SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Duvaleix-Treguer, Sabine; Hammoudi, Hakim; Rouached, Lamia; Soler, Louis-Georges.

The aim of this paper is to examine the effects of nutritional policies on the behavior of firms, particularly in terms of food quality and prices, and to assess the potential impacts of such policies from a public health point of view. We determine how new products that are nutritionally improved can emerge in a market where incumbent firms offer competing unhealthy products. We also highlight a non-intentional effect of such policies: if consumer heterogeneity is high, then an information policy may simultaneously provide health benefits to the population as a whole but worsen the health of consumers that are less aware of nutritional effects. For a given level of nutritional tax, we determine the optimal threshold that firms must meet to avoid taxation....

Does Britain or the United States Have the Right Gasoline Tax?

Palavras-chave: Nutrition policy; Product differentiation; Firms’ strategies; Taxation; Quality standards; Public health; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Health Economics and Policy; L15; I18; H23.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/116399

Parry, Ian W.H.; Small, Kenneth A..

This paper develops an analytical framework for assessing the second-best optimal level of gasoline taxation taking into account unpriced pollution, congestion, and accident externalities, and interactions with the broader fiscal system. We provide calculations of the optimal taxes for the US and the UK under a wide variety of parameter scenarios, with the gasoline tax substituting for a distorting tax on labor income. Under our central parameter values, the second-best optimal gasoline tax is $1.01/gal for the US and $1.34/gal for the UK. These values are moderately sensitive to alternative parameter assumptions. The congestion externality is the largest component in both nations, and the higher optimal tax for the UK is due mainly to a higher assumed...

Fiscal Interactions and the Case for Carbon Taxes over Grandfathered Carbon Permits

Palavras-chave: Gasoline tax; Pollution; Congestion; Accidents; Fiscal interactions; Public Economics; H21; H23; R48.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10461

Parry, Ian W.H..

This paper provides simple formulas for adjusting the costs of carbon taxes and tradable carbon permits to account for interactions with preexisting tax distortions in the labor market. Both policies reduce labor supply as they increase product prices and reduce real household wages; the resulting efficiency losses in the labor market can be substantial relative to partial equilibrium abatement costs. However, much of this added cost can be offset-and perhaps more than offset when additional distortions from the tax system are considered-if revenues from carbon taxes or auctioned permits are used to reduce distortionary taxes. Consequently, there can be a strong case on efficiency grounds for using carbon taxes or auctioned permits over grandfathered...

How Should Metropolitan Washington, DC, Finance Its Transportation Deficit?

Palavras-chave: Carbon taxes; Carbon permits; Fiscal interactions; Revenue recycling; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q28; H21; H23.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10509

Parry, Ian W.H..

It is widely perceived that projected public spending on transportation infrastructure in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area for the next 20 years will not be enough to halt, let alone reverse, the trend of increasing traffic congestion. Consequently, there has been much debate about how additional sources of local revenues might be raised to finance more transportation spending. This paper develops and implements an analytical framework for estimating the efficiency costs of raising $500 million per annum in local revenue from five possible sources. These sources are increasing labor taxes, property taxes, gasoline taxes, transit fares, and implementing congestion taxes. Our model incorporates congestion and pollution externalities, and it allows for...

Biological Carbon Sinks: Transaction Costs and Governance

Palavras-chave: Transportation; Taxes; Washington DC; Welfare cost; Public Economics; R48; H21; H23.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10552

van Kooten, G. Cornelis.

Activities that remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in forest and agricultural ecosystems can generate CO2-offset credits that can thus substitute for CO2 emissions reduction. Are biological CO2-uptake activities competitive with CO2 offsets from reduced fossil fuel use? In this paper, it is argued that transaction costs impose a formidable obstacle to direct substitution of carbon uptake offsets for emissions reduction in trading schemes, and that separate caps should be set for emissions reduction and sink-related activities. While a tax/subsidy scheme is preferred to emissions trading for incorporating biologically-generated CO2 offsets, contracts that focus on the activity and not the amount of carbon sequestered are most likely to lead to the...

Existe un conflicto entre la globalizacion del turismo y los recursos naturales?

Palavras-chave: Carbon sequestration; Transaction costs; Climate change; Environmental Economics and Policy; Land Economics/Use; Q54; Q23; Q42; H23; D23.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/45505

Font, Antoni Riers; Parrilla, Javier Capo; Tous, Teresa Palmer.

La globalización, así como el turismo internacional, son dos de los fenómenos económicos más analizados en los últimos años, tanto por su creciente importancia como por sus visibles efectos sobre la economía. La notable expansión del turismo tiene como origen, en gran parte, las mismas causas que explican la globalización económica, de ahí que, a menudo, se hable deglobalización turística. Uno de los argumentos más utilizados por los detractores de la globalización es su elevado impacto en términos ambientales. En este sentido, resulta obligado reflexionar sobre la existencia de un potencial conflicto entre el, cada vez mayor, desarrollo turístico y la conservación de los recursos naturales. Una cuestión ésta que adquiere especial importancia en el caso...

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Globalization; Tourism; Environmental Impacts; Management Tools of Natural Resources; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; F18; H23; L83; Q34.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/7994

The Optimal Climate Policy Portfolio when Knowledge Spills Across Sectors

Massetti, Emanuele; Nicita, Lea.

This paper studies the implications for climate policy of the interactions between environmental and knowledge externalities. Using a numerical analysis performed with the hybrid integrated assessment model WITCH, extended to include mutual spillovers between the energy and the non-energy sector, we show that the combination between environmental and knowledge externalities provides a strong rationale for implementing a portfolio of policies for both emissions reduction and the internalisation of knowledge externalities. Moreover, we show that implementing technology policy as a substitute for stabilisation policy is likely to increase global emissions.

Ancillary Benefits of Reduced Air Pollution in the United States from Moderate Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Policies in the Electricity Sector

Palavras-chave: Technical Change; Climate Change; Development; Innovation; Spillovers; Environmental Economics and Policy; C72; H23; Q25; Q28; O31; O41; Q54.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/92912

Burtraw, Dallas; Krupnick, Alan J.; Palmer, Karen L.; Paul, Anthony; Toman, Michael; Bloyd, Cary.

This paper considers how moderate actions to slow atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use also could reduce conventional air pollutants in the United States. The benefits that result would be "ancillary" to greenhouse gas abatement. Moreover, the benefits would tend to accrue locally and in the near term, while benefits from reduced climate change mostly accrue globally and over a time frame of several decades or longer. The previous literature suggests that changes in nitrogen oxides (NOx) would be the most important consequence of moderate carbon policies. We calculate these changes in a detailed electricity model linked to an integrated assessment framework to value changes in human health. A tax of $25 per metric ton of carbon...

Economics of Pollution Trading for SO2 and NOx

Palavras-chave: Climate change; Greenhouse gas; Ancillary benefits; Air pollution; Co-control benefits; Nitrogen oxides; Sulfur dioxide; Carbon dioxide; Particulates; Health; Environmental Economics and Policy; H23; I18; Q48.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10664

Burtraw, Dallas; Evans, David A.; Krupnick, Alan J.; Palmer, Karen L.; Toth, Russell.

For years economists have urged policymakers to use market-based approaches such as cap-and-trade programs or emission taxes to control pollution. The SO2 allowance market created by Title IV of the 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments represents the first real test of the wisdom of economists' advice. Subsequent urban and regional applications of NOx emission allowance trading took shape in the 1990s in the United States, culminating in a second large experiment in emission trading in the eastern United States that began in 2003. This paper provides an overview of the economic rationale for emission trading and a description of the major U.S. programs for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). We evaluate these programs along measures of...

Emissions Pricing, Spillovers, and Public Investment in Environmentally Friendly Technologies

Palavras-chave: Sulfur dioxide; Nitrogen oxides; Emission trading; Power plants; Air pollution; Environmental Economics and Policy; H23; Q25; Q28; D78.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10488

Fischer, Carolyn.

In a second-best world of below-optimal pollution pricing, the public return to R&D may be greater than under Pigouvian pricing, due to excess benefits of increasing abatement, or it may be lower, since private actors lack the incentives to take full advantage of the new, cleaner technologies. This paper uses a simple model to demonstrate the interaction between environmental policies, R&D externalities, and the social return to innovation. The results indicate that strong public support for innovation is only justified if at least a moderate emissions policy is in place and spillover effects are significant. Furthermore, in most cases, policy constraints that limit regulatory burdens tend to further limit the scope for public support, even when...

Delayed Action and Uncertain Targets. How Much Will Climate Policy Cost?

Palavras-chave: Emissions price; Technological innovation; Spillovers; R&D policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q28; O38; H23.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10648

Bosetti, Valentina; Carraro, Carlo; Sgobbi, Alessandra; Tavoni, Massimo.

Despite the growing concern about actual on-going climate change, there is little consensus about the scale and timing of actions needed to stabilise the concentrations of greenhouse gases. Many countries are unwilling to implement effective mitigation strategies, at least in the short-term, and no agreement on an ambitious global stabilisation target has yet been reached. It is thus likely that some, if not all countries, will delay the adoption of effective climate policies. This delay will affect the cost of future policy measures that will be required to abate an even larger amount of emissions. What additional economic cost of mitigation measures will this delay imply? At the same time, the uncertainty surrounding the global stabilisation target to be...

Market-Based Instruments for the Optimal Control of Invasive Insect Species: B. Tabaci in Arizona

Palavras-chave: Uncertainty; Climate Policy; Stabilisation Costs; Delayed Action; Environmental Economics and Policy; C72; H23; Q25; Q28.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/44219

Richards, Timothy J.; Ellsworth, Peter; Tronstad, Russell; Naranjo, Steve.

Invasive insect species represent perhaps one of the most significant potential sources of economic risk to U.S. agricultural production. Private control of invasive insect species is likely to be insufficient due to negative externality and weaker-link public good problems. In this study, we compare a system of Pigouvian taxes with tradable permits for invasive species control. While the emissions control literature shows that taxes are preferred to permits under cost uncertainty, invasive species control involves correlated cost and benefit uncertainty, so we expect a quantity-based system to be preferred. Monte Carlo simulations of optimal steady-state outcomes confirm our expectations.

Can the lack of coordination between an agricultural authority and a water agency generate inefficiencies?

Palavras-chave: Externalities; Invasive species; Optimal control; Permits; Spatial-temporal model; Taxes.; Environmental Economics and Policy; Public Economics; Risk and Uncertainty; H23; L51; Q28; Q57..

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61189

Martin, Elsa; Stahn, Hubert.

The point of departure of this work is the situation occurring in the Crau area (South-East of France). In this region, organic farmers use surface water for irrigation and excess water percolates into an aquifer that is used as a source for local residents. In contrast to the standard framework, agricultural production thus increases groundwater levels. In this paper, using a dynamic model, we derive the myopic and socially optimal food and water consumption paths. The first aim is to bring to the fore that an intervention is needed and that, in such a specific case, the environment can be protected thanks to some "good" production incentives. We then analyze the problem of coordination that can occur when two distinct local authorities - an agricultural...

To Till or Not to Till? Social Profitability of No-Till Technology

Palavras-chave: Externalities; Agricultural policy; Water policy; Coordination of policies; Environmental Economics and Policy; H23; Q18; Q28..

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91811

Lankoski, Jussi E.; Ollikainen, Markku; Uusitalo, Pekka.

We study from economic and environmental angles under what conditions no-till technology is socially optimal. We demonstrate theoretically that if yield under no-till is equal to or greater than under conventional technology, its adoption is socially optimal provided that herbicide runoff damages under both technologies are close enough. Finnish data shows, however, that only in one case out of three no-till provides higher social returns. In terms of nutrient runoffs no-till performs better than conventional technology. No-till reduces surface runoffs of nitrogen by 58%, and surface runoffs of particulate phosphorus by 70% relative to conventional technology, but causes more than three times higher dissolved phosphorus surface runoffs. The amount of total...

Optimal Soil Management and Environmental Policy

Palavras-chave: Nutrient runoffs; Herbicide runoffs; Buffer strips; Agri-environmental policy; Crop Production/Industries; Q16; Q18; H23.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24755

Oueslati, Walid.

This paper studies the effects of environmental policy on the farmers soil optimal management. We consider a dynamic economic model of soil erosion where the intensity use of inputs allows the farmer to control soil losses. Therefore, inputs use induces a pollution which is accentuated by the soil fragility. We show, at the steady state, that environmental tax induces a more conservative farmer behavior for soil, but in some cases it can exacerbates pollution. These effects can be moderated when farmer introduces abatement activity.

River Sharing and Water Trade

Palavras-chave: Soil erosion; Pollution; Environmental policy; Optimal soil conservation; Abatement activities; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q12; Q24; Q28; Q52; H23.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24533

Ansink, Erik; Gengenbach, Michael; Weikard, Hans-Peter.

We analyse river sharing games in which a set of agents located along a river shares the available water. Using coalition theory, we find that the potential benefits of water trade may not be sufficient to make all agents in the river cooperate and acknowledge property rights as a prerequisite for trade. Specifically, a complete market for river water may not emerge if there are four or more agents along the river. Instead, a partial market may emerge where a subset of agents trades river water, with the possibility that other agents take some of the river water that passes their territory.

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: River Sharing; Water Trade; Market Emergence; Property Rights; Coalition Stability; Environmental Economics and Policy; C72; D74; H23; Q25.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/122860

How Large Are the Welfare Costs of Tax Competition?

Parry, Ian W.H..

Previous literature has shown that competition among regional governments may lead to inefficiently low levels of capital taxation, because governments do not take account of the external benefits of capital flight to other regions. However, the fiscal distortion is smaller the more elastic the supply of capital (for the region bloc), if governments are not perfectly competitive, or they behave in part as a revenue-maximizing Leviathan. There has been very little empirical work on the magnitude of the welfare effects of fiscal competition. This paper presents extensive calculations of the welfare effects using a model that incorporates the possibility of Leviathan behavior, strategic behavior by governments, monopsony power in factor markets, and a wide...

Governance and Environmental Policy Integration in Europe: What Can we learn from the EU Emission Trading Scheme?

Palavras-chave: Fiscal competition; Tax harmonization; Welfare costs; Leviathan; Strategic behavior; Public Economics; H73; H21; H23.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10848

Sgobbi, Alessandra; Buchner, Barbara K.; Catenacci, Michela.

The European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is a landmark environmental policy, representing the world's first large-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) trading program. The coexistence of state actors and top-down processes with stakeholders participation and flexible abatement strategies make the EU ETS a powerful instrument of cross sectoral integration of environmental concerns, which benefits from a high level of interaction among the actors involved and a significant degree of information exchange. However, the same peculiarities of the system make it difficult to identify a correspondence with a single mode of governance. The EU ETS shows characteristics of the decision making processes and institutions engaged, the tools and instruments used as...

Impact of Revised CO2 Growth Projections for China on Global Stabilization Goals

Palavras-chave: Environmental Policy Integration; Climate Change; Emission Trading; EU Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; H23; F53; Q28.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9544

Blanford, Geoffrey J.; Richels, Richard G.; Rutherford, Thomas F..

Recent growth in carbon dioxide emissions from China’s energy sector has exceeded expectations. In a major US government study of future emissions released in 2007 (1), participating models appear to have substantially underestimated the near-term rate of increase in China’s emissions. We present a recalibration of one of those models to be consistent with both current observations and historical development patterns. The implications of the new specification for the feasibility of commonly discussed stabilization targets, particularly when considering incomplete global participation, are profound. Unless China’s emissions begin to depart soon from their (newly projected) business-as-usual path, stringent stabilization goals may be unattainable. The...