EU-Type Carbon Emissions Trade and the Distributional Impact of Overlapping Emissions Taxes

The European Union fulfills its emissions reductions commitments by means of an emissions trading scheme covering some part of each member state’s economy and by national emissions control in the rest of their economies. The member states also levy energy/emissions taxes overlapping with the trading scheme. Restricting our focus on cost-effective policies, this paper investigates the distributive consequences of increasing the overlapping emissions tax that is uniform across countries. For quasi-linear utility functions and for a class of parametric utility and production functions emissions tax increases turn out to be exactly offset by permit price reductions. As a consequence permit-exporting [permit-importing] countries lose [gain] from an increase in the emissions tax. These results are not general, however. By means of a numerical example we show that export-import reversals and welfare reversals are possible.emissions taxes, emissions trading, international trade

Land, Environmental Externalities and Tourism Development

In a two sectors dynamic model we analyze the process of tourism development based on the accumulation of capital (building of tourism facilities) and the reallocation of land from traditional activities to the tourism sector. The model incorporates the conflict between occupation of the territory by the tourism facilities, other productive activities and availability of cultural, natural and environmental assets that are valued by residents and visitors. We characterize the process of tourism development in two settings: the socially optimal solution and a situation where the costs of tourism expansion are external to the decision makers, where externalities on residents as well as intraindustry externalities are considered. Regarding the optimal solution, we show that it is optimal to limit tourism expansion before it reaches its maximum capacity even in a context where the economic attractiveness of tourism relative to other productive sectors rise continuously. However, in this context and when all the costs of tourism development are externalities the only limit to tourism quantitative expansion is its maximum capacity determined by the availability of land. Finally, we show that excessive environmental degradation from the future generations’ point of view is not a problem of discounting the future but rather a problem of externalities that affects negatively the current and future generations.Intertemporal land allocation, Structural economic change, Tourism industry

Reconciling environmental policy with employment, international competitiveness and participation requirements

We argue that a conventional double dividend policy - defined as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and unemployment through taxation of energy and CO2 emissions and subsidization of wage costs - and the aim of keeping international competitiveness intact are mutually exclusive concepts. It is suggested that a double dividend policy that aims at reducing GHG emissions and unemployment without violation of international competitiveness has to tax energy use and CO2 emissions of households and should use the revenues to subsidize investment in energy-saving technologies to reduce marginal costs of firms. Reduction of energy coefficients lowers marginal costs and prices and therefore increases competitiveness and employment in an environmentally friendly way and may induce other parts of the world to participate in GHG emission reduction policies. According to this proposal the principle of causation has to be dropped nationally but not internationally.international economics and trade ;

Portfolio decisions on life annuities and financial assets with longevity and income uncertainty

There are two stylised facts, namely weak demand for life-annuities and flat age-wealth profile that contradict the life-cycle hypothesis. In this paper we design a theoretical framework, which combines plausible arguments, which have been put forward in the literature to reconcile theory with empirical evidence. Besides the existence of an annuity market and of a public pension system we assume risk-averse individuals who are uncertain about lifetime and disposable income and who have preferences for leaving bequests. It is shown that this framework can contribute to explain the observed portfolio decision in favour of financial assets relatively to annuities.savings; life annuities; bequests; uncertain lifetime; uncertain income; social security

Carbon Leakage, the Green Paradox and Perfect Future Markets

Policies of lowering carbon demand may aggravate rather than alleviate climate change (green paradox). In a two-period three-country general equilibrium model with finite endowment of fossil fuel one country enforces an emissions cap in the first or second period. When that cap is tightened the extent of carbon leakage depends on the interaction of various parameters and elasticities. Conditions for the green paradox are specified. All determinants of carbon leakage resulting from tightening the first-period cap work in opposite direction when the second-period cap is tightened. Tightening the second-period cap does not necessarily lead to the green paradox.carbon leakage, green paradox, emissions cap

Cheap Talk, Gullibility, and Welfare in an Environmental Taxation Game

We consider a simple dynamic model of environmental taxation that exhibits time inconsistency. There are two categories of firms, Believers, who take the tax announcements made by the Regulator to face value, and Non-Believers, who perfectly anticipate the Regulator's decisions, albeit at a cost. The proportion of Believers and Non- Believers changes over time depending on the relative profits of both groups. We show that the Regulator can use misleading tax announcements to steer the economy to an equilibrium that is Pareto superior to the solutions usually suggested in the literature. Depending upon the initial proportion of Believers, the Regulator may prefer a fast or a low speed of reaction of the firms to differences in Believers/Non-Believers profits.Environmental policy, Emissions taxes, Time inconsistency, Heterogeneous agents, Bounded rationality, Learning, Multiple equilibria, Stackelberg games

Scientific innovation for the sustainable development of African agriculture

The African continent has considerable potential to reap the benefits associated with modern agricultural biotechnology. Plant biotechnology and breeding represent an invaluable toolbox to face the challenges of African agriculture, such as food and nutrition security, environment protection, soil fertility, and crop adaptation to new climatic conditions. As Africa has only relatively recently adopted agricultural biotechnology, it has the opportunity to harness the immense knowledge gathered over the last two decades while avoiding some of the difficulties experienced by early adopters. High-level research and education systems together with a specific regulatory framework are critical elements in the development of sustainable biotechnology-based agriculture and industry. The more actors that are involved in Research & Development applied to nutritionally and important local crops, the faster Africa will generate its future African innovators. Here, we discuss the contribution of plant biotechnology to a transformative African agriculture that combines intensification of land productivity and environmental sustainability

Valuing statistical lives from observations of speed limits and driving behavior

The paper discusses how to derive empirical estimates of the value of a statistical life (VSL) from observations of highway driving speeds, and from how such speeds are affected by speed limits and penalties for speeding. When drivers optimize with respect to driving speeds, we discuss three alternative approaches. The first two rely on constructing drivers’ utility functions, and the last on revealed government preferences similar to that used by Ashenfelter and Greenstone (2002) (A-G). The two last approaches are based on observations of changed driving speeds when speed limits and speeding penalties change. When drivers are law obedient and adhere to speed limits only the A-G approach can be used. Their approach is however unrealistic in putting overly great demand on government information about VSL, and in addition provides upwardly biased average VSL estimates.Value of a statistical life; VSL; driving

ECONOMY-WIDE ESTIMATES OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE: HUMAN HEALTH

We use an updated and extended version of the Hamburg Tourism Model to simulate the effect of development and climate change on tourism. Models extensions are the explicit modelling of domestic tourism, and the inclusion of tourist expenditures. Climate change would shift patterns of tourism towards higher altitudes and latitudes. Domestic tourism may double in colder countries and fall by 20% in warmer countries (relative to the baseline without climate change). For some countries international tourism may treble whereas for others it may cut in half. International tourism is more (less) important than is domestic tourism in colder (warmer) places. Therefore, climate change may double tourist expenditures in colder countries, and halve them in warmer countries. In most places, the impact of climate change is small compared to the impact of population and economic growth.The quantitative results are sensitive to parameter choices, both for the baseline and the impact of climate change. The qualitative patternImpacts of climate change, human health, computable general equilibrium