Utilizing CoCoRaHS Climate Data to Improve Climate Literacy at the Middle School Level

One of the biggest obstacles seen in K-12 education today is the lower scores in math and science related subjects versus language arts and historical perspectives. Due to the need to improve these scores, many different methods are being tested and reviewed to improve overall understanding and ability. It is becoming more recognized in these efforts that the use of scientific method, experimentation, data collection and measurements are fantastic ways to improve understanding in math. One commonly noted difference is that math is “just numbers” and one can often go through the motions and complete the problem, but not necessarily understand the thought behind the numbers. However, science requires understanding of the situation and applying math accordingly, a skill that carries over into basic math understanding. The improvement of the sciences would not only benefit students in their science courses, but also in math as well

Technological Linkages, Market Structure, and Optimum Production Policies

There has been an increased interest in the efficacy of industrial policy. We show that policy design for vertically-related industries hinges on the nature of market interactions as well as technological linkages. Using a model in which final-good producers realize productivity gains from increasing domestic specialization of intermediate processes, we find no theoretical basis for presuming that an imperfectly competitive intermediates sector restricts output below the optimal level or that the market produces too many varieties. The direction of distortion depends on the relationship between the extent of the external economy and the market power of individual intermediates producers. Optimal corrective policies require two instruments: an output subsidy and a lump-sum tax or subsidy. If only one instrument is available, it may be optimal to tax instead of subsidize the externality-generating activity.

Are foreign investors attracted to weak environmental regulations? Evaluating the evidence from China

One of the most contentious debates today is whether pollution-intensive industries from rich countries relocate to poor countries with weaker environmental standards, turning them into pollution havens. Empirical studies to date show little evidence to support the pollution haven hypothesis, but suffer potentially from omitted variable bias, specification, and measurement errors. The authors estimate the strength of pollution-haven behavior by examining the location choices of equity joint venture (EJV) projects in China. They derive a location choice model from a theoretical framework that incorporates the firm's production and abatement decision, agglomeration, and factor abundance. The authors estimate conditional logit and nested logit models using new data sets containing information on a sample of EJV projects, effective environmental levies on water pollution, and estimates of Chinese pollution-intensity for 3-digit ISIC (International Standard Industrial Classification) industries. Results from 2,886 manufacturing joint venture projects from 1993-96 show that EJVs from all source countries go into provinces with high concentrations of foreign investment, relatively abundant stocks of skilled workers, concentrations of potential local suppliers, special incentives, and less state ownership. Environmental stringency does affect location choice, but not as expected. Low environmental levies are a significant attraction only for joint ventures in highly-polluting industries with partners from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan (China). In contrast, joint ventures with partners from OECD sources are not attracted by low environmental levies, regardless of the pollution intensity of the industry. The authors discuss the likely role of technological differences in explaining these results.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Water and Industry,Decentralization,Public Health Promotion,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Economic Theory&Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,ICT Policy and Strategies

Trade, Technology, and the Environment: Why Have Poor Countries Regulated Sooner?

Countries who adopted regulation of coal-fired power plants after 1980 generally did so at a much lower level of per-capita income than did early adopters -- poor countries regulated sooner. This phenomenon suggests that pioneering adopters of environmental regulation provide an advantage to countries adopting these regulations later, presumably through advances in technology made by these first adopters. Focusing specifically on regulation of coal-fired power plants, we ask to what extent the availability of new technology influences the adoption of new environmental regulation. We build a general equilibrium model of an open economy to identify the political-economy determinants of the decision to regulate emissions. Using a newly-created data set of SO2 and NOX regulations for coal-fired power plants and a patent-based measure of the technology frontier, we test the model's predictions using a hazard regression of the diffusion of environmental regulation across countries. Our findings support the hypothesis that international economic integration eases access to environmentally friendly technologies and leads to earlier adoption, ceteris paribus, of regulation in developing countries. By limiting firms' ability to burden shift, however, openness may raise opposition to regulation. Our results suggest that domestic trade protection allows costs to be shifted to domestic consumers while large countries can shift costs to foreign consumers, raising the likelihood of adoption. Other political economy factors, such as the quality of domestic coal and election years, are also important determinants.

Trade Growth, Production Fragmentation, and China's Environment

Trade growth for a relatively poor country is thought to shift the composition of industrial output towards dirtier products, aggravating environmental damage. China's rapidly growing trade and serious environmental degradation appear to be no exception. However, much of China's trade growth is attributable to the international fragmentation of production. This kind of trade could be cleaner, if fragmented production occurs in cleaner goods, or if China specializes in cleaner stages of production within these goods. Using Chinese official environmental data on air and water pollution, and official trade data, we present evidence that (1) China's industrial output has become cleaner over time, (2) China's exports have shifted toward relatively cleaner, highly fragmented sectors, and (3) the pollution intensity of Chinese exports has fallen dramatically between 1995 and 2004. We then explore the role of fragmentation and FDI in this trend toward cleaner trade. Beginning with a standard model of the pollution intensity of trade, we develop a model that explicitly introduces production fragmentation into the export sector. We then estimate this model using pooled data on four pollutants over ten years. Econometric results support the view that increased FDI and production fragmentation have contributed positively to the decline in the pollution intensity of China's trade, as has accession to the WTO and lower tariff rates.