Environmental Labeling and Technology Adoption in the Presence of Strategic Interactions

This manuscript analyzes the effect of binary ecolabeling on the strategic competition of Cournot duopolists in environmental technology and the output market. Under binary labeling, firms' abatement technologies are not directly observable by consumers but are certified if they satisfy preset ecological standards. Given this asymmetry, I set up the regulator's problem as one of choosing a technology standard, or "cutoff," in emissions per unit of output, below which all abatement efficiency levels are certified. The regulatory authority faces a trade-off in choosing the socially optimal cutoff: The regulator would like to raise the standard to reduce emissions but needs to lower it in order to induce technology adoption. There are three important findings: (1) ecolabeling is the second-best instrument in that choosing the optimal cutoff per se can never achieve the first-best outcome; (2) efficiency loss in terms of the difference between the first-best and the second-best total surpluses may or may not be large, depending on the extent of the certification barriers; and (3) setting too high or too low a standard is not only inefficient, but can also lead to an increase in total emissions relative to the status quo. Thus, setting the technology cutoff optimally is of crucial importance.ecolabeling, emissions, product differentiation, technology adoption, Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, D43, L13, Q53, Q58,

Value of Information and Averting Behavior: The Case of Toxic Water Contamination

Little theoretical work has been done previously on the welfare valuation of changes in price and quality when consumers are imperfectly informed. The presence of imperfect information is particularly important in the analysis of averting behaviors. We develop a theoretical welfare measure, called quasi-compensating variation, as a natural extension of compensating variation (CV). We show that this welfare measure offers not only a money metric of the "value of information", but also a means to appropriately evaluate the welfare effects of various policies when consumers are imperfectly informed of water contamination. With a numerical example and our decomposition results (Propositions 2 and 3), we demonstrate that (i) the value of information could potentially account for a large portion of the total welfare gains when regulators simultaneously disseminate accurate information and improve drinking water quality, (ii) the willingness to pay to avoid toxic contamination is strictly larger for imperfectly informed than perfectly informed consumers, and (iii) the distribution of imperfect information among consumers affects the relative performance of the two compelling policy alternatives, "self-protection" and "pollution control".Consumer/Household Economics,

Estimating Economic Health Costs of Not Controlling Toxic Water Pollution

The purpose of this paper is to determine what types of information may be important in determining the welfare benefits of preventing toxic water contamination when a given type of toxification occurs (or is likely to occur) in a given setting. It attempts to identify information and behavior issues that need to be considered when policy makers and others wish to obtain reasonable estimates of welfare benefits and weigh them against the economic costs of removing toxins. This paper also provides reasonable "scenarios" for three toxic pollutants that are found in water bodies (surface water or groundwater). We make use of two country alternatives--one in developing countries and the other in developed countries--to demonstrate, with specific examples of arsenic, mercury and atrazine, how welfare estimates may vary when a particular behavioral/informational scenario or a particular type of chemical contamination occurs.welfare costs, arsenic, mercury, Atrazine, information, water, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy,

Can Rural Communities Comply with the New Arsenic Standard for Drinking Water?

Our primary concern in this paper is to determine to what extent small communities have difficulty meeting the new stricter 2001 standard for arsenic levels in their drinking water. To do this we survey water users in rural Minnesota communities that had arsenic levels in their water supply exceeding 10 g/L during 2001-2006. Our survey results show that after obtaining complete information concerning the arsenic levels in their drinking water consumers with relatively low levels of arsenic were willing to pay $8-9 annually, while those with high levels of arsenic are willing to pay$15-17 annually. We also found that consumer’s willingness to pay (WTP) didn’t vary by community size. Thus, we conclude that compared to compliance costs ($58-327 per capita annually) small rural communities were likely to find it difficult to cover the cost of compliance through increased water charges. Since many of the communities have to cover these costs of compliance by raising water charges, we ask the basic question: are there better treatment options for these rural communities that will lower the cost to consumers? One option might be to encourage individual householders to use household water treatment devices for communities serving fewer than 500 people. The devices could be made available by the local entity supplying the community’s water possibly at a subsidized rate along with complete information about the arsenic level in the water supply.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Does Smoking Make One Dumber? Evidence from Teenagers in Rural China

Youth smoking can biologically reduce learning productivity. It can also reduce youths’ motivation to go to school, where smoking is forbidden. Using rich household survey data from rural China, this study investigates the effect of youth smoking on educational outcomes. Youth smoking is clearly an endogenous variable; to obtain consistent estimates of its impact, we use counts of registered alcohol vendors and a food price index as instrumental variables. Since the variable that measures smoking behavior is censored for non-smoking adolescents, we implement a two-step estimation strategy to account for the censored nature of this endogenous regressor. The estimates indicate that, conditional on years of schooling, smoking one cigarette per day during adolescence can lower students’ scores on mathematics tests by about 0.1 standard deviations. However, we find no significant effect of youth smoking on either Chinese test scores or total years of schooling. This study also provides strong empirical support for parental effects – parental smoking has significant impacts on the probability and intensity of youth smoking

Antioxidant Activity of β-Glucan

β-Glucans extracted from barley, which mainly contains β-(1,3-1,4)-D-glucan, are used extensively as supplements and food additives due to their wide biologic activities, including a reduction in blood lipid level. In this study, the antioxidant activity of β-glucan was examined to assess potential new benefits associated with β-glucan, because oxidative stress is considered one of the primary causal factors for various diseases and aging. β-Glucan extracted from barley was found to possess significant antioxidant activity. The amount of antioxidant activity was influenced by different physiologic properties (e.g., structure and molecular size) of β-glucan, which varied depending on the source and extraction method used. The antioxidant activity of β-glucan was significantly higher than that of various polymers that are used as food additives. These results indicate that β-glucan has promise as a polymeric excipient for supplement and food additive with antioxidant and other benefits, which may contribute to enhancing health and beauty

ナンキョク カンソクセン シラセ デ エラレタ センジョウ ジュウリョク データ ノ セイビ

砕氷船「しらせ」船不での重力測定は,第27次南極地域観測隊以来,継続実施されており,およそ17年分のデータが蓄積されている.この内,第27次隊から第33次隊のデータについては,すでに処理されたMGD77フォーマットのデータが提供されていたが,第34次隊以降のデータについては,統一的なデータ処理がされないままの状態であった.そこで,今回,第34次隊から第46次隊の間に得られたデータについて新たにデータ処理を実施し,重力異常データを作成した.この際,特に長波長域での重力データの精度向不のため,第27次隊以降のすべてのデータについて衛星高度計による海域重力異常を基準としたドリフト補正を行った.ここでは,これらの処理の概要ならびに得られたデータセットの状況について報告する.A ship-borne gravity survey on board the icebreaker Shirase has been continuously conducted since JARE-27 (the 27th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition); about 17 years of gravity data have been accumulated. Although data obtained from JARE-27 to JARE-33 have already been processed and stored in MGD77 format, data starting with JARE-34 have remained unprocessed. We newly processed the data from JARE-34 to JARE-46 to obtain free-air gravity anomalies. To attain better quality, especially in the long wavelength gravity signals, we also applied drift corrections for all the data sets since JARE-27 by employing satellite derived gravity anomalies as a reference gravity field. This report summarizes the data processing and the status of the surface ship gravity data