Uncertainty, Learning, and Optimal Technological Portfolios: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Approach to Climate Change

How is the design of efficient climate policies affected by the potentials for induced technological change and for future learning about key parameter uncertainties? We address this question using a new integrated climate-economy model incorporating endogenous technological change to explore optimal technological portfolios against global warming in the presence of uncertainty and learning. We explicitly consider the interplays between induced innovation, the stringency of environmental policies, and possible environmental risks within the general equilibrium framework of probabilistic integrated assessment. We find that the value of resolving key scientific uncertainties would be non-trivial in the face of binding climate limits, but at the same time it can significantly decrease with induced innovation and knowledge spillovers that might otherwise be absent. The results also show that scientific uncertainties in climate change could justify immediate mitigation actions and accelerated investments in new energy technologies, reflecting risk-reducing considerations.Uncertainty; Learning; Optimal technological portfolios; Endogenous technological change; Stochastic growth model; Probabilistic integrated assessment; Carbon-free technology; Expected value of information

Environmental Taxes and Economic Welfare: The Welfare Cost of Gasoline Taxation in the U.S. 1959-1999

The purpose of this paper is to provide reasonable estimates for the welfare cost of environmental tax reform in the U.S. economy. Unlike most previous studies that empirically evaluate the deadweight cost of taxation, the model employed here considers explicitly the joint allocation of leisure and commodity demands where the wage rate plays a role both as a form of income and as the price of leisure time. The estimated results of the consumer behavior model indicate that the existing U.S. gasoline tax regime has induced a decrease of gasoline consumption by approximately 4 percent over the period from 1959 to 1999, while the deadweight cost caused by the tax accounts just for about 0.08 percent of the consumer full income over the sample period 1959-1999. Moreover, in most years of the sample period, the measures of marginal deadweight cost of gasoline taxation (sample average 0.1882) are relatively small compared to those of labor taxation (sample average 0.2175). This implies a larger efficiency gain in the case of labor taxation in shifting from the existing distortionary taxation to lump sum taxation. These empirical results might suggest the modest possibility of social welfare gains from tax reforms that shift some of the burden of taxation off labor onto energy (e.g. gasoline).Environmental taxes, double dividend hypothesis, gasoline taxation, non-separable labor supply effects, AI demand system, marginal deadweight cost

What are the Top Cultural Characteristics That Appear in High-Performing Organizations Across Multiple Industries?

Recently, researchers have investigated the existence of High Performing Organization (HPO) and its characteristics. Because researchers approach the topic of high performance from different backgrounds and angles and with different goals, it makes sense there is not yet a consistent definition of a HPO. We found a meaningful research paper that identifies common characteristics or common themes that seemed to be part of a HPO. This report will cover definitions and cultural characteristics of HPO based on that research paper contrasting and combining results from 91 different quality studies done over the last fifteen years