JEEM 2022年第113卷目录

全文链接：

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-environmental-economics-and-management/vol/113/suppl/C

Regular papers

Using contests to promote coordinated control of invasive species: An experimental evaluation

Stefan Meyer, Paulo Santos, Chitpasong Kousonsavath

Estimating the value of threatened species abundance dynamics

David J. Lewis, David M. Kling, Steven J. Dundas, Daniel K. Lew

Water scarcity and social conflict

Kerstin Unfried, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Tilman Poser

A market for snow: Modeling winter recreation patterns under current and future climate

Bryan Parthum, Peter Christensen

Experimental games in transdisciplinary research: The potential importance of individual payments

Lara Bartels, Thomas Falk, Vishwambhar Duche, Björn Vollan

Air pollution and child development in India

Anca Balietti, Souvik Datta, Stefanija Veljanoska

Unilaterally optimal climate policy and the green paradox

Gilbert Kollenbach, Mark Schopf

Europe beyond coal – An economic and climate impact assessment

Christoph Böhringer, Knut Einar Rosendahl

Distributional policy impacts, WTP-WTA disparities, and the Kaldor-Hicks tests in benefit-cost analysis

Zachary Steven Brown

Low-income energy efficiency programs and energy consumption

Pedro I. Hancevic, Hector H. Sandoval

Electricity interconnection with intermittent renewables

Yuting Yang

The effect of local monitoring on nuclear safety and compliance: Evidence from France

Romain Bizet, Petyo Bonev, François Lévêque

Emission pricing, emission rebound, and the coverage scope of incomplete regulations

Haoyang Li, Nan Wu

Stability of international fisheries agreements under stock growth uncertainty

Kwabena Bediako, Bruno Nkuiya

Notes and short papers

Risk, informal institutions, and index insurance

Francis Annan, Bikramaditya Datta

Using contests to promote coordinated control of invasive species: An experimental evaluation

Stefan Meyer    Paulo Santos    Chitpasong Kousonsavath

Abstract：We evaluate the effect of competing for a prize on the coordinated control of invasive species in the presence of externalities using a field experiment. We offered prizes (merit, monetary and a combination of both) to the best performer in a contest aimed at promoting the control of rodent pests, an invasive species that is responsible for large losses in stored rice, in both our context (Lao PDR) and more generally in Asia. Only monetary prizes are capable of promoting behavioral change, with relatively large effects: households in villages where prizes were offered reported losses in storage that are 25% lower than in control villages. The effect is a non-linear function of prize, with only intermediate size prizes leading to reductions in storage losses. Spillovers matter greatly, with non-participants in the contest benefiting almost as much as participants, highlighting the importance of externalities. Avoided losses are large enough to drive a reduction in rice prices in seasonally isolated markets.

Estimating the value of threatened species abundance dynamics

David J. Lewis    David M. Kling    Steven J. Dundas    Daniel K. Lew

Abstract：Conservation spending aimed at helping threatened species lacks information on the marginal benefits of increases in the abundance of threatened species that occur at different points in time. This paper develops an empirical approach combining a choice experiment and a structural model to estimate two key parameters in a dynamic willingness-to-pay function: the current marginal benefit of increases in threatened species abundance and the rate implicitly used to discount future marginal benefits. An application to a threatened Coho salmon along the Oregon coast illustrates the method. We find that the public values a one-year marginal increase in Coho abundance of 1000 fish from $0.08 to $0.19 per household with a discount rate for future increments in salmon abundance of 2.1%. We apply these results to an instantaneous and permanent marginal increase in salmon abundance of 0.79% resulting from a policy change in one watershed and show this marginal change can generate over $63 million in present value of social marginal benefits to the greater Pacific Northwest region. Results provide direct evidence that conservation activities that achieve immediate abundance gains for a threatened species (or prevent immediate losses) produce significantly higher benefits than activities that gradually achieve the same abundance gains.

Water scarcity and social conflict

Kerstin Unfried    Krisztina Kis-Katos    Tilman Poser

Abstract：Climate change and the increasing demand of water intensify the global water cycle, altering the distribution of water in space and time. This is expected to result in wet areas getting wetter and dry areas getting drier. As water is key to life, water scarcity is likely to provoke conflict. Using grid-cell data for Africa and central America over the years of 2002 to 2017, we provide empirical evidence for a link between the likelihood of local conflict and water mass declines. We measure water mass anomalies based on changes in Earth’s gravity field recorded by GRACE and link them to social conflict events recorded in the SCAD data. To account for potential endogeneity in the demand for water, we instrument water mass change by the interaction of the number of drought months per year with yearly global average temperature changes. Our results show that a one standard deviation decrease in local water mass that follows from droughts and an intensifying water cycle more than triple the local likelihood of social conflict. Access to groundwater and surface water help to mitigate these effects substantially. Water demand factors contribute to a quicker depletion of water mass in case of drought shocks, but do not intensify the link between water decline and conflict itself.

A market for snow: Modeling winter recreation patterns under current and future climate

Bryan Parthum    Peter Christensen

Abstract：Throughout the winter months across the globe, mountain communities and snow-enthusiasts alike anxiously monitor ever-changing snowpack conditions. We model the behavioral response to this climate amenity by pairing a unique panel of 12 million short-term property rental transactions with daily local weather, daily local snowpack, and daily local snowfall in every major ski resort market across the United States. Matching the spatial and temporal variation in the level of the amenity with that of related market transactions, we derive market-specific demand elasticities, explicitly accounting for substitution, to model recreation patterns throughout a typical season. Lastly, we combine downscaled projections of local snowpack under future climate scenarios to estimate within and across season trends in visitation during mid and late-century conditions. Our model predicts reductions in snow-related visitation of –40% to –60%, almost twice as large as previous estimates suggest. This translates to a lower-bound on the annual willingness to pay to avoid reductions in snowpack between $1.23 billion (RCP4.5) and $2.05 billion (RCP8.5) by the end of the century.

Experimental games in transdisciplinary research: The potential importance of individual payments

Lara Bartels    Thomas Falk    Vishwambhar Duche    Björn Vollan

Abstract：Laboratory experiments in social sciences are a powerful tool with which to study causal mechanisms in human interactions. Over the past several years, experimental games have been applied increasingly in transdisciplinary research in natural resource management with a strong purpose to develop capacity to promote learning and behavioral change. Yet, few studies have evaluated the potential of different experimental game designs to promote collective action outside of experiments. In a framed field experiment on water management in rural India, we compared within-game behavior and collective action outside the game between individuals who received individual payments and those who did not. Our results show little evidence for different behavior in the game. However, we find some evidence that our experimental game induced real-world changes compared to a control group without game intervention and that this change is slightly more likely to occur when individual payments are used.

Air pollution and child development in India

Anca Balietti    Souvik Datta    Stefanija Veljanoska

Abstract：In this paper, we study the impact of air pollution on child growth in India. We rely on wind direction to capture quasi-random variation in three main criteria air pollutants. We show that an increase in the average concentration of fine particulate matter by one standard deviation is accountable for almost 5 and 2.4 percentage points of stunting and severe stunting rates, respectively. We also find that ozone and carbon monoxide impact weight-related outcomes. Stunting has critical long-term health and economic consequences; through its impact on stunting, pollution exacerbates the height premium in earnings, with girls being more adversely affected than boys in India.

Unilaterally optimal climate policy and the green paradox

Gilbert Kollenbach    Mark Schopf

Abstract：Consider a Hotelling model with exploration investments, a backstop technology and two groups of countries, a climate coalition and a free-riding fringe.

If the coalition is price taker in the fossil fuel market, a higher marginal climate damage leads to a reduction of the coalition’s cumulative fuel consumption, which reduces the fuel price and, thus, induces carbon leakage. If the coalition is sufficiently small or its energy demand is sufficiently price sensitive, both the initial extraction and the cumulative discounted climate damages decrease (no weak/strong green paradox). This also applies if exploration investments are sufficiently productive, so that a lower fuel price leads to a considerably lower total extraction. If the coalition acts strategically in the fossil fuel market, it accounts for terms-of-trade and carbon-leakage effects. Then, a higher marginal climate damage can lead to an increase of the coalition’s cumulative fuel consumption, which prevents a weak green paradox, while a strong green paradox never occurs.

In an empirically calibrated economy, we show that a strong green paradox can occur without a weak green paradox and vice versa with a price-taking coalition. With a strategically acting coalition, a weak green paradox can be part of a unilaterally optimal policy reaction.

Europe beyond coal – An economic and climate impact assessment

Christoph Böhringer    Knut Einar Rosendahl

Abstract：Several European countries have decided to phase out coal power generation. Emissions from electricity generation are already regulated by the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), and in some countries like Germany the phaseout of coal will be accompanied with cancellation of emissions allowances. In this paper we examine the consequences of phasing out coal, for CO2 emissions, the electricity sector, and the broader economy. We show analytically how the welfare impacts for a phaseout region depend on i) whether and how allowances are canceled, ii) whether other countries join phaseout policies, and iii) terms-of-trade effects in the ETS market. Based on numerical simulations with a computable general equilibrium model for the European economy, we quantify the economic and environmental impacts of alternative phaseout scenarios, considering both unilateral and multilateral phaseouts. We find that terms-of-trade effects in the ETS market play an important role for the welfare implications across EU member states. For Germany, coal phaseout combined with unilateral cancellation of allowances is found to be welfare-improving if the German citizens value CO2 emissions reductions at 65 Euro per ton or more.

Distributional policy impacts, WTP-WTA disparities, and the Kaldor-Hicks tests in benefit-cost analysis

Zachary Steven Brown

Abstract：I examine how inequality in the distribution of income and a quasi-fixed good (e.g. environmental quality) can affect the disparity between aggregate willingness to accept (WTA) and willingness to pay (WTP) for policies that induce joint, nonmarginal and heterogeneous changes to income and the quasi-fixed good. These disparities can generate divergent conclusions from benefit-cost analysis (BCA). With Cobb-Douglas preferences, I show that greater inequality in policy impacts to the quasi-fixed good generally increases the range of conflicting conclusions from BCA using the Kaldor criterion (compensating variation) versus the Hicks criterion (equivalent variation). In two examples, I show that for any set of impacts to the quasi-fixed good there exists a degree of inequality in which the Kaldor-Hicks tests disagree. This disagreement arises because, with inequality, seemingly marginal policy changes can become nonmarginal when concentrated among marginalized or privileged groups, which can widen the gap between aggregate WTP and WTA. With CES preferences, when the goods are complements, WTA may be infinite, and when they are substitutes, budget constraints attenuate WTP: Both effects push the Kaldor-Hicks tests in opposing directions. I conclude that greater inequality increases the relevance of questioning whether to elicit WTP or WTA in nonmarket valuation for BCA.

Low-income energy efficiency programs and energy consumption

Pedro I. Hancevic    Hector H. Sandoval

Abstract：Low-income energy efficiency programs have become a major component of cities’ energy policy, with 49 out of 51 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. offering one. This paper uses data from Gainesville Regional Utility to quantify the impacts of the housing investment done by its Low-income Energy Efficiency Program Plus (LEEP Plus) on energy consumption. Our results show that LEEP Plus does not affect natural gas consumption but reduces electricity consumption by approximately 7%, with greater savings occurring in the summer and winter. The effect on electricity consumption is significant to a variety of robustness checks and remains for at least 24 months after the completion of energy efficiency upgrades. We also measure some relevant heterogeneous effects, one of which is the breakdown of the air-conditioning-related investments, the main energy efficiency improvement under the LEEP Plus program. Finally, we evaluate the energy savings in monetary terms considering the private cost changes and the social cost changes. In both cases, the associated energy savings are not enough to offset the investment costs.

Electricity interconnection with intermittent renewables

Yuting Yang

Abstract：Electricity interconnection has been recognized as a way to mitigate carbon emissions by dispatching more efficient electricity production and accommodating the growing integration of renewables. I analyze the impact of electricity interconnection in the presence of intermittent renewables, such as wind and solar power, on the equilibrium energy mix and carbon emissions under a Pigouvian carbon price using a two-country model. I find that interconnection decreases investments in renewable capacity and exacerbates carbon emissions if the carbon price is low. Conversely, interconnection increases renewable capacity and reduces carbon emissions for a high carbon price. Moreover, I identify the insurance benefit of increased interconnection and how it depends on the correlation of renewables in the two countries. I calibrate the model using data from the European Union electricity market and simulate expanding interconnection between Germany–Poland and France–Spain. The simulation shows that achieving the EU2030 interconnection target increases total carbon emissions at a carbon price of 100€/tCO2.

The effect of local monitoring on nuclear safety and compliance: Evidence from France

Romain Bizet    Petyo Bonev    François Lévêque

Abstract：We estimate the effect of local monitoring and information disclosure on safety and compliance with self-reporting standards in the French nuclear power industry. We use a novel dataset on deviations from safety, radiological and environmental standards recorded in the French nuclear fleet since 1978. We find that local monitoring and information disclosure increase compliance substantially. However, we fail to find any effect on safety in the short run.

Emission pricing, emission rebound, and the coverage scope of incomplete regulations

Haoyang Li    Nan Wu

Abstract：This paper studies the emissions pricing of incomplete regulations when accurate firm-level information is unavailable. In an economy with monopolistically competitive heterogeneous firms, the equilibrium can be sufficiently characterized by an aggregate statistic, which we call the “coverage scope”. Given the coverage scope, emissions leakage to the unregulated firms results in a “U-shaped” relationship between the aggregate emissions and emissions price. As the coverage scope expands, the second-best emissions price increases. Firm heterogeneity and market power, the two defining features of the monopolistically competitive economy, affect emissions pricing differently. While both of them affect the second-best emissions price indirectly through coverage scope, market power has an additional direct effect. As a result, the optimal emissions price does not always decrease in market power, which contrasts the traditional wisdom on emissions pricing under complete regulations. A multi-sector model is numerically simulated using parameters for five Chinese manufacturing sectors to be incorporated into a proposed national carbon emissions pricing program. Quantitatively, the second-best price varies substantially with coverage scope and market conditions.

Stability of international fisheries agreements under stock growth uncertainty

Kwabena Bediako    Bruno Nkuiya

Abstract：Scientific evidence reveals that renewable resource stock dynamics are subject to uncertainty due to changes in environmental conditions. Despite its critical impacts on management, little is known about the effects of such uncertainty on the formation of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs). In this paper, we design a dynamic stock recruitment framework to examine this issue in a common pool setting. We find that stock growth uncertainty critically affects equilibrium behaviors under both open loop membership and dynamic membership. For instance, we delineate conditions under which uncertainty induces full non-cooperation in equilibrium. Strategic behaviors may also shift equilibrium outcomes from full non-cooperation under deterministic conditions to full cooperation under uncertainty when countries anticipate a small environmental variability. Moreover, strategic interactions to extract the resource stock may lead to higher individual payoffs under uncertainty. We also outline the differences in equilibrium responses of membership, harvest, and payoff to mean preserving spreads under both open loop membership and dynamic membership.

Risk, informal institutions, and index insurance

Francis Annan    Bikramaditya Datta

Abstract：The question of how informal institutions interact with formal markets is a central economic question, particularly in developing countries. We analyze this issue for the demand of an innovative weather insurance product. Specifically, when does informal risk-sharing act as barrier or support to the take-up of index-based insurance? The presence of an individual in a risk-sharing arrangement reduces her risk aversion, termed “Effective Risk Aversion”— a sufficient statistic for index decision making. Our analysis establishes that such reduction in risk aversion can lead to either reduced or increased take up of index insurance. These results provide alternative explanations for two empirical puzzles: unexpectedly low takeup for index insurance and demand being particularly low for the most risk averse. From a policy perspective, our results highlight how the combination of premium subsidies and informal networks might promote take-up and how this might eventually facilitate better protection against weather risks.

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编辑：代安澜

审核：龙文进