. shale gas revolution to the U.S. manufacturing sector. It estimates the response of several economic variables related to the U.S. manufacturing sector using dynamic panel data models that allow each sector’s response to vary with its energy intensity. We show that the decline in natural gas prices in the U.S. relative to natural gas prices in Europe has led to an increase in industrial activity by nearly 2%. We show also that exports increased by less than 1% and imports decreased by more than 1%. Moreover, we find empirical evidence that the relationship between natural gas prices and imports or exports has experienced structural breaks. Overall, we conclude that, even though the shale gas revolution expanded some industries, it does not have a strong effect on the manufacturing sector as a whole.
- Thursday 7 April 2016 12:30-13:30
- Estelle Midler (University of Osnabrück)
Effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services: the impact of income inequalities and entitlements
SEMINAIRE ANNULE SUITE A MALADIE - Abstract
Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) are economic incentives frequently used to promote environmentally-friendly farming practices. They have been implemented across a wide range of contexts and countries and results showed wide variations in their effectiveness. We are interested in two particular questions: i) how inequalities impact the effectiveness of PES? and ii) how existing user rights or entitlements impact the effectiveness of a PES scheme. To answer these questions we conduct a simple lab experiment where two players interact, one upstream player and one downstream player. The upstream player can decide to use his land to produce crops, thereby using water, or to conserve. Production causes a damage for the downstream player, while conservation allows her to meet her water consumption needs. A transfer between the downstream and the upstream player is then introduced. Our results show that inequalities affect the effectiveness of a PES, in particular PES are more effective when they reduce inequalities between poor and rich players. We found no impact of entitlements. Finally, we investigate the interactions between social preferences, inequalities and PES.
- Thursday 31 March 2016 12:30-13:30
- Florian Fizaine (Université Paris Sud)
A global perspective on energy expenditures, economic growth, and the minimum EROI of society - Abstract
In this article we relate the recent estimations of the historical (1800-2012) global EROI of fossil energy that we have performed in a previous paper (Court and Fizaine, 2015) to the tremendous increase in Gross World Product that the global economy has encountered during the same period. With the same data, we are also able to show that in order to have a positive growth rate, the global economy cannot afford to allocate more than 15% of its GWP to energy expenditures. In other words this also means that considering the current energy intensity of the global economy, our primary energy system needs to have at least a minimal EROImin of approximately 6.5:1 (that conversely corresponds to a maximum tolerable average price of energy three times higher than current level) in order for the global economy to present a positive growth rate. Our study supports the idea that a coherent economic policy should first of all be based on an energy policy consisting in improving the net energy efficiency of the economy. Doing so would lead to a “triple dividend”: an increase of the global economy EROI (through a decrease of the energy intensity of capital investment), a decrease of the sensitiveness of the economy to energy price volatility, and a decrease of GHG emissions associated with fossil energy consumption.
- Thursday 24 March 2016 12:30-13:30
- Moutaz Altaghlibi (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics & UV Amsterdam)
Unconditional aid and green growth
Co-author: Florian Wagener (UVA, Tinbergen Institute) - Abstract
Environmentally motivated aid can help developing countries to achieve economic growth while mitigating the impact on emission levels. We argue that the usual practice of giving aid conditionally is not effective, and we therefore study aid that is given unconditionally. Our framework is a differential open-loop Stackelberg game between a developed country (leader) and a developing country (follower). The leader chooses the amount of mitigation aid given to the follower, which the follower either consumes or invests in costly nonpolluting capital or cheap high-emission capital. The leader gives unconditional mitigation aid only when sufficiently rich or caring sufficiently about the environmental quality, while the follower cares about environmental quality to some extent. If aid is given in steady state, it decreases the steady state level of high-emission capital and capital investments in the recipient country and the global pollution stock, but it has no effect on the levels of non-polluting capital and non-polluting investments. It accelerates the economic growth of the follower; this effect is however lower than what static growth theory predicts since most of the aid is consumed. Moreover, we find that the increase in growth takes place in the low-emission sector.
- Thursday 10 March 2016 12:30-13:30
- Ankinée Kirakozian (GREDEG, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis)
Just tell me what my neighbors do! Public policies for household recycling
Co-auteur: Christophe Charlier - Abstract
An important stand of the economic literature focuses on how to provide the right incentives for households to recycle their waste. This body of work includes a growing number of studies inspired by psychology that seek to explain waste sorting, and pro-environmental behavior more generally, and highlight the importance of social approval and peer effect. The present theoretical work explores this issue. We propose a model that considers heterogeneous households that choose to recycle based on three main household characteristics: environmental preferences, opportunity cost of their tax expenditure, and their reputation. The model is original in depicting the interactions among households which enable them to form beliefs on recycling and allows them to assess their reputation. These interactions are explored through the model simulations. We point to how individual recycling decisions depend on these interactions, and how the effectiveness of public policies related to recycling is affected by a crowding-out effect. We consider three complementary policies in the model simulations: provision of incentives to recycle through taxation, provision of information on the importance of selective sorting, and a ‘localized’ approach that takes the form of a ‘nudge’. We use the results of the simulations to quantify the consequences of the crowding out effect on total residual waste.
- Thursday 18 February 2016 12:30-13:30
- Thomas Sterner (University of Gothenburg and Collège de France)
Global harmonized carbon pricing - looking beyond COP21 - Abstract
In this special event, Thomas Sterner (Chaire Collège de France 2015-2016 Développement durable - environnement, énergie et société) will present his latest research related to carbon pricing and also give his perspectives on future research topics with the most potential for graduate students in environmental and resource economics.
- Thursday 11 February 2016 12:30-13:30
- Can Askan Mavi (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics)
Uncertain Catastrophic Events : Another Source of Environmental Inequalities ? - Abstract
This paper aims to present another explanation for environmental inequalities, by the presence of catastrophic environmental events. We develop a simple dynamic model in which economy is subject to risk of catastrophic events. We show that implementing only adaptation policy could cause multiple equilibria, which we interpret it as an environmental inequality accross different regions or countries.
Contrary to this result, it is shown that mitigation policy could save an economy from multiple equilibria. As a result, we show that adaptation and mitigation policy represents a trade-off concerning environmental inequalities. Based on this elements, we analyze the optimal policy mix of adaptation and mitigation activities, which could avoid these inequalities and show how optimally the policy mix can be implemented with taking into account the catastrophe probability. Our simulation results show that when economy faces a higher risk, both of policies increases but adaptation investment increases much
more relatively to mitigation activity.
- Thursday 28 January 2016 12:30-13:30
- Anne-Sarah Chiambretto (GREQAM)
Proposition for a correlation device in collective voluntary-threat policies with communication - Abstract
We study a subscription game with a payoff structure representing agents’ participation incentives under a collective voluntary-threat (V-T) policy. We suggest the use of a coordination device to strengthen agents’ participation decisions, formalized by the concept of correlated equilibrium. It is shown, in a two player example, that such a coordination device not only solves the problem raised by multiplicity of Nash equilibria, but also ensures that a higher expected aggregate payoff is reached for a given credible level of threat. A second set of results regards the N-player game. We characterize the set of correlated equilibria and thereby the circumstances under which the voluntary agreement provided with a correlation device may succeed. Specifically, we provide a full characterization of the mixed Nash equilibria of the game and then show that any symmetrical mixed Nash equilibrium of the collective V-T policy without a correlation device can be implemented by a regulator using the correlation device.
- Thursday 21 January 2016 12:30-13:30
- Karine Constant (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense)
Environmental policy and inequality: A matter of life and death - Abstract
This paper analyzes the economic implications of an environmental policy when we take into account the life expectancy of heterogeneous agents. In a framework where everyone suffers from pollution, but health status depends also on individual human capital, we find that the economy may be stuck in a trap where inequalities persistently grow, when the initial pollution intensity is too high. Moreover, it is emphasized that such inequalities are costly in the long run for the economy, notably in terms of health and growth. Therefore, we study whether a tax on pollution associated with an investment in pollution abatement can be used to overcome this situation. We show that a tighter environmental policy may allow the economy to escape the inequality trap, while it enhances its long-term growth rate, when initial inequalities are not too large.
- Thursday 7 January 2016 12:30-13:30
- Djamel Kirat (U Orléans)
Carbon tax, spatial heterogeneity and distribution in Europe - Abstract
This paper investigates empirically the distributional impacts of a
European carbon tax project. We use a panel data sample that takes into
account 15 European countries over the period 1990-2012. We first focus on
the economic and climatic characteristics that could explain the CO2
emissions of households.
We analyze energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the European
countries with dynamic modelling. We test whether CO2 emissions from the residential
sectors depend on climatic variables, income (GDP per capita) and energy
prices. We then compute the national consequences of a European carbon tax
equal to 20EUR/ton of CO2. We show that this policy increases the
inequalities among the European countries. We show that a country-specific
carbon tax that equalizes the burden among countries, instead of a
homogenous national tax, may compensate these inequalities and may also
enhance the environmental quality.
- Thursday 3 December 2015 12:30-13:30
- David Desmarchelier (EconomiX,Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense)
Limit cycles under a negative effect of pollution on consumption demand: the role of an environmental Kuznets curve
Co-auteur: Stefano Bosi - Abstract
Since Heal (1982), there is a theoretical consensus about the occurrence of limit cycles (through a Hopf bifurcation) under a positive effect of pollution on consumption demand (compensation effect) and about the impossibility under a negative effect (distaste effect). However, recent empirical evidence advocates for the relevance of distaste effects. Our paper challenges the conventional view on the theoretical ground and reconciles theory and evidence. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (pollution first increases in the capital level then decreases) plays the main role. Indeed, the standard case à la Heal (limit cycles only under a compensation effect) only works along the upward-sloping branch of the curve while the opposite (limit cycles only under a distaste effect) holds along the downward-sloping branch. Welfare effects of taxation also change according to the slope of the EKC.
- Thursday 19 November 2015 12:30-13:30
- Oskar Lecuyer (University of Bern, Oeschger Center for Climate Research)
Renewable energy policies and interaction with the EU ETS: the critical role of uncertainty
Co-author: Philippe Quirion (CIRED, CNRS) - Abstract
We develop a simple stochastic model of the European energy sector featuring the most important uncertainty sources in this context, i.e. economic activity in CO2-intensive sectors and the cost of key technologies, as well as the interaction between climate policy and renewable energy subsidies. It turns out that uncertainty changes the (ex ante) optimal policy choice. In particular, most analysts conclude that if CO2 emissions from the power sector are covered by an ETS, climate change mitigation does not justify subsidies to renewable energy or electricity savings. Yet, if uncertainty is high enough, emissions may fall below the ETS cap in some states of the world, leading to a nil allowance price. Hence, we show that such subsidies at a proper level are justified as a kind of insurance that at least some abatement will happen in these states of the world, which is welcome since the marginal benefit of CO2 abatement is positive in these states of the world also.
Moreover, we show that the design of renewable energy subsidies should take into account uncertainty. In particular, a feed-in-tariff, a feed-in-premium and a renewable quota all respond in a specific way to a change in renewable energy cost, in fossil fuels price or in electricity demand. We analyse the ranking of renewable subsidy instruments in terms of expected welfare when they are implemented together with an ETS, as is currently the case in the EU. Compared to the premium, the feed-in-tariff provides a subsidy which decreases with the electricity price, itself positively correlated to the CO2 price. Hence it helps to stabilise the marginal abatement cost, which is welcome for a stock pollutant like CO2 whose marginal benefit curve is flat. On the opposite, a renewable quota generates a higher marginal abatement cost when it is less needed, so it appears as the worst policy instrument in this context.
- Thursday 12 November 2015 12:30-13:30
- Vicente Ruiz (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Do climatic events influence internal migration? Evidence from Mexico - Abstract
A growing body of evidence suggests that changes in both environmental quality and climatic patterns can influence migration. In this paper I seek to provide evidence-based analysis on the effects of weather-events and internal migration in Mexico. In particular I focus my analysis on the role of droughts and floods. My results show that socio-economic factors such as wage differentials, education, and violence act as push factors for migration across Mexican states. In addition, my results also show that both floods and droughts are significant push factors for internal migration. However, the magnitude of climatic events is lower compared to socio-economic drivers. The latter may suggest that, contrary to some previous concerns, weather-driven migration flows may not be as high as suspected.
- Thursday 22 October 2015 12:00-13:00
- salle S/18, Maison des Sciences Economiques (MSE)
- Baris Vardar (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne & Université Catholique de Louvain, CORE)
The role of capacity building on technology adoption under imperfect competition
Co-author: Thomas Fagart (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) - Abstract
This work studies the investment choice of firms in a two period model when there are two different productive capacities that embody two different types of technology. One of them is more efficient (allowing to produce at a lower marginal cost), but more expensive to purchase. Firms face a financial constraint. By investing in the capacity using inefficient technology, firms can grow faster, but produce at a higher cost. The optimal first period behavior of the monopoly is then a mixture of both types of capacity. Under duopoly competition, there exist a symmetric equilibrium with investment decisions similar to the monopoly and two asymmetric equilibria of preemption. In these preempting equilibria, one firm overinvests in the inefficient capacity in order to gain a size advantage for the second period, whereas its opponent focuses on efficient capacity. Finally, firms may end up with size differences, using different technologies for production. This contrasts with the literature on technology adoption. Finally, we analyze policy instruments and find a counter-intuitive result: an increase in the price of old capacity may increase its utilization.
- Thursday 15 October 2015 12:30-13:30
- Maria Perez-Urdiales (INRA-AgroParisTech)
The impact of environmental behavior on the efficiency in residential water consumption - Abstract
Water scarcity and availability issues are becoming a major concern both in developing and developed countries. Therefore, analyzing water efficiency is fundamental for a correct design of policy measures. This paper analyzes efficiency in residential water consumption and its determinants for the city of Granada (Spain) in the period 2009-2011. A water demand frontier function is estimated using a semiparametric Smooth-Coefficient stochastic frontier model in which the coefficients are expressed as unknown functions of environmental factors, and these variables also affect the efficiency term. Results show that, despite of the relatively high level of efficiency, substantial water savings are still possible. Furthermore, a simulation of scenarios shows that efficient electrical appliances and water conservation habits reduce water consumption while efficient non-electrical appliances and renewed water pipelines cause the opposite effect. These results indicate that policies that are encouraging investments in efficient electrical appliances and information campaigns should be strenghten in order to foster water savings.
- Thursday 1 October 2015 12:30-13:30
- Ingrid Dallmann (RITM, Université Paris Sud)
Dengue, weather and urbanization in Brazil - Abstract
Since two decades, the population affected by dengue disease is exponentially increasing and dengue is now affecting more than 390 million people in the world. It ranks behind malaria as the second most important vector-borne disease in the world and the first one in Latin America. Despite the important economic and social cost of the uncontrollable growth of the disease, little economic analysis has been devoted to it. In addition to weather, socio-economic factors such as urbanization and sanitary systems play an important role in the proliferation of dengue. In this paper, I measure the impact of weather and urbanization factors on dengue incidence in Brazilian states during the 1992-2012 period, since Brazil is the most affected country in Latin America. I find a positive and statistically significant effect of different weather factors (temperature, vapour pressure, temperature anomalies) and population density. An augmentation of 1% of the population density will increase the dengue incidence by 3%. I find also statistically significant support for a negative impact of education and income on dengue proliferation.
- Thursday 24 September 2015 12:30-13:30
- Stefanija Veljanoska (Paris School of Economics, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Can Land Fragmentation Reduce the Exposure of Rural Households to Weather Variability? - Abstract
Climate change continuously affects African farmers that operate in rain-fed environments. The traditional way of coping with weather risk through credit and insurance markets is almost inexistent as these markets are imperfect in the African economies. Even though land fragmentation is often considered as a barrier to agricultural productivity, this study aims at exploiting whether land fragmentation, as an insurance alternative, is able to reduce farmers’ exposure to weather variability. In order to address this research question, I use the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) data on Uganda. After dealing with the endogeneity of land fragmentation, I find that higher land fragmentation decreases the loss of crop yield when households are experiencing rain deviations. Therefore, policy makers should be cautious with land consolidation programs.
- Thursday 11 June 2015 12:30-13:30
- Thaïs Nunez (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
How Valuable are IEAs? The case of trade in hazardous chemicals and persistent organic pollutants
Co-author: Immaculada Martinez (University of Gottingen) - Abstract
Recent research has questioned the effectiveness of International Environmental Agreements (IEAs). Some IEAs are seen as a result of the country’s enthusiasm to give a reliable image on the inter- national sphere, rather than legitimate domestic or international environmental concerns. This paper focuses in two specific environmental agreements, the Rotterdam Convention on hazardous chemicals and the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants. It explicitly evaluates the effects of the ratification of these agreements on imports of hazardous chemicals and persistent organic pollutants. Our results are twofold. Firstly, ratification of the Rotterdam Convention by two trading partners is not associated to any significant change of hazardous chemicals for exports from OECD to non-OECD countries. Similarly, the ratification of the Stockholm convention is also not associated to lower imports of persistent organic pollutants for exports from developed to developing countries. Secondly, in both cases bilateral trade shows no significant decrease between members after the ratification, indicating the lack of effectiveness of both conventions. The main policy recommendation is that political actors should support a fast implementation and compli- ance with the accords should be encouraged.
Keywords: Hazardous chemicals, persistent organic pollutants, environmental agreements, international trade, gravity model and log-linear
- Thursday 4 June 2015 12:30-13:30
- Julien Wolfersberger (Chaire Economie du Climat & INRA-LEF)
Growth, green capital and public policies - Abstract
We study sustainable growth in an economy with natural land endowments, specifically forests, and the need for public policies such as REDD+ to quantify the financial value of green capital, measured by forests. Exhaustible primary forests are first depleted for agriculture and production, until a switch occurs to the renewable secondary forests. The introduction of REDD+ in the economy reduces agricultural expansion, since the representative land-user agent invests in green capital, at the expense of the physical one. We show that the optimal REDD+ national strategy highly depends on the development stage of the recipient economy. In the end, we prove our findings by calibrating our model to Indonesia and illustrate recommendations for public policies.
- Thursday 21 May 2015 12:30-13:30
- Emma Hooper (GREQAM, Aix-Marseille School of Economics)
Sustainable growth and financial markets in a natural resource rich country - Abstract
We study the optimal growth path of a natural resource rich country, which can borrow from international financial markets. More precisely, we explore to what extent international borrowing can overcome resource scarcity in a small open economy, in order to have sustainable growth. First, this paper presents a benchmark model with a constant interest rate. We then introduce technical progress to see if the economy’s growth can be sustainable in the long-run. Secondly, we analyse the case of a debt elastic interest rate, with a constant price of natural resources and then with increasing prices. The main finding of this paper is that borrowing on international capital markets does not permit sustainable growth for a country with exhaustible natural resources, when the interest rate is constant. Nevertheless, when we endogenize the interest rate the consumption growth rate can be positive before declining.
Key words: Exhaustible natural resources, exogenous growth, financial markets
JEL Classification: E20, O40, Q32, E44
- Thursday 2 April 2015 12:30-13:30
- Ingmar Schumacher (IPAG Business School & Ecole Polytechnique)
The consequences of a one-sided externality in a dynamic, two-agent framework - Abstract
We discuss a dynamic model where all agents contribute to a global externality, but only those in a specific region suffer from it. We model this in a dynamic setting via a two agent, non-cooperative overlapping generations model and analyze the consequences for economic growth and intertemporal choices. We find that multiple steady states may result from this asymmetry. In particular, if the agent who is affected by the externality has to spent a large share of his income to offset it, then he may be stuck in an environmental poverty trap. We provide conditions for the existence of, and local convergence to, the equilibria, as well as a condition for the global convergence to the poverty trap. While, in addition to maintenance expenditures, externalities tend to be addressed via studying taxes, investment in R&D or alike, we focus on capital market integration. Specifically, agents in the affected region can open up their capital market to enable capital inflows. We investigate whether an open capital market improves or worsens their welfare. While we do find that capital market integration eliminates the environmental poverty trap, we show that capital market integration is not always in both agents’ interest. In particular, we provide conditions under which the agents prefer autarkic or integrated capital markets.
- Thursday 19 March 2015 12:30-13:30
- Lisa Anouliès (Université Paris-Sud, RITM)
Heterogeneous firms in a cap-and-trade program - Abstract
The paper develops a model of heterogeneous firms in monopolistic competition whose activity generates pollution regulated by a cap-and-trade program. The model first finds that in general equilibrium the level of the cap on emissions has no effect on firms’ profits and decision to remain on the market. On the contrary, the initial allocation of allowances impacts firms’ entry and exit decisions and aggregate economic variables. Increasing the share of free allocation intensifies their strategic behavior toward the environmental policy, which results in a reallocation of resources toward the most productive firms and in a decrease in the mass of active firms. The paper finally shows that this strategic behavior increases the economic cost of achieving an environmental objective.
- Thursday 12 March 2015 12:30-13:30
- Prudence Dato (Université de Savoie)
Energy transition under irreversibility: a two-sector approach
- Thursday 5 February 2015 12:30-13:30
- Baris Vardar (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Wealth inequality and environmental policy
Co-author: Hamze Arabzadeh (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) - Abstract
We study the implications of an environmental policy on firm behavior, factor prices and welfare by using a general equilibrium framework that incorporates wealth inequality within the society. We identify the factor demands of the firms that depend on the level of pollution tax and on the relative factor intensities (labor, capital and pollution) of the production technologies that are used by the firms. Then we find the conditions in which the wage and the interest rate are moving in the same or the opposite direction as a response to an increase in the pollution tax. By using these results, we find the preferred pollution tax of a household that depends on its wealth. In particular, we show that whether the preferred pollution tax of a household increases or decreases with its wealth is determined by the pollution tax elasticity of consumption which depends on the tax elasticity of the factor prices.
- Thursday 29 January 2015 12:30-13:30
- François Libois (CRED, Université de Namur)
Why are some communities able to preserve their natural resources when others fail to achieve it? - Abstract
This paper presents an analytical framework to understand why some communities successfully manage their renewable natural resources and some fail to do it. We develop a two-players, two-period non-cooperative game where a community can impose some exogenous amount of sanctions. We first show that rules preventing dynamic inefficiencies may exist even though static inefficiencies still remain. Second, apparently valuable resources can yield outcomes where players get a lower ex-post utility level than what they would have got in a game with ex-ante lower value resources. Third, inequalities reduce static inefficiencies but increase dynamic inefficiencies.
- Thursday 15 January 2015 12:30-13:30
- Mathilda Eriksson (Center for Environmental and Resource Economics/ Department of Economics, Umeå University)
When Not in the Best of Worlds: Uncertainty and Forest Carbon Sequestration - Abstract
It is argued that forest carbon sequestration is a near-term low-cost option to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations. However, many dimensions of forest carbon sequestration, and its interactions to climate change, are still not well understood. This paper presents an integrated assessment model that takes into account the uncertainty in sequestration policy. We model uncertainty over several key parameters providing new insights into how uncertainty impacts the optimal sequestration policy. Uncertainty is modeled using the contingent state approach where draws of uncertain parameters create possible states of the world; optimal policies are then derived by maximizing the weighted sum of utility in each state.
- Thursday 4 December 2014 12:30-13:30
- Diane Aubert (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Environmental tax reform, unemployment, and equity issues - Abstract
The paper investigates the distributional and efficiency consequences of an environmental tax reform, when the revenue of the green tax is recycled by a variation of labor tax rates. We build a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous imperfect labor markets, pollution consumption externalities, and where poor households spend relatively more on polluting goods than rich households (Stone-Geary preferences). We characterize the necessary conditions for the obtention of the environmental and welfare dividends and we analyse the distributional properties of the green tax. We show that even in the case where the reform appears to be regressive, the gains from the double dividend can be made Pareto improving by using a redistributive non-linear income tax if redistribution is initially not too large. Moreover, the use of a non-linear income tax acts on unemployment and can moderate the trade-off between equity and efficiency. We finally provide simulations highlighting the fiscal flexibility of the reform for the French case.
- Thursday 20 November 2014 12:30-13:30
- Moutaz Altaghlibi (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics)
Climate policy and carbon leakage with firm heterogeneity - Abstract
Carbon leakage is one of the most important problems associated with the unilateral implementation of climate policies by a limited number of countries. Border tax adjustment (BTA) is considered an effective instrument to tackle carbon leakage, though there is a lack in the theoretical research to assess their impact on leakage and welfare in a model with firm heterogeneity. This study trys to fill this gap focusing on competitiveness leakage. Using a general equilibrium model of international trade between two countries with firm and country heterogeneity introduced first by Melitz, we identify different channels for carbon leakage and analyze different cases of policy combinations in different countries and their effects on pollution, competitiveness and welfare. Simulation results show that applying a unilateral climate policy will in fact induce leakages in emissions, welfare, and competitiveness on the firm level but surprisingly there was no leakage in competitiveness on the country level. The results also show that introducing BTA was ineffective to reduce emissions leakage, on the contrary the leakage becomes deeper, the BTA effect was to give shelter for inefficient firms.
- Thursday 13 November 2014 12:30-13:30
- Stéphanie Monjon (Université Paris Dauphine, CEPII and CIRED)
Would climate policy improve the European energy security?
Co-auteurs: Céline Guivarch, Stéphanie Monjon, Julie Rozenberg and Adrien Vogt-Schilb. - Abstract
Energy security improvement is often presented as a co-benefit of climate policies. This paper evaluates this claim. It presents a methodology to investigate whether climate policy would improve energy security, while accounting for the difficulties entailed by the many-faceted nature of the concept and the large uncertainties on the determinants of future energy systems. A four- dimension analysis grid is used to capture the energy security concept, and a database of scenarios allows us to explore the uncertainty space. The results, focusing on Europe, reveal there is no unequivocal effect of climate policy on all the dimensions of energy security. Moreover, time matters: the effect of climate policy depends on the time horizon considered. Lastly, these results are robust to uncertainties on drivers of economic growth and the potentials and costs of end-uses technologies, but are sensitive to fossil fuels availability, low carbon technologies in the energy sector and improvements in energy efficiency.
- Thursday 23 October 2014 12:30-13:30
- Lorenzo Cerda Planas (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics)
Pushing the Tipping in International Environmental Agreements - Abstract
This paper intends to provide an alternative approach to explaining the formation of International Environmental Agreements (IEA). The existing consensus from the literature suggests that there are either too few signatories or that the emissions of signatories are almost the same as BAU. I start from well known model (Barrett 1997), adding heterogeneity in countries’ marginal abatement costs (low and high) and in damages suffered (or corresponding environmental concern). I also allow for technological transfers and border taxes. I show that using either mechanism alone does not change the results. But if both are used in a ’strategic’ manner, the grand (and deep) coalition can be reached.
- Thursday 9 October 2014 12:30-13:30
- Mathias Berthod (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics)
Increases in reported oil reserves among the OPEC producers : a differential game approach - Abstract
In the 1980’s, the Opec’s decision to set members’ export quotas of oil in proportion of individual reserves volumes leads to a general rise of the proved reserves : between 1982 and 1988, they jump from 467,39 to 760,48 billions of barrels. This gap highlights the fact that nonrenewable resources reserves depend on the market structure the producers choose. In this paper, we propose to analyze the consequences of different oligopoly structures on the level of reserves.
In our framework, oil producing countries can produce and explore as in the seminal Pindyck model. But sharing the same global demand, they can choose between three different market structures. In the non cooperative oligopoly, they determine control variables - extraction and exploration - in order to maximize their individual profits. In the cooperative oligopoly, they choose a global extraction and individual exploration that will maximize the global profit : the individual extractions are decided through a ’rule of quotas’, that is each country will extract in proportion of its individual reserves. In the coopetitive oligopoly, they still choose a global production that maximize the global profit applying the ’rule of quotas’ but now the choice of exploration is made in a competitive way.
Through this framework we will show that, with homogeneous producers and under some assumptions, a jump in the reserves still happen with a change of the oligopoly structure. With heterogeneous producers, we will see that things are more complicated : the change of each producer’s level of oil reserves will depend on their position in the cartel in term of cost parameters. Last, by studying the profit function of producers in each oligopoly, we will study whether they have interest to over-report or under-report oil and we will show that if a producer cheated in a competitive oligopoly, he will cheat even more in a coopetitive oligopoly.
- Thursday 26 June 2014 12:30-13:30
- Damien Dussaux (CERNA, Ecole des Mines ParisTech)
Importing foreign metallic raw materials or recovering scrap metal at home? - Abstract
We estimate the impact of metal scrap recovery on import of metallic raw materials at the country level using a new instrumental variables strategy. We instrument for country metal recovery production with exogenous country characteristics. We employ a panel of 20 developed and developing countries over 1994-2008. To transform economic aggregates from nominal to real value, we develop the appropriate price indices. This allows us to document the actual evolution of the metal recovery industries for 20 countries and to perform a consistent econometric analysis. We find that increasing metal recovery by 10% reduces import of metallic raw material by 2%. This result implies that waste policies that favor waste recycling have not only an impact on pollution emissions but also on trade deficit.
- Thursday 19 June 2014 12:30-13:30
- Alexandre Sauquet (CERDI - Université d’Auvergne)
Protected areas, local governments, and strategic interactions: The case of the ICMS-Ecologico in the Brazilian state of Parana - Abstract
The ICMS-Ecologico is an ecological fiscal transfer mechanism implemented in Brazil in the early 1990’s in order to reduce biodiversity loss. The mechanism enables states to reward municipalities for the creation and management of protected areas and is of particular interest since it is a partly decentralized system, which works without any external financing and with only moderate transaction costs. Nevertheless, as the benefits of decentralization can be undermined by interactions among agents, we present an analytical framework discussing the impact of interactions among local governments on the effectiveness of a decentralized mechanism aimed at encouraging the creation of protected areas. We test for the presence of interactions among Brazilian municipalities in their decisions on whether or not to create conservation units in the state of Parana between 2000 and 2010 through the estimation of a Bayesian spatial Tobit model.
Our empirical investigation reveals strategic substitutability in municipalities conservation decisions, which raises implications for the design of the mechanism and its impact on biodiversity protection.
Keywords: Land use, Biodiversity, Fiscal federalism, Interactions, Bayesian spatial Tobit model, Brazil
- Thursday 22 May 2014 12:30-13:30
- Werner Antweiler (Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia)
Cross-Border Trade in Electricity - Abstract
This paper develops an economic theory of cross-border two-way trade in electricity in which regulated electric utilities engage in profitable trading opportunities when they have sufficient reserve capacity. Electricity demand is stochastic. Two-way trade emerges in similarity to models of reciprocal dumping. Whereas in those models firms engage in rent-seeking reciprocal market access, in the present model electric utilities simply exploit cost variations in order to enhance economic efficiency: reciprocal load smoothing. After deriving estimating equations, the model is tested with cross-border trade data, exports from Canadian provinces to U.S. states. The empirical tests strongly support the theoretical model. Empirical results also support the notion that the current volume of electricity trade is suboptimal in North America. Building more cross-jurisdictional interties and integrating fragmented interconnections into a continental supergrid are obvious policy implications.
- Thursday 3 April 2014 12:30-13:30
- Céline Grislain-Letrémy (INSEE, CREST, Université Paris-Dauphine)
Natural Disasters: Exposure and Underinsurance - Abstract
Insurance coverage for natural disasters remains low in many exposed areas, particularly in developing countries. Reduced availability or unaffordability of insurance are commonly identified as primary causal factors in this low coverage. The French overseas departments provide a rare natural experiment of a well-developed supply of natural disasters insurance in highly exposed regions. This makes it possible to analyze the determinants of insurance coverage on the demand side. Based on unique household-level micro-data, I estimate a theoretical insurance market model which had not yet been empirically tested. I show that underinsurance in the French overseas departments is neither due to perception biases nor to unaffordable insurance, but mainly to uninsurable housing and to the anticipation of assistance.
- Thursday 27 March 2014 12:30-13:30
- Pas de séance - 23èmes Rencontres de l’Environnement/FAERE Thematic Workshop au Havre
- Thursday 20 March 2014 12:30-13:30
- Rafael Reuveny (Indiana University, Bloomington)
TBA
- Thursday 6 March 2014 12:30-13:30
- Lina Escobar Rangel (CERNA, Ecole des Mines ParisTech)
Nuclear Reactors’ Construction Costs: The Role of Lead-Time, Standardization and Technological Progress
- Thursday 13 February 2014 12:30-13:30
- Agustin Perez-Barahona (INRA and Ecole Polytechnique)
Light pollution and marine species population dynamics - Abstract
We examine the impact of pollution on biodiversity by studying the effect of coastal light pollution on the sea turtle population in the Caribbean. To this end we assemble a data set of sea turtle nesting activity and satellite derived measures of nightlights. Controlling for surveyor effort, local economic infrastructure and spatial spillovers, we find that nightlights significantly reduce the number of sea turtle nests. Using data on replacement costs of turtles raised in captivity, our result suggests that the increase in lighting over the last 20 years has resulted in the loss of close to 2,000 sea turtles in the Caribbean, worth up to $312 million. Incorporating our empirical estimate into a stage-structured population model we discover that the generational effects in the future are likely much larger. More generally, our study provides a new approach to valuing the cost of environmental pollution associated with species extinction.
- Thursday 6 February 2014 12:30-13:30
- Julie Rozenberg (CIRED)
Irreversible investment and transition to clean capital - Abstract
This paper analyses the optimal transition from dirty to clean capital when investment is irreversible. The cost of the transition has two components: the technical cost of investing in clean capital instead of polluting capital, and a temporary irreversibility cost. With a carbon price, the irreversibility cost can be reduced by under-utilizing polluting capital. By preventing under-utilization of existing capital, instruments that focus on redirecting investments --- such as feebate programs or environmental standards on new capital --- reduce short-term losses but increase the intertemporal cost of the transition. We discuss implications regarding inter- and intra-generational distributional impacts of climate change mitigation.
- Thursday 23 January 2014 12:30-13:30
- Marion Drut (Université Lille 1)
How Space Allocation Matters - Abstract
This article focuses on the theory of common resource allocation. Through a static micro-based allocation model, we investigate the mechanisms underpinning resource allocation. The model estimates the optimal resource consumption rates to be set under the various cases identified. Our contribution is to apply theory to a particular resource: artificial public space. In this article, we define space as a limited and homogeneous commodity, and consider urban sprawl as a result of space mis-consumption. We interpret the model and main results for the case of space. Implications of space allocation in terms of land artificialization are finally discussed. We show that overlooking the shadow value of space when the resource is allocated sequentially induces pressures towards urban sprawl and drives down the social welfare.
Key words: optimal resource allocation, public policies, competition for space, land urbanization
- Thursday 16 January 2014 12:30-13:30
- Thais Nunez (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics)
Waste Trade: The impact of the European Regulation on World Trade
- Thursday 12 December 2013 12:30-13:30
- Esther Regnier (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics)
Competition between farmed and wild fish: the French sea bass and sea bream markets
Co-auteur: Basak Bayramoglu (INRA-AgroParis Tech) - Abstract
Aquaculture contributes at an increasing rate to the world seafood supply. The
interactions between fisheries and aquaculture are especially important at the
seafood market where the competition between wild and farmed fish affects
price dynamics. We examine these market interactions on the fresh sea bass and
sea bream French markets, respectively. We test for price parity between whole
farmed and wild products for these two species, respectively, applying a
bivariate cointegration approach to market delineation. Our data base consists
of (monthly) domestic price series for a number of fish species purchased by
households from 2007 to 2012 in France. Our empirical results show that whole
wild and farmed sea bream prices are cointegrated, which supports the idea
that both products are treated as substitutes by consumers. At the opposite,
whole wild and farmed sea bass display no long run price parity. The
substantial higher price of wild sea bass relatively to farmed sea bass,
suggests that consumers may be more sensitive to the seafood production
process for this species, which is higher-valued than sea bream on average.
- Thursday 5 December 2013 12:30-13:30
- Natalia Zugravu (CEMOTEV, Université de Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines)
Impact of FDIs on industrial pollution: “Pollution havens” or “Pollution halo"? - Abstract
Empirical studies evaluating the impact of FDIs on local pollution do not sufficiently discuss mechanisms and conditions under which different effects are produced, and they usually neglect the possible coexistence and/or offsetting conditions of the central hypotheses linking FDIs to pollution, i.e., Pollution Havens and Pollution Halo. By developing an empirical moderation model for the identification of factors that affect the sign and the magnitude of the FDI impact on pollution in the host country and by applying panel data estimation techniques, we show that in countries with (i) substantial technological differences between local and foreign firms, (ii) appropriate (neither too lax nor too stringent) environmental regulations and (iii) a qualified workforce, multinational firms looking for comparative environmental cost advantages often contribute to the transfer of environmentally friendlier practices. Accordingly, the beneficial pollution halo effect fully offsets the harmful pollution haven effect in these countries. Our results suggest that it would be more relevant for emerging, developing and transition economies to carefully seek FDIs from industrialized countries rather than to definitely fear pollution havens, provided that the qualifications of the local labor and the environmental regulations are conducive to the transfer and assimilation of foreign expertise and modern production techniques. As these empirical results are globally validated, some specific and interesting findings are discussed regarding different FDI origin countries, host country-groups, and several air (CO2, SO2, and NOx) and water (BOD) industrial pollutants.
- Thursday 21 November 2013 12:30-13:30
- Efthymia Kyriakopoulou (University of Gothenburg)
Spatial Policies and Land Use Patterns: Optimal and Market Allocations - Abstract
We study the optimal and equilibrium distribution of industrial and residential land in a given region. The trade-off between the agglomeration and dispersion forces, in the form of pollution from stationary forces, environmental policy, production externalities, and commuting costs, determines the emergence of industrial and residential clusters across space. In this context, we define two kinds of spatial policies that can be used in order to close the gap between optimal and market allocations. More specifically, we 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. We also propose a novel approach that allows for endogenous determination of land use patterns and provides more precise results compared to previous studies.
- Thursday 14 November 2013 12:30-13:30
- Lorenzo Cerda (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics)
Finding a Green Nudge: Moral Motivation and Green Behaviour - Abstract
This paper intends to provide an alternative explanation of why societies behave differently from an environmental point of view. To do so, I use a Kantian moral approach at a microeconomic level. Under this premise, I show that two identical societies (income, political system) might follow different paths with respect to their “green” behaviour. Additionally, I identify tipping points that could nudge a society from a polluting behaviour to a green one. I find that environmental perception as well as how governments are elected can be important factors in this shift.
- Thursday 24 October 2013 12:30-13:30
- Stefanija Veljanoska (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics)
Agricultural risk and remittances: The case of Uganda
- Thursday 17 October 2013 12:30-13:30
- Bert Scholtens (University of Groningen)
Why do firms do good: Greenwashing, profit-maximization, or altruism?
Co-authors: Lammertjan Dam, Michael Koetter - Abstract
Why do firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Is it because of altruism
profit maximization, or greenwashing? We aim at an economic microfoundation
of CSR behavior. To this extent, we model CSR as a choice of the firm to self-restrain
from the full exploitation of a production set that contains negative externalities.
Compared to such an unconstrained set, some firms behave responsible and choose
to deviate from optimal production plans relative to the unconstrained set. We use
stochastic frontier analysis to estimate firm-specific efficiency conditional on CSR
relative to optimal cost and profit frontiers. These models allow us to identify why
firms conduct CSR. We investigate a sample of 799 manufacturing firms in the US
in the period 1991-2005. We find that CSR can not be regarded as greenwashing.
Instead, we find that the predominant motive for CSR is strategic, namely profit
maximization. In addition, we also find some support for altruism as a driver of CSR.
JEL codes: D21, D24, D61, L25, M14
Key words: altruism, cost and profit efficiency, CSR, greenwash, manufacturing industry, microfoundation, social responsibility, stochastic frontier analysis, US
- Thursday 26 September 2013 12:30-13:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, S19
- Emmanuel Combet (CIRED)
Carbon taxation and social progress - Abstract
This lunch seminar will focus on the economics of carbon taxation. But
contrary to the historical practice in environmental economics, the
analysis will be constructed on the hypothesis that the objective of
reducing CO2 emissions cannot be isolated from the other objectives of a
tax reform (competitiveness, redistribution, social policy, public
finance). Linking those issues into a comprehensive approach is justified
for the sake of economic efficiency and political acceptability. After
providing support for this hypothesis, Emmanuel Combet will present a
model developed to study those interlinked issues. This model represents an
open-economy constrained by international competition, energy dependency,
inequalities and unemployment. He will then present an application to the
case of France. Various schemes of carbon taxation will be compared with
respect to a number of indicators (CO2, activity, employment, inequality,
poverty, public debt). In conclusion, he will sum up the main lessons for
collective decision (major uncertainties, main trade-offs between
objectives, best avenues for compromise).
For more information, please see
http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00813550
- Thursday 4 July 2013 12:30-13:30
- Anke Leroux (Monash University)
Optimal Investment in Ecological Rehabilitation under Climate Change - Abstract
Ecological rehabilitation is subject to a variety of risks affecting the likely return on investment. We propose a real options approach to valuing and ranking individual rehabilitation projects, accounting for irreversible investment and the effects of climate change on species loss, future rehabilitation benefits and frequency of catastrophic events. The allocation of voluntary rehabilitation contracts on the basis of option pricing results in significantly greater value for money for the Government as compared with the conventional cost-effectiveness criterion as is illustrated for the case of Box Gum Grassy Woodland rehabilitation in Australia.
- Thursday 13 June 2013 12:30-13:30
- Gwenael Roudaut (Ecole Polytechnique)
Responsible governance and CSR: How to make up the board of directors? - Abstract
For decades, more and more attention from the academics and practitioners has been focused on corporate governance and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in order to determine what a good governance is, and why firms invest into CSR. In this paper, we study the effect of board composition on corporate Social Responsibility investment for a panel of French firms (SBF120 index) between 2006 and 2011. We first match an exhaustive board composition database (Ethics&Boards) with a ESG ratings database (Vigéo). We then show that CSR performances are positively non-linearly related with board monitoring ability (proportion of independent directors) and board advice ability (proportion of industry-related directors). This result suggests that CSR investment may not be an entrenchment strategy for managers but a strategic investment from the long-term shareholders perspective. Moreover, we show that investment in the different CSR dimensions (business, environment and social) is correlated with stakeholder representation inside the boardroom, especially the appointment of employee representatives and business directors. This result suggests that CSR may also be used to resolve conflicts between managers, investors and other non-investing stakeholders.
- Thursday 6 June 2013 12:30-13:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, B.2.2
- Baris Vardar (Paris School of Economics, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Imperfect Energy Substitution and Optimal Switching to Clean Technologies - Abstract
Due to technical or geographical constraints non-renewable and renewable energies are imperfect substitutes. We characterize the optimal growth path and resource use of an economy in such a context. The economy uses non-renewables and renewables simultaneously and gradually increases the share of renewables in production, but two cases appear. In the first one the economy switches to a backstop at a certain date. In the second one the first regime lasts forever. This result implies that growth can be sustained even if the backstop is too costly. We conduct simulations which provide an in depth analysis of the framework we consider. This analysis demonstrates the role of substitutability and energy prices in the energy transition and allows us to discuss potential policy implications and existence of the Green Paradox.
- Thursday 30 May 2013 12:30-13:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, B.2.2
- Julien Ciucci (University of Orléans)
Localisation des activités polluantes et politiques environnementales
- Thursday 23 May 2013 12:30-13:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, S/18
- Antonin Pottier (CIRED)
The “Doomsday” Effect in Climate Policies. Why is the Present Decade so Crucial to Tackling the Climate Challenge ?
- Thursday 2 May 2013 12:30-13:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, salle B.2.2
- Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet (CIRED, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and Precourt Energy Efficiency Center Stanford University)
Double moral hazard and the energy efficiency gap
Co-author: Sébastien Houde (Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland) - Abstract
This paper examines how moral hazard problems can create an energy efficiency gap, i.e., too few investments in high-quality energy efficiency. Such problems are common in home energy retrofits, where both the seller and the buyer can take hidden actions: The retrofit contractor may cut the quality of installation to save costs, while the homeowner may increase her consumption of energy service when provided with higher energy efficiency. We first formalize the induction of the energy efficiency gap by the double moral hazard described above. We then investigate how the gap can be reduced through energy-savings insurance and quality standards. Both instruments are shown to be second- best. Uniform quality standards cannot eliminate the gap, because of the heterogeneity in consumer’s valuation of energy services. Energy-savings insurance is incomplete because moral hazard is bilateral. In a third step, we calibrate the model to the U.S. insulation market to assess the magnitude of the gap. Simulations show that moral hazard problems are consistent with homeowners investing with implicit discount rates higher than 30%. Undoing moral hazard problems yields larger welfare gains than internalizing carbon dioxide externalities associated with natural gas consumption. Lastly, energy-savings insurance underperforms uniform quality standards.
- Thursday 4 April 2013 12:30-13:30
- Emeline Bezin (UMR Smart INRA Rennes)
The Dynamics of Environmental Concern and the Evolution of Pollution - Abstract
We develop an overlapping generations model within which the evolution of pollution and the formation of environmental concern are endogenous. On the one hand, people heterogeneously concerned with environmental issues contribute to pollution which is a public bad. On the other hand, the transmission of environmental attitudes is the result of some economic choice which is affected by pollution. The model predicts that the long run proportion of environmentally concerned individuals will always be high. Though, depending on the pollution-generating technology, the transition from a low-environmentally concerned society to a high-environmentally concerned one is accompanied by two different outcomes regarding the long run level of pollution. If the technology is « clean », there is a stable steady state level of pollution. However, if it is « dirty », pollution experiences unlimited growth. This result captures some stylised facts regarding the joint evolution of environmental concern and pollution in developing nations. In the latter case, we show that intergenerational transfers from the older generation to the young working one restore the possibility to reach a stationary level of pollution.
- Thursday 21 March 2013 12:30-13:00
- Antony Millner (Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE)
Discounting and disagreement
Co-author: Geoffrey Heal (Columbia University) - Abstract
A group of time-consistent agents with heterogeneous time preferences have access to a productive resource stock (capital, natural resource, etc.) whose output provides their consumption needs. A social planner wishes to manage the resource so that consumption is allocated efficiently across individuals and over time. We show that the group’s consumption plan is equivalent to that of a representative agent with a time varying rate of impatience. The representative agent’s time preferences depend on the distribution of preferences in the group, on the agents’ tolerance for consumption fluctuations, and on the productivity of the resource. The representative agent’s rate of impatience coincides with that of the individual with the lowest rate of impatience in the long run, and under mild conditions, is monotonically declining. In the work-horse case of iso-elastic utility functions, and Gamma distributed rates of impatience, analytic solutions are possible, and the representative agent has hyperbolic time preferences. We thus provide a normative justification for the use of hyperbolic discounting in welfare analysis.
- Thursday 7 March 2013 12:30-13:30
- salle 115, Maison des Sciences Economiques
- Emmanuelle Lavaine (Paris School of Economics, University Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne)
The Price of Pollution and Health : An Hedonic Approach
- Thursday 14 February 2013 12:30-13:30
- Hélène Ollivier (CNRS, Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne)
Political competition, learning, and the consequences of heterogeneous beliefs for long-run public projects - Abstract
Co-authors: Antony Millner and Leo Simon
An incumbent political party, who cares only about voters’ welfare, faces future political
competition from a similarly well-intentioned party whose beliefs about the consequences
of a `long-run’ public policy are different from its own. We show that when the incumbent can endogenously influence whether learning occurs (active learning), future
political competition gives her an incentive to distort her policy choices so as to reduce
uncertainty and disagreement in the future. This incentive pushes all incumbents’ policies in the same direction. We demonstrate this mechanism in a two period model of the regulation of a stock pollutant that combines the literature on uncertainty and learning
in intertemporal choice with a simple model of political competition. If the interaction
between active learning and political competition is strong enough, all incumbents, regardless of their beliefs, will emit more than they would like. Our model thus offers a
candidate explanation for the weakness of long-run environmental policy in democracies
that applies even in an ideal world in which politicians’ objectives are aligned with voters’.
The mechanism we identify is likely to apply in many long-run public policy contexts.
- Thursday 24 January 2013 12:30-13:30
- Natacha Raffin (University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La défense)
Environmental risks, prevention and ambiguity attitudes
- Thursday 10 January 2013 12:30-13:30
- Johanna Choumert (CERDI, University of Auvergne Clermont-Ferrand)
Is the Environmental Kuznets Curve for deforestation a threatened theory? A meta-analysis of the literature
Co-authors: Pascale Combes Motel and Hervé Dakpo (CERDI, University of Auvergne Clermont-Ferrand)
- Thursday 20 December 2012 12:30-13:30
- Antoine Leblois (CIRED)
Weather index-based insurance in a cash crop regulated sector: ex ante evaluation for cotton producers in Cameroon
Co-authors: Philippe Quirion (CIRED, LMD) and Benjamin Sultan (LOCEAN)
- Thursday 6 December 2012 11:30-12:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, salle B2.1
- Yacoub Bahini (Paris School of Economics, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Optimization of the economic growth under energetic transition - Abstract
Abstract
This paper aims to present our economic growth model, that should explain,
as well as possible, the impact of energetic transition on economic growth. In our
precedent working-paper, we have discussed some of the important energetic tran-
sition models trying to build up a new concept of the real problematic of the
21st century energetic transition. The paper also present the -rst attempt, accor-
ding to our knowledge, to di-erentiate between energy as production factor and
energy as consumption good for householders. We take also into account the Non-
Energetic-Consumption (NEC) (of householders). The model conclude that NRE
extraction must follow both the level of industrialization and the level of NEC,
The two latter must converges to a steady state de-ned by the discount factor
and the depreciation rate of the capital stock. The optimal RE production is the
level that complete the overall energy demand (that is done by simple combina-
tion of the model’s equations). Furthermore, the RE production level depend on
the price, while the NRE extraction do not depend on it. Finally, internalization
of environmental damage decrease the level of extraction of NRE by a quantity
proportional to the level of aggregate NEC, and shows that the carbon tax should
follows the level of NEC and not the level of extraction of NRE.
- Thursday 29 November 2012 12:30-13:30
- salle S19, Maison des Sciences Economiques
- Saraly Andrade de Sa (ETH, Zurich)
Limit-pricing oil monopoly and environmental taxation
Co-authors: Ujjayant Chakravorty and Julien Daubanes - Abstract
Demand for energy is commonly estimated to be very price inelastic, even in the long run. Facing such demand, an oil monopoly increases its profits with higher prices, as long as those prices do not warrant the profitability of competing substitutes. As a matter of fact, the energy market features several entry prices, each corresponding to a substitute to oil, at which the residual demand for oil is kinked. When the production of a competing substitute may sufficiently deteriorate the oil market share, an oil monopoly adopts a limit-pricing behavior with the view to deterring it. Limit-pricing equilibria of non-renewable resource markets sharply differ from the conventional Hotelling outcome; economic instruments such as resource taxes and subsidies to substitutes do not have their traditional effects on the market equilibrium. While resource taxes are strongly neutral, subsidies to substitutes may induce higher or lower oil quantities. Policy-induced changes are shown to be robust to various extensions of the limit-pricing canonical model, having to do with the market structure and with the heterogeneity of the resource.
- Tuesday 27 November 2012 14:00-17:00
- Matti Liski (Aalto University)
Climate Change Economics - Abstract
Matti Liski (Aalto University) will give a doctoral course on climate change economics open to PhD and M2 students on Tuesday 27th November and Wednesday 28th November. Schedule:
Tuesday 14-17h room S/3;
Wednesday 9-12h room S/3; and
13h30-16h30 room 115
- Thursday 15 November 2012 12:30-13:30
- Adrien Vogt-Schilb (CIRED)
How inertia and limited potentials affect the timing of sectoral abatements in optimal climate policy
co-authors: Guy Meunier (INRA-ALISS) Stéphane Hallegate (The World Bank and Ecole Nationale de la Météorologie, Météo-France) - Abstract
This paper investigates the optimal timing of greenhouse gas abatement efforts in a multi-sectoral model with economic inertia, each sector having a limited abatement potential. It defines economic inertia as the conjunction of technical inertia — a social planner chooses investment on persistent abating activities, as opposed to choosing abatement at each time period independently — and increasing marginal investment costs in abating activities. It shows that in the presence of economic inertia, optimal abatement efforts (in dollars per ton) are bell-shaped and trigger a transition toward a low-carbon economy. The authors prove that optimal marginal abatement costs should differ across sectors: they depend on the global carbon price, but also on sector-specific shadow costs of the sectoral abatement potential. The paper discusses the impact of the convexity of abatement investment costs: more rigid sectors are represented with more convex cost functions and should invest more in early abatement. The conclusion is that overlapping mitigation policies should not be discarded based on the argument that they set different marginal costs (`“different carbon prices”’) in different sectors.
PDF:
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2012/08/01/000158349_20120801140632/Rendered/PDF/WPS6154.pdf
- Thursday 18 October 2012 09:00-19:00
- 2nd International Conference on Environment and Natural Resources Management in Developing and Transition Economies
CERDI, University of Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand - Abstract
Pas de séance
- Thursday 11 October 2012 12:30-13:30
- Claire Gavard (PSE, Université Paris 1)
What to Expect from Sectoral Trading, a US-China Example - Abstract
In United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations, sectoral
mechanisms were proposed as a way to encourage early action and spur investment in low carbon
technologies in developing countries, particularly in the electricity sector. Sectoral trading, which is one
such proposition, involves including a sector from one or more nations in an international cap-and-trade
system. In order to assess potential impacts from such a mechanism, we analyze trade in carbon permits
between the Chinese electricity sector and a U.S. economy-wide cap-and-trade program using the MIT
Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model. We then analyze the same mechanism if it were used between the European Union Emission Trading scheme and emerging countries like China, India, Brazil or Mexico We find that this sectoral policy induces significant financial transfers between the countries involved. In emerging countries, sectoral trading increases the price of electricity and reduces the amount of electricity generated, particularly from coal. Only small increases in
electricity generation from nuclear and renewables are projected in the timeframe of our analysis (2010-
2030). Because the price of coal decreases, we also find that sectoral trading leads to emissions
increases in non-electricity sectors in the emerging countries involved, a form of internal carbon leakage.
- Thursday 27 September 2012 12:30-13:30
- Esther Regnier (Paris School of Economics, Univ. Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
- Abstract
“Modeling of interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries”
Co-author : Katheline Schubert (Paris School of Economics and University Paris 1)
- Thursday 13 September 2012 12:30-13:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, salle B.2.2
- Djamel Kirat (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1)
The Impact of phase II of the EU ETS on wholesale electricity prices - Abstract
This paper addresses the economic impact of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) for carbon on wholesale electricity prices in France and Germany during the Kyoto commitment period (2008-2012). We identify a structural break occurred on the carbon spot price series on October 2008,
which is mainly resulting from the financial and economic crisis. We find that the price of carbon does not matter for electricity prices in either countries before October 2008. After October 2008, electricity producers in both countries were constrained to include the carbon price in their cost functions. During that period, French electricity producers were more constrained than their German counterparts. To ask for the same abatement effort of electricity producers of different European countries, even with heterogeneous energy mixes, we propose simply to adjust the ceiling of carbon permits granted to each of them.
- Thursday 21 June 2012 12:30-13:30
- Jean-Philippe Nicolaï (Ecole Polytechnique)
Profitable environmental regulations
Co-author: Guy Meunier (INRA Aliss et Ecole Polytechnique) - Abstract
This paper stresses the role of abatement technologies on the profit-altering effect of an environmental regulation. The implementation of an environmental regulation, regardless of the instrument used by the regulator and the nature of competition, induces an effect on profits due to the abatement technology that we will call “technology effect”. In fact, when abatement technology is available, the environmental regulation makes the production technology endogenous. The “technology effect” depends on the characteristics of the induced technology. We consider either a Cournot oligopoly, or a perfect competition and we analyze the effect on profits of the implementation of either a tax on emissions or a standard. We find the conditions on the abatement technologies, on the demand and on the market structures that lead to the increase of the profits. We describe and classify several abatement technologies according to the sign of the “technology effect”.
- Friday 8 June 2012 12:30-13:30
- Esther Delbourg (Ecole Polytechnique)
Cooperation and conflict between upstream and downstream countries in African transboundary rivers
Co-author: Eric Strobl (Ecole Polytechnique) - Abstract
This study examines the impact of certain hydrological and weather features on conflict and cooperation between African riparian countries displaying a clear upstream-downstream relationship from 1950 to 2008. The main innovation in this approach is to look at relative water scarcity within a basin, namely streamflow. The main hypothesis is that upstream/downstream relationship, the extent of water availability to each country and evapotranspiration - an essential weather feature for agriculture - will be significantly correlated to the intensity of cooperation and/or conflict, as established by the Basins At Risk scale (BARscale) database of Wolf et al. (2003). After performing a pooled ordered probit including Mundlak terms, results show that the success of cooperation is more sensible to upstream variations in streamflow and evapotranspiration than downstream ones. As such, the upstream country seems to benefit from its geographical advantage, although general harmony in the basin seems important as building dams upstream will foster cooperation. Moreover, streamflow and evapotranspiration factors have opposite roles in enhancing cooperation: harsh weather conditions for soils upstream will be associated with successful cooperation schemes while increased streamflow upstream and downstream are correlated with lower cooperation intensity.
- Thursday 24 May 2012 12:30-13:30
- Lorenzo Cerda Planas (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1)
Environmental Policy: An Evolutionary Perspective - Abstract
In the present work, I address a pollution problem from a ‘political’ point of view.
Is it possible to reach a sufficient amount of people who are actually willing to sustain a good environmental quality? Or will we always be in a state dominated by the less environmentally aware people? To address this question I will use the concepts of ’moral gain’ and ’population dynamics’. With the help of a simple evolutionary model, I find that the result mainly depends on the initial proportion of green/brown people in the society. I then expand the model to a more ’realistic’ one and I show that the society can ’switch’ sides, allowing for the possibility of having ’tipping points’ in the dynamics.
- Thursday 10 May 2012 12:30-13:30
- Lisa Anoulies (Sciences Po)
The Border Tax Adjustment: An Effective Compliance Mechanism - Abstract
The paper analyzes whether a border tax adjustment can constitute an effective mechanism to enforce the cooperative international environmental agreement. I develop a reciprocal dumping model of trade with global pollution, in which the two countries differ in terms of the marginal disutility from pollution. Their strategic interactions are studied following a non-cooperative game theory approach, for different policy scenarios defined by the possibility to sanction unilateral deviation from the international environmental agreement by implementing a border tax adjustment. The model predicts that trade sanctions modify the strategic equilibrium in a more cooperative way. The border tax adjustment also has a positive influence on competitive distortions and on the global environmental quality. Its effects are compared to those of a tariff and a full border tax adjustment.
- Thursday 12 April 2012 12:30-13:30
- Emmanuelle Lavaine (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1)
Morbidity and Sulfur Dioxide: Evidence from French Strikes at Oil Refineries
Co-author: Matthew Neidell (Mailman School of Public Health - Columbia University) - Abstract
This paper examines the impact of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in France on health outcomes at a census track level. To do so, we use recent strikes affecting oil refineries in France, in October 2010, as a natural experiment. Our work offers several contributions. We show that a temporal shut down in the refining process leads to a local reduction in sulfur dioxide concentration. We then use this narrow time frame exogenous shock to assess the impact of a change in air pollution concentration on respiratory outcomes using a rich dataset. Our estimates suggest that daily variation in SO2 air pollution has economically significant health effects at levels below the current standard.
- Thursday 29 March 2012 12:30-13:30
- Olivier Gergaud (Bordeaux Management School and University of Reims)
The drivers of corporate sustainability: a comparison of the French and Californian wine industries
Co-author: Magali Delmas (UCLA) - Abstract
In this paper we investigate the factors that drive businesses to adopt sustainable certification in the wine industry. While business sustainability has been defined as the protection of the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, we still have little understanding of how and whether businesses can establish a connection with future generations. We use data from 248 wineries in the U.S. and 940 wineries in France collected through independent survey questionnaires to investigate how ownership of the winery— how it was acquired and how it will be pass down to future generations—impacts the adoption of sustainable certification. Our results show that in France, owners of wineries that have been inherited tend to adopt less sustainable certification, while in California owners who anticipate to pass-down their winery to their children are more likely to adopt sustainable certification. In both cases, these owners are also motivated by positive potential market outlook for sustainable wine. Our findings indicate that sustainable certification is adopted by more entrepreneurial wineries that are less tied to traditions. These findings also point to future generations as key stakeholders in the wine industry with owners of wineries who want to pass down their winery to their children and keep the winery alive in the future. This relationship has not been identified in other industries.
- Thursday 15 March 2012 12:30-13:30
- Agustin Perez-Barahona (INRA)
Land use dynamics and the environment
Co-author: Carmen Camacho (CNRS, Université Paris 1) - Abstract
We build a benchmark framework to study optimal land use, encompassing land use activities and environmental degradation. We focus on the spatial externalities of land use as drivers of spatial patterns: even if land is immobile by nature, location’s actions affect the whole space through pollution, which flows across locations resulting in both local and global damages. In contrast to the previous literature on spatial dynamics, we prove that the social optimum problem is well-posed, i.e., the solution exists and is unique. Taking advantage of this result, we illustrate the richness of our model by means of a numerical analysis. Considering a global dynamic algorithm, we find that our model reproduces a great variety of spatial patterns related to the interaction between land use activities and the environment. In particular, we identify the central role of abatement technology as pollution stabilizer, allowing the economy to achieve a stable steady state that is spatially heterogeneous.
- Thursday 8 March 2012 12:30-13:30
- Claire Gavard (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1)
Carbon Price as Wind Power Support? Empirical Analysis of Danish History - Abstract
Empirical analysis on wind energy in Denmark is used to quantify the
impact of the various support policies in place in the last decade and
infer the carbon price that would lead to the same level of deployment
under the hypothesis of revenue certainty equivalence. Probit analysis
on monthly data is used to test the impact of electricity price and
support policies on the observation of new turbines connections to the
grid. The support level is the dominant factor while past electricity
price impact is limited. A feed-in tariff regime significantly brings
more wind energy in than a fixed premium. No difference between the
impacts of a variable and a fixed premium is found. The probability of
new connections as a function of the support level and the policy type
is used to give an indication of the carbon price level that would
support similar renewable deployment.
- Thursday 16 February 2012 12:30-13:30
- Vicente Ruiz (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1)
Wrong Incentives and Groundwater Overdraft in Mexico - Abstract
Groundwater overdraft has become a key topic in the environmental agenda of Mexico. In the past three decades the number of over exploited aquifers has tripled, going from 35 in 1975 to a 100 in 2009. Despite that these overdrafted aquifers only account for 15% of the total number of aquifers in the country, in 2009 they provided more than 50% of all the groundwater supply.
Some of the main reasons that could explain the unsustainable use of groundwater in Mexico are the lack of law enforcement, the inadequate pricing mechanism of groundwater, and the electricity subsidies reducing the extraction costs faced by irrigation activities.
The objective of this study is then to empirically model the technology of irrigation activities in overexploited aquifers in Mexico. Through the use of microdata, this study intends to provide a better understanding on how the price of electricity affects the consumption of water and other key production inputs at the farm level.
- Thursday 2 February 2012 12:30-13:30
- MSE, salle B2.2 (please note the change of room)
- Nicola Coniglio (University of Bari, SNF-Bergen)
Climate Variability and International Migration: What are the Links? - Abstract
Climate change and international migration flows are phenomena which attract a great deal of attention from policymakers, researchers and the general public around the globe. Are these two phenomena related? Is migration an adaptation strategy to sudden or gradual changes in climate? In this paper our aim is to investigate whether countries that are affected by climatic anomalies with respect to long-term mean experience, ceteris paribus, larger outmigration flows toward rich OECD countries in the period 1990-2001. Contrarily to the bulk of existing studies we use a macro approach and analyse the determinants of international bilateral migration flows employing an augmented gravity-like equation and test the relevance of climate anomalies with respect to long-term average temperature and precipitation. One important novelty in our approach is the explicit consideration in the empirical analysis of the heterogeneous nature of climate shocks, i.e. positive vs. negative variations of temperature and precipitations; non linear and threshold effects of climate shocks. Our results show that the occurrence of climate anomalies in origin countries might have heterogeneous impacts on cross-border outmigration flows depending on the type and size of the shocks and on certain socio-economic characteristics of the country (level of development, past immigration history, vulnerability of the agricultural sector).
- Thursday 19 January 2012 12:30-13:30
- Hélène Ollivier (UC Berkeley)
Climate change: who will take the heat? - Abstract
Climate change policies can regulate greenhouse gases (GHG) at a variety of points in the product cycle of fossil fuels: from fossil fuel suppliers based on the carbon content of extracted fossil resources to final emitters at the point of energy generation. This paper develops a general equilibrium model with trade between fossil resource abundant countries and capital abundant countries to show that the distributional impacts of a climate policy differ depending on where emission rights are allocated along the GHG supply chain. The allocation of rights among different entities along this supply chain impacts both factor prices and each country’s endowments, hence it impacts the trade equilibrium. We provide an illustration of the distributional impacts of climate policy in the FPE equilibrium by comparing four allocation rules that are based on grandfathering or on equity concerns.
- Thursday 5 January 2012 12:30-13:30
- Chantal Toledo (UC Berkeley)
Natural Resource Rents and Redistribution: The Effect of Mining - Based Transfers on Local Populations in Peru - Abstract
For over a decade, the Peruvian government has transferred 50% of mining firms’ income tax back to local governments as a compensation for the exploitation of mineral resources in their jurisdiction. Given the important amount of transfers done by the central government to the local governments (5.6 billion USD or 3.6% of the 2010 Peruvian GDP at current prices), this money should have been invested and had some effect on local populations. However, district-level statistics suggest that this is not the case. Using survey-based district and household data, I test the impact of mining transfers on district, income and educational outcomes. I find that the mining canon does increase districts’ revenue and that an increase in 1 sol from the mining canon increases the net executed income of a district by 0.97 soles. Mining transfers do translate into some positive and significant effects at the district level. However, there seems to be little trickling down at the household and individual level. From the several individual and household measures of income and education studied, I find a positive and significant effect only for children’s school registration after a 1 and 5 year lag from when the transfer took place. Possible channels for little or no effects of the mining canon include corruption, lack of spending capacity of districts and spending on other outcomes.
- Thursday 1 December 2011 12:30-13:30
- Natacha Raffin (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense)
Can educational subsidies alleviate the demographic pressure on environmental resources? The role of reproductive externalities
Room B2.1 - Abstract
In this paper, we formalize the idea that educational subsidies can be used to alleviate the demographic pressure on environmental resources. If the environment is an argument of social utility and there are negative externalities linked to reproductive choices, we show that subsidizing education might be an alternative to taxing pollution and/or births, in order to achieve the social optimum. Using a dynamic OLG model where parents face a trade-off between fertility and own education, we can accordingly determine the optimal educational policy, taking into account that: (i) more educated parents tend to have lower fertility, (ii) fertility entrains a cumulative kind of externality, (iii) higher education, via larger income and consumption, would however put more pressure on resources.
- Thursday 3 November 2011 12:30-13:30
- Basak Bayramoglu (INRA-AgroParisTech)
Fishery Resources and Trade Openness: Evidence from Turkey
Co-author: Jean-François Jacques (Université Paris-Dauphine) - Abstract
In this study, we investigate whether increased trade intensity puts more pressures on fishery resources. In particular, we use an individual panel data approach to measure the effects of trade openness on fish harvests in Turkey. We take the case of 57 fish species observed from 1996 to 2009 in Turkish seas. We estimate Turkish fish harvests in terms of the relative importance of openness to trade as well as in terms of biological characteristics, in addition to economic and technological factors. Indeed, our preliminary empirical findings reveal that the openness to trade had a significant and positive impact on fish harvests. These results suggest that further openness to trade would put more pressure on Turkey’s fishery resources. Furthermore, the price of fish and the mean maximum length of fish species had a significant effect on fish harvests. These results could contribute to the ongoing debate over the potential effects of trade openness on fishery resources.
- Thursday 13 October 2011 12:30-13:30
- salle B2.1 Maison des Sciences Economiques
- Renaud Coulomb (Paris School of Economics)
Optimal Investments in Low-Carbon Energy Plants and the Extraction of Fossil Fuels - Abstract
The present paper focuses on the optimal energy use
and timing of investments in low-carbon energy plants
when the carbon-emitting resource is exhaustible.
The regulation takes the form of a cap over the atmospheric
carbon stock. Capturing CO2 from fossil fuels burning or using
solar energy require investments in specific forms of capitals that depreciate
trough time. The exhaustibility of the carbon-emitting resource
leads to drastically different optimal investment paths for solar plants
and CCS systems. With constant investments costs, it is never optimal
to invest in solar plants before the ceiling starts to bind, whereas
investing in CCS systems before the ceiling is optimal if
their depreciation is slow and the carbon-emitting resource scarce
enough. Investments in solar plants start to maintain the consumption flow at a level determined by the characteristics of the solar energy
market. Both options can be used simultaneously when the carbon stock
is at the ceiling, before the fossil fuel gets exhausted.
- From 29 June 2011 09:00 to 2 July 2011 00:00
- EAERE
- Abstract
Pas de séance jeudi 30/6, congrès annuel de l’EAERE (29 juin au 2 juillet).
- Thursday 16 June 2011 14:00-15:30
- Nicola Coniglio (FEEM and University of Bari) REPORTE A L’AUTOMNE
Climate variability, extreme weather events and international migration
- Thursday 5 May 2011 14:00-15:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, salle B.2.2
- Emmanuelle Lavaine (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1)
Does information about risk of pollution drive up demand for health care?
- From 2 to 3 May 2011
- Maison des Sciences Economiques
- Les 21ème Rencontres de l’Environnement
- Thursday 7 April 2011 14:00-15:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, salle B.2.2
- Esther Regnier (Paris School of Economics, University of Paris 1)
Management of a Fishery using the Stochastic Viability Approach: a simple case-study
- Thursday 10 March 2011 14:00-17:00
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, salle 114
- Thomas Lyon (University of Michigan)
Corporate environmental responsability and the power of NGOs - Abstract
Thomas Lyon, Professeur d’économie à Michigan University,
directeur de l’Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, donnera 3 cours ouverts aux étudiants de M2, aux doctorants et aux chercheurs sur
“Corporate environmental responsability and the power of NGOs”
aux dates suivantes :
lundi 28 février, 9h-12h, salle S3
lundi 7 mars, 9h-12h, salle S3
jeudi 10 mars, 14h-17h, salle 114
- Thursday 10 February 2011 14:00-15:30
- MSE, salle B2.2
- Denis Claude (CES, CNRS)
Regulation of Brown and Green Firms: the case of irrational changes in lifestyles
- Thursday 27 January 2011 14:00-15:30
- MSE, salle B.3.1
- Jean-Philippe Nicolaï (Collège de France)
An upper bound for free allowances
- Thursday 13 January 2011 14:00-15:30
- MSE, salle B2.2
- Angels Xabadia (University of Girona)
Adaptation Benefits and Mitigation Costs of Forest Carbon Sequestration and the Effects of Climate Change - Abstract
Science collected a large amount of evidence demonstrating that climate change is actually taking place. Since the change in climatic conditions will affect the vital cycles of trees, one needs to adapt the optimal management of forests in order to make the best use of them from the social point of view. Moreover, climate change may also affect the potential role of forests to act as carbon sinks. Consequently, the estimation of carbon sequestration costs can only be evaluated correctly if changes in the climatic conditions are considered. This paper develops a bioeconomic model to analyze the optimal adaptation and mitigation strategies for forests in the presence of climatic changes.
- Friday 17 December 2010 10:30-12:30
- MSE, salle 114
- Georges Zaccour (HEC Montreal)
A survey of the literature on dynamic games applied to the environment - Abstract
This will be a two-hour ’mini’ lecture surveying the field of dynamic games applied to environmental problems, by one of the specialists in the field.
- From 9 December 2010 12:00 to 10 December 2010 17:00
- Rencontres de l’environnement
LAMETA, Montpellier
- Thursday 2 December 2010 14:00-15:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, salle S2
- Djamel Kirat (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1)
Do Carbon Prices Cause Electricity Price Stability?
- From 18 November 2010 08:00 to 19 November 2010 19:00
- Environment and Natural Resources Management in Developing and Transition Economies
International conference, Clermont-Ferrand
- Thursday 4 November 2010 14:00-15:30
- MSE, salle B2.1
- Guillaume Commenge (EEP et Université Paris 1)
Measuring sustainability when population changes
- Thursday 21 October 2010 14:30-16:00
- MSE, salle B2.2
- Sophie Bernard (EEP, Université Paris 1)
Transboundary movements of waste
- Thursday 7 October 2010 14:00-15:30
- Maison des Sciences Economiques, S17
- Romain Perez (CES)
International trade and greenhouse gas emissions: an intertemporal analysis (1976-2002)
