Strategic games in groundwater management

Previous work has shown that quality-quantity interactions may alter the typical results of private management under the assumption of myopic behavior. The main objective of the paper is to analyse the role of feedback strategies in a model containing an integrated quantity-quality approach, analyzing the impact on water use, pollution and shadow resource prices. The case of symmetric players is shown to yield results that are similar to those of models in previous literature, in that it establishes myopic and optimal solutions as extremes, with feedback solutions somewhere in between. However, as di¤erent water users do not have similar objectives or constraints, it is important to consider the case of asymmetric players. This paper shows that when agents are asymmetric, especially as regards external e¤ects, strategic solutions can be more extreme than the myopic ones

Pricing for scarcity

DINÂMIA, Junho de 2008.“Prémio Científico ISCTE-IUL 2012”In many areas where water is not abundant, water pricing schedules contain significant nonlinearities. Existing pricing literature establishes that efficient schedules will depend on demand and supply characteristics. However, most empirical studies show that actual pricing schemes have little to do with theoretical efficiency results. In particular, there are very few models recommending increasing blocks, whereas we present evidence that this type of tariff structure is abundantly used. Water managers often defend increasing blocks, both as a means to benefit smaller users and as a way to signal scarcity. Naturally, in the presence of water scarcity the true cost of water increases due to the emergence of a scarcity cost. In this paper, we incorporate the scarcity cost associated with insufficient water availability into the optimal tariff design in several different models. We show that when both demand and costs respond to climate factors, increasing marginal prices may come about as a combined result of scarcity and customer heterogeneity under specific conditions. We also investigate the effect that rising water scarcity in the long run can have on the steady-state amount of capital invested in water storage and supply infrastructures and obtain some results that are consistent with the static models.FC

Robust control in water management

Since surface water ‡ows are often stochastic, there is a role to be played by groundwater or surface reservoirs in protecting users against uncertainty. In most of the literature, the word “uncertainty” means the realization of an event whose true probability distribution is known. Pure uncertainty, where the state space of outcomes is known but one is unable to assign probabilities, has largely been ignored. When the decision maker is unsure about his model, in the sense that there is a range of approximate models that he also considers as possibly true, the problem is one of robust dynamic control. The purpose of our work is to analyse water storage and use decisions in a robust framework. Uncertainty about the behaviour of precipitation is introduced, and the implications for water use are presented. Robust choices are compared with those of a benchmark stochastic model and the emergence of precautionary behaviour is discussed

Out of sight, not out of mind: developments in economic models of groundwater management

Dynamic models of natural resource management have been applied to groundwater for decades, incorporating at least two inescapable aspects: first, since groundwater stocks are carried over to future periods, dynamic analysis is essential and any costs and benefits included in the analysis will require discounting; second, the positive and normative aspects of management must be clarified at the outset. The difference is fundamental even if the results of the two model types sometimes turn out to be fairly close. A whole strand of literature has been preoccupied with the question of whether policy interventions at least have the potential of improving groundwater management in a meaningful sense. However, given the well-documented parlous state of many aquifers around the world today, the focus has mostly shifted from debating whether or not intervention is worthwhile to identifying the relevant features of complex groundwater systems, designing better policies and facilitating their successful implementation. We survey developments in economic models relevant to groundwater management, focusing especially on the depiction of uncertainty and on the different methods applied to estimate the total economic value of groundwater.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Introduction to sustainability as a transversal competence in higher education

Sustainability in higher education institutions is little discussed, but there is a large amount of literature that mentions its importance for the awareness of all those who frequent their spaces, whether they are teachers, employees, or students. The understanding, by the human being, of the complex nature of the environment and the perception of the interdependence of the environmental elements in space and time is crucial and, for this reason, the education in this area must be accessible to all and at all levels of education, not matter what subject area. Since 2019, in the Soft Skills Lab of a public university was created a curricular unit called - Introduction to Sustainability, with the aim that students and everyone involved with the environment in a higher education institution can be fully aware of what it means to develop sustainability actions, both in the environment and in the very contents of the various courses developed in the institution they are a part of. This exploratory study aims to disseminate this experience with the 1st cycle students and also with workshops made with the employees as a practice that can be replicate in other institutions. The evaluation was made through the process of pedagogical monitoring students make every semester and in the case of the employees through a evaluation survey. It was very motivating to see the commitment that both students and employees have started to show in their daily behavior and even the creative suggestions for their participation in this matter.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Sectoral and regional impacts of the European Carbon Market in Portugal

Across Europe, CO(2) emission allowances represent one of the main policy instruments to comply with the goals of the Kyoto Protocol. In this paper we use microdata to address two issues regarding the impact of the European Carbon Market (EU ETS). First, we analyze the sectoral effects of the EU ETS in Portugal. The goal is to study the distributive consequences of imbalances, with the novelty of taking into account firm financial data to put values into context. We show that a large majority of installations in most sectors had surpluses and the opportunity to raise remarkable revenues in some cases. We also look at the regional impact, since the pre-existing specialization of different regions in the production of different goods and services might lead to an uneven economic impact of the allowance market. In particular, Portuguese data indicate a distribution of revenue from low income to high income regions, or rather, between installations located in those regions. We focus on the first phase of the EU ETS, using data for each one of the 244 Portuguese installations in the market as well as financial data for 80% of these installations, although we also present data for 2008 and 2009.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

When sociable workers pay off: can firms internalize social capital externalities?

We use an endogenous growth model to contrast the socially optimal allocation of human capital with the decentralized solution, in a context where workers make the choices that determine social capital accumulation. As social capital is expected to increase productivity but is not traded in markets, a positive social capital externality is identified. We discuss the possibility that, in response to this externality, firms subsidize social capital accumulation activities, incurring into additional costs that are recouped through productivity gains. This reaction by firms may be seen as a justification for some corporate social responsibility actions targeted at workers, although a full internalization of the externality does not look achievable in practice.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Directed technological change, energy and more: a modern story

Reliance of modern economic activities on the use of energy, most of which still comes from non-renewable sources, provokes concerns regarding the most efficient utilization of energy inputs in production. While most theory expects directed technological change to be biased towards the non-renewable input, there is rare macro-level evidence that technological change is actually biased towards energy rather than other main inputs. To fill this gap, we apply stochastic frontier analysis to country data regarding output produced with capital, labor and energy, and estimate a set of indicators for technological change.Findings show that technological change is biased the most towards energy in general. In particular, although different groups of countries exhibit various patterns, there is strong evidence that technological change favors energy more than labor.This is in line with the theoretical expectation that technological change ought to be biased towards the non-renewable input rather than the renewable ones.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Does directed technological change favor energy? Firm-level evidence from Portugal

Economic performance is closely related with energy consumption, the major part of which still comes from non-renewable sources. While endeavoring to promote renewable energy, policy makers are interested in technological change that also increases energy efficiency. However, both growth models of directed technological change and microeconomic theories regarding innovation suggest that technological change is not necessarily biased towards energy. In order to investigate directed technological change at the micro level, this paper applies stochastic frontier analysis to firm data for 32 economic subsectors, with respect to output produced with four inputs: capital, labor, electricity and fuel. Subsectors demonstrate different levels of technical inefficiency, which could be induced by capital deepening and higher share of financial income in total revenue. Output elasticity of labor is generally high among the subsectors, emphasizing labor as the main driver for economic growth. Output elasticity of capital is low overall, although a few subsectors enjoy better marginal returns. In most subsectors, technological change is biased the most towards labor; between electricity and fuel, technological change has favored fuel in more cases. We infer that the market size effect is likely to overwhelm others in deciding the direction of technological change. Thus, policy should include tools in addition to the energy price in order to induce technological change.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Tarifários de abastecimento de água e saneamento em Portugal

Os tarifários aplicados pelas entidades gestoras no sector da água em Portugal apresentam globalmente uma enorme complexidade, o que, não só dificulta a sua análise, como ensombra o objectivo da eficiência, que é reconhecido como uma peça importante na gestão da água pela legislação nacional e europeia. Neste trabalho são apresentados os principais critérios que podem ser levados em consideração na escolha de um regime tarifário, enfatizando aqueles que estão associados à eficiência económica e ao equilíbrio financeiro dos serviços. De seguida são caracterizados os tarifários existentes para o abastecimento de água e para a drenagem e tratamento de águas residuais, com base na informação recolhida pelo INSAAR, e contrastam-se os resultados obtidos com os objectivos enunciados, salientando a distância a percorre