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

Costantini, Valeria; Crespi, Francesco.

The pollution haven hypothesis affirms that an open market regime will encourage the flow of low technology polluting industries toward developing countries, due to potential comparative advantages related to low environmental standards. In contrast, the hypothesis suggested by Porter and van der Linde claims for a competitive dynamic behaviour by innovating firms, allowing a global diffusion of environmental-friendly technologies. Environmental regulation may represent a relevant mechanism through which technological change is induced. In this way countries subject to more stringent environmental regulations may become net exporters of environmental technologies. This paper provides new evidence on the evolution of export flows of environmental...

Environmental Regulations, Market Structure and Technological Progress in Renewable Energy Technology — A Panel Data Study on Wind Turbines

Palavras-chave: Environmental Regulation; Trade and Environment; Energy Technologies; Environmental Economics and Policy; F18; F21; Q43; Q55; Q56.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9550

Rubbelke, Dirk T.G.; Weiss, Pia.

We study the impact of environmental regulations on the patent activities for wind turbines between 1980 and 2008. We explicitly control for energy market liberalisation and take a potential interaction between liberalisation and policy instruments into account. We find a strong and highly significant effect of environmental tax revenues, which we regard as a proxy for the extent to which energy prices changed in favour of renewable energies, as well as foreign demand for wind turbines on innovation activities. In addition, we find that price-based policy instruments are more effective in fostering innovations in the wind turbine technology when energy markets are fully open to competition. In contrast, non-price-based policy instruments such as grants or...

Environmentally-Oriented Innovative Strategies and Firm Performances in Services. Micro-Evidence from Italy

Palavras-chave: Environmental Policy; Renewable Energy; Market Structure; Wind Turbines; Innovation; Patents; Technological Change; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; Q55; Q58; O34; O38.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/102569

Cainelli, Giulio; Mazzanti, Massimiliano; Zoboli, Roberto.

This paper aims at analysing the role of the environment in innovative strategies based on firm economic performance indicators such as employment, turnover, and labour productivity growth. We exploit a unique dataset of 773 Italian service firms with 20 or more employees comprising 1993-1995 CIS II data on firm innovation strategic motivations and 1995-1998 data on employment, turnover, and labour productivity from the System of the Enterprise Account (SEA). We specify a Gibrat-like empirical model in which the covariates include firm strategies (innovation and environmental), and a set of other explanatory variables and controls. Our econometric findings show a negative link between environmental motivations and growth in employment and turnover and a...

Factor-Augmenting Technical Change: An Empirical Assessment

Palavras-chave: Services; Firm Environmental Strategies; Firm Growth; CIS Survey; Innovation; Environmental Economics and Policy; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; C23; D21; O32; Q55.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/6922

De Cian, Enrica.

Starting from a system of factor demands, an empirical model that allows estimating factor-augmenting technical change is derived. Factor-augmenting technical change is defined as the improvement in factor productivities that can occur either exogenously or endogenously, with changes in other macroeconomic variables. This paper provides additional estimates for the substitution possibilities among inputs and it offers new empirical evidence on the direction and sources of factor-augmenting technical change, an issue that has not yet been explored by the empirical literature on growth determinants. The empirical findings suggest that technical change is directed. Technical change tends to be more energy-saving than capital- and labour-saving. Both R&D...

Genetically Engineering Crops for a Sustainable Agriculture

Palavras-chave: Factor-Augmenting Technical Change; Technology Spillovers; Panel Data; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; C3; O47; Q55; Q56.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50403

Ervin, David E.; Welsh, Rick.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Crop Production/Industries; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q16; Q18; Q24; Q25; Q55; Q56; Q57.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/94765

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation through Agriculture

Schneider, Uwe A.; Kumar, Pushpam.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Environmental Economics and Policy; Q10; Q55; Q58.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/94500

HYBRID RICE AND ITS IMPACT ON FOOD SECURITY AND THE PATTERN OF GLOBAL PRODUCTION AND TRADE

Durand-Morat, Alvaro; Wailes, Eric J.; Chavez, Eddie C..

The hybrid rice technology is one of the many ways in which productivity of scarce resources devoted to rice production could be enhanced, with the consequent alleviation of food insecurity. The findings of this study show that the hybrid rice technology has so far made some sizable contributions to per-capita availability of rice in adopting countries with marginal spillover effects to other regions. However, at forecasted population growths, a massive intensification of adoption would be needed to maintain per-capita availability of rice at baseline levels. But even with adoption rates climbing significantly, much higher equilibrium prices are expected, which will represent a challenge for the hungry in many parts of the world. While hybrid rice has the...

Immigrant Workers and Technological Change in U.S. Agriculture: A Profit Maximization Approach of Induced Innovation

Palavras-chave: Hybrid rice; Food security; Technology change; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Security and Poverty; International Relations/Trade; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Q16; Q55.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/98845

Napasintuwong, Orachos; Emerson, Robert D..

This paper analyzes changes in U.S. agricultural technology during 1960-1999, emphasizing the role of immigrant workers on farm mechanization. The rates and directions of biased technological change based on the induced innovation theory are compared before and after the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 which was intended to reduce employment of unauthorized workers. Unlike previous studies of induced innovation, this paper develops a new theoretical and empirical model of induced innovation using a profit maximization approach. The contribution of the profit maximization approach is that it allows changes in output combinations as a result of technological change. We found that the technology was biased against hired and...

Improving the Energy-Efficiency of Buildings: The Impact of Environmental Policy on Technological Innovation

Palavras-chave: Immigrant workers; Farm mechanization; Technological change; Induced innovation; Profit function model; Labor and Human Capital; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; J43; J6; O3; Q55.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25505

Noailly, Joelle.

This paper investigates the impact of alternative environmental policy instruments on technological innovations aiming to improve energy-efficiency in buildings. The empirical analysis focuses on three main types of policy instruments, namely regulatory energy standards in buildings codes, energy taxes as captured by energy prices and specific governmental energy R&D expenditures. Technological innovation is measured using patent counts for specific technologies related to energy-efficiency in buildings (e.g. insulation, high-efficiency boilers, energy-saving lightings). The estimates for seven European countries over the 1989-2004 period imply that a strengthening of 10% of the minimum insulation standards for walls would increase the likelihood to...

Inducing Low-Carbon Investment in the Electric Power Industry through a Price Floor for Emissions Trading

Palavras-chave: Innovation; Technological Change; Patents; Energy-Efficiency; Buildings; Environmental Policy; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; O31; O34; Q55.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/94777

Brauneis, Alexander; Loretz, Michael; Roland, Mestel; Palan, Stefan.

Uncertainty about long-term climate policy is a major driving force in the evolution of the carbon market price. Since this price enters the investment decision process of regulated firms, this uncertainty increases the cost of capital for investors and might deter invest-ments into new technologies at the company level. We apply a real options-based approach to assess the impact of climate change policy in the form of a constant or growing price floor on investment decisions of a single firm in a competitive environment. This firm has the opportunity to switch from a high-carbon “dirty” technology to a low-carbon “clean” technology. Using Monte Carlo simulation and dynamic programming techniques for real market data, we determine the optimal CO2 price...

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: Carbon price; Price floor; Technological change; Investment decision; Real option approach; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; D81; O38; Q55.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/119096

Integrating Wind Power in Electricity Grids: An Economic Analysis

Liu, Jia; van Kooten, G. Cornelis; Pitt, Lawrence.

As a renewable energy source, wind power is gaining popularity as a favoured alternative to fossil fuel, nuclear and hydro power generation. In Europe, countries are required to achieve 15% of their energy consumption from wind by 2010 as the EU strives to meet its Kyoto obligations. Wind power is considered to be environmentally friendly and low cost. While environmental friendliness has come under scrutiny because wind turbines continue to pose a hazard to birds, are visually unappealing, affect the uses of land and change air flows, the purpose of this paper is to examine the question of its presumed low cost and effectiveness at reducing CO2 emissions by replacing power generated from fossil fuels. To do so, we develop a mathematical programming model...

Intrafirm Effects on Water Conservation in Agriculture

Palavras-chave: Renewable energy; Wind and nuclear power; Economics of power generation; Environmental Economics and Policy; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; C61; Q40; Q54; Q55.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/37010

Moreno, Georgina.

Conservation technology adoption behavior is frequently analyzed at the smallest unit of production to capture important heterogeneity among adopters. Conclusions about firm-level decisions are drawn from these microunit outcomes. However, there may be significant intrafirm interactions that create a dependence among the microunits. This paper tests and quantifies these effects. Using a unique dataset of agricultural water use in California, this paper finds significant differences in water price elasticities of conservation technology adoption between the standard model and models that accounts for the intrafirm interactions.

Invention and Transfer of Climate Change Mitigation Technologies on a Global Scale: A Study Drawing on Patent Data

Palavras-chave: Conservation; Technology adoption; Agriculture; Water resources; Irrigation intrafirm behavior; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; Q16; Q25; Q28; Q55; L23.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/19166

Dechezlepretre, Antoine; Glachant, Matthieu; Hascic, Ivan; Johnstone, Nick; Meniere, Yann.

Accelerating the development of less GHG intensive technologies and promoting their global diffusion - in particular in fast-growing emerging economies - is imperative in achieving the transition to a low-carbon economy. Consequently, technology is at the core of current discussions about the post-Kyoto regime. The purpose of this study is to fuel this discussion by providing an in-depth analysis of the geographic distribution of climate mitigation inventions since 1978 and their international diffusion on a global scale. We use the EPO/OECD World Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT) which includes patents from 81 national and international patent offices. Note that the Least Developed Countries patent a negligible number of inventions, meaning that the...

Irrigation Technology Adoption Under Factor Price Uncertainty: Groundwater- Irrigated Production in Nebraska, 1960 -- 2005

Palavras-chave: Climate Change; Mitigation Technologies; Patent Data; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q5; Q55.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/54361

Savage, Jeff; Brozovic, Nicholas.

The development of groundwater-irrigated production technologies, fed by water from the Ogallala Aquifer, facilitated the development of agriculture in the High Plains region of the United States that began during the 1960s. The current rate of pumping for irrigation in the region is causing the aquifer to be depleted in many areas, which is cause for concern from a socioeconomic and environmental standpoint. The goal of this paper is to assess the factors that affect the decision to adopt groundwater-irrigated production by farmers, in the presence of risk differentiated by heterogeneous farmland quality and groundwater depth. A binary choice model of adoption is estimated for Nebraska, from 1960 – 2005. The results suggest that farmers consider climate...

Issues, impacts, and prospects of the first transgenic crops tolerant to a herbicide. The case of glyphosate-tolerant soybean in the USA

Palavras-chave: Irrigation; Technology Adoption; Risk; Ogallala Aquifer; Crop Production/Industries; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Q15; Q32; Q55.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49585

Bonny, Sylvie.

IAAE 2009 International Conference

Land Degradation in Ethiopia: What do Stoves Have to Do with it?

Palavras-chave: Genetically modified crop; GMO; Biotechnology; Agro-economic impact; Environmental impact; Sustainability; Soybean; Pesticide; Weed; Prospects; Herbicide; Glyphosate; Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; Environmental Economics and Policy; Production Economics; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Q55; O3; O13; O51.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51449

Gebreegziabher, Zenebe; van Kooten, G. Cornelis; van Soest, Daan P..

Land degradation is a particularly vexing problem in developing countries; as forests are depleted, crop residues and dung are used for fuel, which degrades cropland. In Ethiopia, the government encourages tree planting and adoption of energy efficient stove technologies to mitigate land degradation. We use data from 200 households in Tigrai, Ethiopia to examine the adoption of new stove technologies. Adoption is an economic decision, related to savings in time spent collecting fuel and cooking, and cattle required for everyday purposes. Results indicate adopters of efficient stoves reduce respective wood and dung use by 68 and 316 kg per month.

Linking Reduced Deforestation and a Global Carbon Market: Impacts on Costs, Financial Flows, and Technological Innovation

Palavras-chave: Land degradation; Technology adoption; Africa; Ethiopia; Environmental Economics and Policy; Land Economics/Use; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; O55; Q24; Q55.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/37026

Bosetti, Valentina; Lubowski, Ruben N.; Golub, Alexander; Markandya, Anil.

Discussions over tropical deforestation are currently at the forefront of climate change policy negotiations at national, regional, and international levels. This paper analyzes the effects of linking Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) to a global market for greenhouse gas emission reductions. We supplement a global climate-energy-economy model with alternative cost estimates for reducing deforestation emissions in order to examine a global program for stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations at 550 ppmv of CO2 equivalent. Introducing REDD reduces global forestry emissions through 2050 by 20-22% in the Brazil-only case and by 64-88% in the global REDD scenarios. At the same time, REDD lowers the total costs of the...

Livestock based livelihoods and pathways out of poverty: the case of smallholder farmers in Bangladesh

Palavras-chave: Carbon market; Climate change; Innovation; Mitigation; Policy costs; Offsets; Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD); Technological change; Tropical deforestation; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q23; Q24; Q42; Q52; Q54; Q55.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/52544

Akter, Shaheen.

This paper evaluates livelihoods of smallholder livestock farmers who were beneficiaries of a poverty alleviation programme involving longer term intervention towards building the strength of stakeholders such as government department, NGOs, village organisations and women beneficiaries. Data are drawn from a survey of 400 women farmers in 2006 and 2008. These farmers have been the members of BRAC, a well known NGO in Bangladesh. Poverty profiles, transition matrices and regression analysis drawn from asset-base framework are used to analyze data. A number of key questions related to poverty transition through livestock based activities, heterogeneity in livelihood choice and its impact on household welfare, extent of poverty reduction using different...

Modeling International Trends in Energy Efficiency and Carbon Emissions

Palavras-chave: Poverty; Women and livestock; Livelihood Strategies; Asset-base Framework; Bangladesh; Food Security and Poverty; O1; O3; Q13; Q55.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/108935

Modelling the Global Diffusion of Energy Efficiency and Low Carbon Technology

Stern, David I..

This study uses a stochastic production frontier to model energy efficiency trends, in 85 countries over a 37 year period. No structure is imposed on technological change over time, although differences in technology level across the countries are modelled as a stochastic function of explanatory variables. These variables are selected by a literature survey and a theoretical model of energy-efficient technology choice. An improvement in a country’s energy efficiency is measured as a reduction in energy intensity, while holding constant that economy’s mix of inputs and outputs. All other things remaining constant, the country using the least energy per unit output is on the global best-practice frontier. The model is used to derive decompositions of...

Tipo: Report

Palavras-chave: Energy; Efficiency; Carbon; Emissions; Technological change; Between estimator; Environmental Economics and Policy; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; O13; O33; O47; Q43; Q54; Q55; Q56.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/94950