export market performance of oecd countries an empirical examination of the role of cost competitiveness we investigate the relationship between export market shares and relative unit labour costs using a long panel of 12 manufacturing industries across 14 oecd countries we ask how sensitive are export market shares to changes in relative costs and what determines this sensitivity both costs and embodied technology are important but neither can fully explain changing export positions we explore whether residual country specific trends might be linked to deep structural features of economies sensitivity to labour costs is lower in high tech industries and core erm countries industry elasticities have increased especially in industries subject to increasing product market competition

industrial pollution abatement the impact on balance of trade this paper uses an ex post partial equilibrium framework to measure the impact of marginal changes in industrial p ollution abatement costs on the u s balance of trade in general and balance of trade with canada in particular the impacts are found to be negative for most industries growing with trade volume and smal l relative to domestic consumption in addition some evidence is fou nd that pollution control programs have changed the u s comparative advantage such that more high abatement cost goods are imported and m ore low abatement cost goods are exported

alternative transportation fuel standards welfare effects and climate benefits this paper develops an integrated model of the fuel and agricultural sectors to analyze the welfare and greenhouse gas emission ghg effects of the existing renewable fuel standard rfs a low carbon fuel standard lcfs and a carbon price policy the conceptual framework shows that these policies differ in the incentives they create for the consumption and mix of different types of biofuels and in their effects on food and fuel prices and ghg emissions we also simulate the welfare and ghg effects of these three policies which are normalized to achieve the same level of us ghg emissions by promoting greater production of food crop based biofuels the rfs is found to lead to a larger reduction in fossil fuel use but also a larger increase in food prices and a smaller reduction in global ghg emissions compared to the lcfs and carbon tax all three policies increase us social welfare compared to a no biofuel baseline scenario due to improved terms of trade even when environmental benefits are excluded global social welfare increases with a carbon tax but decreases with the rfs and lcfs due to the efficiency costs imposed by these policies even after including the benefits of mitigating ghg emissions

should a carbon tax be differentiated across sectors abstract if some but not all countries are cooperating to reduce co2 emissions one could make the following argument a high carbon tax for carbon intensive tradeable sectors in the cooperating countries will reduce the production of goods from these sectors and therefore co2 emissions in the cooperating countries however this will to a large extent be counteracted by increased production of such goods in the countries that have no climate policy and since it is only total co2 emissions from all countries that are relevant for the climate there is no point in a policy that simply relocates co2 emissions from the cooperating countries to the countries that have no climate policy according to this line of reasoning carbon intensive tradeable sectors should thus face a lower carbon tax than other sectors of the economy this paper shows that a carbon tax should not be differentiated across sectors in the economy provided one can use import and export tariffs on all traded goods it is also shown that such a differentiation of carbon taxes is optimal for the cooperating countries if they are prevented from using tariffs on the traded goods however informational or political factors constraining the use of tariffs are likely also to constrain the possibility of differentiating carbon taxes between sectors

the drawbacks and opportunities of carbon charges in metropolitan areas a spatial general equilibrium approach in cities there is a variety of economic and spatial forces that may influence to what extent a travel related co2 emission pricing can be an effective instrument to contribute to the achievement of co2 reduction goals therefore we examine the effectiveness and impact of co2 emission charges using a spatial general equilibrium model of an urban economy calibrated according to an average german city our analyses suggest that the imposition of a pigouvian type co2 emission charge on urban passenger travel may be able to reduce emissions by about 1 11 depending on the estimated social damage cost of carbon dioxide such a policy increases urban welfare mainly on account of a reduction of congestion costs however pricing congestion directly not only provides higher urban welfare but also higher emission reductions pricing congestion and co2 emissions simultaneously allows to achieve a wide range of emission reduction goals if however the reduction goal is very ambitious the emission charge must be raised to higher levels then distortions in the urban markets and in spatial travel decisions lower labor supply and thus urban production income of city residents federal tax revenue income of landowners outside the city all together implying losses in welfare

a dynamic efficiency rationale for public investment in the health of the young in this paper we assume away standard distributional and static efficiency arguments for public health and instead seek a dynamic efficiency rationale we study a lifecycle model wherein young agents make health investments to reduce mortality risk we identify a welfare rationale for public health under dynamic efficiency and exogenous mortality even when private and public investments are perfect substitutes if health investment reduces mortality risk but individuals do not internalize its effect on the life annuity interest rate the philipson becker effect emerges when the young are net borrowers this works together with dynamic efficiency to support a role for public health resume raisons fondees sur l efficience dynamique pour l investissement public dans la sante des jeunes dans ce memoire on met de cote les arguments conventionnels de sante publique fondes sur la repartition des revenus et l efficience statique pour s interesser a explorer les raisons d efficience dynamique pour ce genre d investissement on etudie un modele de cycle de vie ou les jeunes agents font des investissements en soins de sante pour reduire le risque de mortalite on identifie un raisonnement en termes de bien etre en faveur de depenses en sante publique quand il y a efficience dynamique et mortalite exogene meme quand les investissements prives et publics sont de parfaits substituts si l investissement en soins de sante reduit le risque de mortalite mais que les individus n internalisent pas ses effets sur le taux d interet sur les rentes viageres l effet philipson becker emerge quand les jeunes sont des emprunteurs nets cet effet joue dans le meme sens que l efficience dynamique en faveur d un role pour la sante publique

health investment saving and public policy this paper develops an overlapping generations model in which agents invest in health to prolong life in both working and retirement periods it explores how unfunded social security with or without health subsidies affects life expectancy economic growth and welfare in particular by extending life at a possible cost of capital accumulation health subsidies and a pay as you go pension can improve welfare especially in the short run

the efficiency cost of protective measures in climate policy despite recent achievements towards a global climate agreement climate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions remains quite heterogeneous across countries energy intensive and trade exposed eite industries in industrialized countries are concerned on stringent domestic emission pricing that puts them at a competitive disadvantage against producers of similar goods in other countries with more lenient emission regulation this paper focuses on climate policy design in the united states of america us and compares the economic implications of four alternative protective measures for us eite industries i output based rebates ii exemptions from emission pricing iii energy intensity standards and iv carbon intensity standards using a large scale computable general equilibrium model we quantify how these protective measures affect competitiveness of us eite industries we find that protective measures can improve common trade related competitiveness indicators such as revealed comparative advantage or relative world trade shares but at the same time may lead to a decline in the output value for eite industries because of negative income effects the economy wide cost of emission abatement under protective measures increase as compared to uniform emission pricing stand alone such that the gains of protective measures for eite exports may be more than compensated through losses in domestic eite demand

optimally differentiated carbon prices for unilateral climate policy abstract economic thought on climate policy as an instance of environmental regulation is strongly influenced by the principle of a uniform carbon price economists acknowledge that this principle breaks down in a second best world with other distortions such as taxes and market power in domestic and international markets however systematic analysis of this point in the economic climate policy literature is scarce in the present paper a computable general equilibrium cge set up is chosen in order to examine what pattern of differentiated carbon prices emerges as optimal in a second best world the cge model worldscan which is considered to be representative of the class of models routinely used for numerical climate policy analysis produces three main results first the optimal pattern of carbon prices is highly differentiated ranging from almost prohibitive taxes to high subsidies with a range of more than 1700 euros per ton of co 2 second the welfare gain from switching from a uniform price to optimally differentiated prices is enormous equivalent to a 27 emission reduction for free third the most important drivers of carbon price differentiation are market power in export markets as well as taxes on consumption intermediate inputs and domestic output this shows that carbon price differentiation cannot be dismissed as a policy option lightly however before translating these findings into concrete policy advice the relevant features of modelling pre existing distortions in cge models need close revision

unilateral climate policy design efficiency and equity implications of alternative instruments to reduce carbon leakage abstract global cost effectiveness of unilateral emission abatement can be seriously hampered by carbon leakage we assess three widely discussed proposals for leakage reduction carbon motivated border tax adjustments industry exemptions from carbon regulation and output based allocation of emission allowances we find that none of these measures amounts to a magic bullet when both efficiency and equity criteria matter compared to unilateral emission pricing alone border carbon adjustments are most effective in leakage reduction and promotion of global cost effectiveness but can markedly exacerbate regional inequality exemptions and output based allocation tend to avoid distributional pitfalls but are less effective in leakage reduction and global cost savings exemptions may even decrease global cost effectiveness of unilateral emission abatement

cost pass through of the eu emissions allowances examining the european petroleum markets this paper explores the ability of european refineries to pass through costs associated with the introduction of the eu emissions trading scheme eu ets we estimated a sequence of vector error correction models vecm within a multi national setting which covers 14 eu member states using weekly data at the country level this paper finds a significant influence of prices for european union allowances euas on unleaded petrol retail prices during the trial phase of the eu ets from 2005 to 2007 petrol prices are found to be elastic with respect to crude oil prices and exchange rates but rather inelastic with respect to carbon costs the long run elasticity of petrol prices with respect to the eua prices typically ranges between 0 01 and 0 09 furthermore by computing the variance decomposition our analysis shows that a significant fraction of petrol price changes in austria germany france and spain can be explained by changes in allowances prices between 10 and 20

the enlargement of the european union effects on trade and emissions of greenhouse gases abstract with the gradual accession of various central and eastern european countries ceecs to the european union eu international trade between the eu and the ceecs will change as a result of trade liberalisation and the mobility of production factors within the eu the eu and most of the ceecs have already committed themselves to reduce by 2008 2012 their emissions of greenhouse gases ghgs by 8 compared to the 1990 level this paper reports on an investigation of the potential consequences of the enlargement of the eu and of the emission reduction target set by the kyoto protocol on the sectoral production patterns and international trade a comparative static general equilibrium model was developed to examine the impacts under different scenarios for illustrative purposes two regions the eu and the ceecs and three categories of goods and services agricultural goods industrial goods and services were included the model was calibrated by the 1998 data the model was subsequently applied to study the effects of free trade the mobility of factors and the environmental constraints on production and international trade in light of the enlargement of the eu we show that in this specific context free trade is beneficial to economic welfare and does not necessarily increase emissions of greenhouse gases the mobility of factors also increases economic welfare but in the case of fixed production technology it may harm the environment through more emissions of ghgs

carbon abatement and international spillovers carbon abatement policies in large open economies affect both the allocation of domestic resources and international market prices a change in international prices implies an indirect secondary burden or benefit for all trading countries based on simulations with a large scale computable general equilibrium model of global trade and energy use we show that international spillovers have important welfare implications for carbon abatement policies designed to meet exogenous emission reduction targets we present a decomposition of the total welfare effect of carbon abatement policies into a primary domestic market effect at constant international prices and a secondary international spillover impact as a result of changes in international prices this decomposition reveals the extent to which domestic abatement costs are increased or decreased as a result of the impact of carbon abatement on international prices

higher price lower costs minimum prices in the eu emissions trading scheme this paper examines the introduction of a price floor in an emissions trading system ets when some emissions are regulated outside of the ets we theoretically characterize the conditions under which a price floor enhances welfare using a numerical simulation model of the european union we find that moderate minimum prices in the eu ets can reduce the costs of eu climate policy by up to thirty percent we also find that due to tax interaction effects the optimal minimum price in the eu ets should be about four times higher than the average marginal abatement cost in non ets sectors this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

the impacts of exchange rate volatility on vegetable trade flows trade flows of commodities are generally affected by the principles of comparative advantage in a free trade however trade flows might be enhanced or distorted not only by various government interventions but also by exchange rate fluctuations among others this study applies a commodity specific gravity model to selected vegetable trade flows among organization for economic co operation and development oecd countries to determine the effects of exchange rate uncertainty on the trade flows using the data from 1996 to 2002 the results show that while the exchange rate uncertainty significantly reduces trade in the majority of commodity flows there is evidence that both short and long term volatility have positive effect on trade flows of specific commodities this study also tests the regional preferential trade agreements such as the north american free trade agreement nafta the asia pacific economic cooperation apec and the eu and their different effects on commodities

revisiting the concept of payments for environmental services this article revisits the payments for environmental services pes concept and reviews existing pes definitions based on weberian philosophy of science it is argued that an ideal pes type strongly embedded in pes theory is needed to understand their logic many broader empiricist definitions fail to distinguish pes from the larger generic family of positive environmental incentives thus eroding their meaning by excessive vagueness arguably pes definitions should focus on describing a functional tool rather than normatively integrating desirable pes outcomes a modified narrow pes definition is proposed outlining conditionality as the single defining feature avoiding the buyer seller terms and linking pes to offsite externalities extensive explanatory guidelines address many valid conceptual concerns raised in the recent pes literature

evaluation of biodiversity policy instruments what works and what doesn t w e review and confirm the claim that credible evaluations of common conservation instru ments continue to be rare the limited set of rigorous studies suggests that protected areas cause modest reductions in deforestation however the evidence base for payments for ecosystem services decentralization policies and other interventions is much weaker thus we renew our urgent call for more evaluations from many more biodiversity relevant locations specifically we call for a programme of research conservation evaluation 2 0 that seeks to measure how programme impacts vary by socio political and bio physical context to track economic and environmental impacts jointly to iden tify spatial spillover effects to untargeted areas and to use theories of change to characterize causal mechanisms that can guide the collection of data and the interpretation of results only then can we usefully contribute to the debate over how to protect biodiversity in developing countries

on the self interested use of equity in international climate negotiations abstract we discuss self interested uses of equity arguments in international climate negotiations using unique data from a world wide survey of agents involved in international climate policy we show that the perceived support of different equity rules by regions may be explained by the ranking of their economic costs despite being self interested equity arguments may be perceived as being used for different reasons for example out of fairness considerations or in order to facilitate negotiations consistent with experimental and behavioral studies on fairness perceptions we find that individuals are more likely to state reasons with positive attributes if they evaluate their own region or regions that support the individual s personally preferred equity rule negotiators perceive the use of equity by regions as less influenced by pressure from interest groups

properties of actuarially fair and pay as you go health insurance schemes for the elderly an olg model approach the aged dependency ratio or adr is growing at a fast pace in many countries this fact causes stress to the economy and might create conflicts of interest between young and old in this paper the properties of different health insurance systems for the elderly are analysed within an overlapping generations olg model the properties of actuarial health insurance and different variations of pay as you go payg health insurance are compared it turns out that the welfare properties of these contracts are heavily dependent on the economy s dynamic properties of particular importance is the magnitude of the rate of population growth relative to the interest rate in addition it is shown that public health insurance is associated with an inherent externality resulting in a second best solution

impacts of regulating greenhouse gas emissions on livestock trade flows policies regulating greenhouse gas ghg emissions are expected to create a significant burden on emitting industries as well as final consumers which can lead to a strong influence on international trade flows of commodities this study examines whether the regulation of ghg emissions affects livestock trade flows a commodity specific gravity model approach is employed to estimate and test the impact of regulating ghg emissions on livestock trade flows the results show that regulation of ghg emissions has a negative effect on livestock trade flows from countries restricting ghg emissions to countries without ghg restriction from restricting countries to restricting countries and unrestricting countries to restricting countries

environmental capital flight and pollution tax this paper analyzes the impacts of a production pollution tax on environmental capital flight and national product in a two country static general equilibrium model with two way foreign investment it is assumed that the capital input in both countries is a composite good of domestic and imported capital and pollution is assumed to originate in the production process the productivity of capital in each country is negatively or positively related to the worldwide aggregate emissions

european emission trading scheme and competitiveness a case study on the iron and steel industry abstract we quantify the impact of the european emission trading scheme ets on the two dimensions of competitiveness production and profitability for the iron and steel industry among those covered by the scheme this sector is one of the most exposed since it is both highly co 2 intensive and relatively open to international trade we also examine the robustness of these results to various assumptions marginal abatement cost curve trade and demand elasticities as well as pass through rates and updating of allocation rules of which the latter two are scarcely debated we conclude that for this sector competitiveness losses are small we prove this conclusion to be robust hence arguments against tightening the environmental stringency of the ets in phase ii are not justified on grounds of competitiveness loss our systematic sensitivity analysis allows us to identify the important assumptions for each output variable it turns out that pass through rates and updating rules are significant despite being often implicit and least debated in existing analyses

international passenger transport and climate change a sector analysis in car demand and associated co2 emissions from 2000 to 2050 abstract the paper provides global regionalized projections of passenger car demand use and associated co 2 emissions from 11 world regions the study is based on empirical data that have been originally collated from international sources for the purpose of modeling region specific car stock demand derived demands serve as indicator of car related fuel consumption and associated co 2 emissions which are calculated on the basis of behavioral and technological scenarios the obtained co 2 emission paths are sectoral baseline scenarios that identify region specific potentials of growth in car induced co 2 emissions assuming that current trends continue to prevail the study adopts a multi model approach to car demand by applying two methodologies rooted in the economics of consumption utility maximization and single equation models the utility maximization method for modeling car demand is driven by the preferences of the representative consumers of each world region subject to exogenous price and income trajectories the latter is adopted from an optimal growth model this is a novel approach to projecting global regionalized sectoral car demands the study is complemented by the application of single equation income consumption models based on logistical gompertz functions and non linear regression techniques to compare model results

a model of the demand for longevity and the value of life extension we specify a demand function for longevity or quantity of life along with corresponding demand functions for indicators of quality of life and a value of health and life extension function we show that the demand for health must be derived in conjunction with that for longevity and the related consumption plan and that all choices depend on initial individual endowments and terminal conditions our comparative dynamics predictions indicate that optimal health and longevity are increasing functions of endowed wealth rather than necessarily current income that improvements in opportunities to produce health can accentuate the differences between endowed health and attained longevity levels and that the value individuals ascribe to their health may be increasing over a good portion of their life cycle we use this model to analyze observed empirical variations in levels and trends of life expectancy and in exposure to health risks across different population groups

burden sharing in a greenhouse egalitarianism and sovereignty reconciled the allocation of emission entitlements across countries is the single most controversial issue in international climate policy extreme positions within the policy debate range from entitlements based on current emission patterns sovereignty to entitlements based on equal per capita allocations egalitarianism this paper shows that gradual convergence from sovereignty towards egalitarianism could provide a pragmatic solution to the equity debate when combined with international emissions trading the convergence approach stands out for offering the developing countries substantial incentives for participation in the international greenhouse gas abatement effort without imposing excessive burdens on the industrialized countries

unilateral climate policy and competitiveness economic implications of differential emission pricing unilateral emission reduction commitments raise concerns on international competitiveness and emission leakage that result in preferential regulatory treatment of domestic energy intensive and trade exposed industries our analysis illustrates the potential pitfalls of climate policy design which narrowly focuses on competitiveness concerns about energy intensive and trade exposed eite branches the sector specific gains of preferential regulation in favour of these branches must be traded off against the additional burden imposed on other industries beyond burden shifting between industries differential emission pricing bears the risk for substantial excess cost in emission reduction as policy concedes too low carbon prices to eite industries and thereby foregoes relatively cheap abatement options in these sectors from the perspective of global cost effectiveness we find that differential emission pricing of eite industries hardly reduces emission leakage since the latter is driven through robust international energy market responses to emission constraints as a consequence the scope for efficiency compared to uniform pricing is very limited only towards stringent emission reduction targets will a moderate price differentiation achieve sufficient gains from leakage reduction to offset the losses of diverging marginal abatement cost

does environmental dumping lead to delocation environmental dumping is often viewed as an instrument used by some countries in the attempt to attract foreign investments stated otherwise the delocation of firms would be a major outcome of a stiff environmental policy in this paper we study the impact of a strict anti pollution policy pursued by a government on domestic firms locational decisions and determine the main variables that interact with such a policy some preliminary welfare implications are also provided

longevity and public old age pensions i introduction conventional economic analysis of intertemporal or intergenerational resource allocation takes longevity as exogenously determined by biological or technological factors within this framework the institution of a mandatory public old age pensions of a pay as you go type unambiguously reduces capital accumulation the intuition behind this result is that when the young expect an old age pension after retirement and at the same time pay an earmarked payroll tax that lowers disposable income the ability and the incentive to save are reduced such a result however ignores the possibility that an individual who has a survivorship contingent title to an old age pension might use resources to increase the likelihood of survival to acquire the promised pension the fact that over the past century both longevity and the size of old age pensions have risen suggests that a more complete model that incorporates longevity as a choice variable may be useful in understanding the simultaneous increase in longevity and old age pensions ehrlich and chuma 1990 consider the demand for longevity in a world where the certain length of life is a fixed function of health care expenditures thus making longevity endogenous in their model consumers choose the optimal depreciation rate for human capital by choosing the path of health care expenditures their work paves the way for consideration of the effect of longevity contingent property rights on behavior in a more recent paper philipson and becker 1998 build on the work of ehrlich and chuma by modeling longevity contingent claims in the form of old age pensions among other things they find that an increase in a longevity contingent old age pension will induce individuals to live longer as a result of this longer life philipson and becker question the traditional result that pay as you go old age pensions always reduce the capital stock because workers who choose greater longevity may also choose to save more during their working years to finance their longer retirement period in this paper we introduce endogenous and uncertain lifetime into a two period overlapping generations olg model we depart from the traditional diamond type olg model by measuring longevity as the probability of survival into the second period and by allowing individuals to affect their survival probability through spending on longevity extending activities within this framework we examine the effects of a pay as you go old age pension on longevity and capital accumulation under two polar assumptions concerning the existence and absence of a fair intragenerational annuity market in either case the longevity effect of an increase in the old age pension is neutral while the capital stock effect is strictly negative if the interest rate and population growth rate are equal e g if the economy is on a golden rule path surprisingly increasing the old age pension produces both a negative longevity and savings effect for the more relevant case where the interest rate is larger than the population growth rate that an increase in the old age pension produces a negative capital stock effect is anticipated but the neutral or negative effect on longevity is counterintuitive it is counterintuitive because the empirical evidence seems to show lockstep increases in both longevity and government provided retirement benefits in the form of pensions and heath care benefits furthermore longevity insurance conjures up the moral hazard problem where increased utilization is expected with government provision the funding pool expands with use the cost being borne by workers the fact that the workers bear the burden of increasing the old age pension helps explain the longevity results we obtain when the population grows at the same rate as the return on capital an increase in the pension is offset by a dollar for dollar reduction in private savings leaving second period consumption unchanged

energy efficiency and economic growth a retrospective cge analysis for canada from 2002 to 2012 abstract the efficiency with which energy is used by firms and households has widespread impacts on economic activity which in turn has implications for environmental quality and energy security using a novel method that could be used for other jurisdictions we estimate the impact of energy efficiency improvements on canadian gdp employment economic structure and welfare from 2002 to 2012 we use a counterfactual back casting method with a sectorally and regionally disaggregated dynamic recursive computable general equilibrium model in effect reverse calibrating the model from observed data to isolate the effects of energy efficiency we estimate that total energy efficiency improvements in canada during this period increased gdp by 2 0 0 19 yr employment by 2 5 0 24 yr and household welfare by about 1 5 0 15 yr additionally energy efficiency improvements reoriented economic structure from capital intense energy supply sectors to relatively labour intense manufacturing and services we find evidence of widespread rebound on an energy expenditure basis across most sectors and backfire where energy efficiency leads to absolute energy use increases in oil sands in situ extraction bitumen upgrading shale gas extraction lime production pulp paper and metal smelting but overall energy use is reduced by energy efficiency improvements over this period

tightening environmental standards the benefit cost or the no cost paradigm ms ff ichael porter and claas van der linde have written a paper that is interesting and to us at least somewhat astonishing it is a defense of environmental regulation indeed an invitation to more stringent regulation that makes essentially no reference to the social benefits of such regulation this approach contrasts starkly with the methods that economists and other policy analysts have traditionally used when assessing environmental or other regulatory programs the traditional approach consists of comparing the beneficial effects of regulation with the costs that must be borne to secure these benefits for environmental regulation the social benefits include the reductions in morbidity or premature mortality that can accompany cleaner air the enhanced recreational opportunities that can result from water quality improvements the increased land values that might attend the cleanup of a hazardous waste site the enhanced vitality of aquatic ecosystems that might follow reductions in agricultural pesticide use or any of the other potentially significant benefits associated with tighter standards from this benefit cost approach emerges the standard tradeoff discussed in virtually every economics textbook porter and van der linde deny the validity of this approach to the analysis of environmental regulation claiming it to be an artifact of what they see as a static mindset in their view economists have failed to appreciate the capacity of

a sectoral approach balancing global efficiency and equity this paper explores the idea that a properly designed sectoral approach could be the answer to two sets of constraints that hinder international agreements on climate change namely a genuine concern from developing countries for economic growth and competitiveness issues from industrialized countries our sectoral approach builds on three premises i cap and trade systems are established in industrialized countries and intensity targets in developing countries ii sectors subject to international trade abide by the rules of the countries in which they trade and iii a fraction of the revenues from permits in industrialized countries go towards carbon mitigation in developing countries we design an economic model that features interactions in three carbon intensive sectors two of which are internationally traded and two countries an industrialized country and a developing country two scenarios are constructed an enhanced sectoral approach which refers to our proposal and a global cap which implements a uniform co2 price we compare the two scenarios in terms of total welfare and equity it is shown that for a minor global welfare loss the enhanced sectoral approach ranks high in terms of equity for emerging countries this approach also eliminates competitiveness and leakage issues

asean and china export rivals or partners in regional growth hina s initial opening to the world economy in the late 1980s followed by its relatively rapid trade liberalisation in the second half of the 1990s and its recent wto accession has prompted extensive debate amongst the policy community in many countries 1 governments of the asean group in particular have been extremely concerned at the prospect of fdi diversion and the loss of export market share in oecd economies to china this paper summarises detailed empirical research by the authors intended to strengthen the basis of evidence on the important issue of export rivalry in particular we seek to elucidate the underlying properties of comparative advantage and export competition in the countries concerned synthesising detailed trade flow and econometric analysis our econometric results indicate that in the short run at least asean and china are experiencing intensified export competition in prominent third markets such as japan and the us more extensive trade flow analysis reveals however that in the long run globalisation can accommodate export growth by all the economies of east asia if aggregate growth can be sustained to facilitate the structural adjustments necessary for an optimal regional division of labour more specifically the path forward is not without potential rivalry but wellinformed policy makers can anticipate emergent challenges and take the steps necessary to mitigate adjustment costs and promote longer term efficiency whatever the ultimate course of development in east asia it is clear that the forces at work are complex and in many cases unprecedented policy makers relying on

payments for ecosystem services as commodity fetishism abstract payments for ecosystem services pes economically reward resource managers for the provision of ecosystem services and are thus characterised by i an ecological function subject to trade ii the establishment of a standard unit of exchange iii and supply demand and intermediation flows between those who sell and buy ecosystem services this paper departs from the term commodity fetishism broadly understood as the masking of the social relationships underlying the process of production to illuminate three invisibilities in the commodification of ecosystem services firstly we argue that narrowing down the complexity of ecosystems to a single service has serious technical difficulties and ethical implications on the way we relate to and perceive nature secondly the commodification of ecosystem services denies the multiplicity of values which can be attributed to these services since it requires that a single exchange value is adopted for trading finally we suggest that the process of production exchange and consumption of ecosystem services is characterised by power asymmetries which may contribute to reproducing rather than addressing existing inequalities in the access to natural resources and services

toward a new conception of the environment competitiveness relationship accepting a fixed trade off between environmental regulation and competitiveness unnecessarily raises costs and slows down environmental progress studies finding high environmental compliance costs have traditionally focused on static cost impacts ignoring any offsetting productivity benefits from innovation they typically overestimated compliance costs neglected innovation offsets and disregarded the affected industry s initial competitiveness rather than simply adding to cost properly crafted environmental standards can trigger innovation offsets allowing companies to improve their resource productivity shifting the debate from pollution control to pollution prevention was a step forward it is now necessary to make the next step and focus on resource productivity

clean development investments an incentive compatible cge modeling framework the clean development mechanism established under the kyoto protocol allows industrialized annex i countries to offset part of their domestic emissions by investing in emissions reduction projects in developing non annex i countries computable general equilibrium analysis of the clean development mechanism s impacts so far mimics the clean development mechanism as a sector emissions trading scheme thereby overstating its potential to save climate change mitigation costs this study develops a novel approach that represents the clean development mechanism more realistically by compensating clean development mechanism implementing sectors for additional abatement cost and by endogenizing clean development mechanism credits as a function of investment compared with previous representations the proposed approach is more consistent in its incentive structure and investment characteristics at the sector level an empirical application of the new methodology demonstrates that the economy wide cost savings from the clean development mechanism tend to be lower than suggested by conventional modeling approaches while clean development mechanism implementing sectors do not lose in output

us climate policy a critical assessment of intensity standards intensity standards have gained substantial momentum as a regulatory instrument in us climate policy energy intensive and trade exposed industries are traditionally opposed to initiatives for domestic carbon pricing as they are particularly vulnerable to competitiveness losses and refer to counterproductive emission leakage in a unilateral climate policy context this has led to policy proposals where intensity standards on energy and carbon might at least in part substitute for explicit carbon pricing via taxes or emission allowances in this paper we study the economic efficiency properties of intensity standards as an instrument of unilateral climate policy we first develop a theoretical partial equilibrium framework and show that standards can have an ambiguous effect on carbon leakage we then use an applied computable general equilibrium model of the global economy to gain quantitative insights into the effects of intensity standards for the case of the us our numerical results show that intensity standards may rather increase than decrease carbon leakage moreover standards can lead to considerable welfare losses compared to uniform emission taxing the tradability of standards across industries is a mechanism that can reduce these negative effects

the impact of environmental policy on international competitiveness in manufacturing the aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that environmental stringency adversely affects the international competitiveness net exports in manufacturing sectors the model follows the standard factor endowment approach to explain the effects of environmental regulatory policy on net exports in different product based industries an econometric model is constructed which includes factor endowments and environmental regulations to examine how strict environmental policies impact export competitiveness a panel dataset of 10 organisation for economic co operation and development oecd countries over 17 years 1987 2003 was constructed for the modelling effort the study finds that environmental regulations can be a way to combat the flight of manufacturing out of developed countries if the output from these industries can be identified as environmentally friendly a positive relationship between net exports and environmental regulations was found for paper products wood products and textile prod

whose equity matters national to local equity perceptions in vietnam s payments for forest ecosystem services scheme this paper focuses on the assessment of legislative considerations and local perceptions of equity in vietnam s payments for forest ecosystem services scheme pfes equity perceptions are powerful determinants of human behaviour and consequently many environmental conflicts arise from contested visions of what constitutes as equitable environmental management therefore equity can play an instrumental role in shaping outcomes of pfes schemes this paper analyzes how contextual procedural and distributive equity considerations are reflected in national pfes legislation and implementation how equity outcomes are perceived locally and whether local perceptions match legislative considerations we reviewed national legislation and government reports conducted expert interviews on the national and provincial level as well as surveys focus group discussions and in depth interviews on the local level our findings reveal that equity outcomes are very much affected by contextual factors such as how the forest land allocation regulation determines the distribution of use rights in the implementation of pfes national aspirations and rationales of equity as outlined in legislation were not met due to technical constraints financial costs and social and institutional conflicts the implementation on the ground contrasts with local interests our results show that on the local level the preference for a distributive equity principle is very much influenced by the degree of transparency of the payment distribution process the prevailing perceptions of equitable benefit distribution by local pfes participants correspond to a merit based principle of compensation for the effort of forest protection

the role of technology in market shares dynamics the paper presents the estimation of an empirical model of market share dynamics for five industrialized countries and 18 industries the emphasis is put on the importance of non price factors of competitiveness whereas most traditional explanations rest on the influence of relative prices among the former type of factor the role of variables reflecting technological advantage is privileged in particular the role of innovations has received considerable attention in the literature on international trade as well as the literature on endogenous growth in this spirit the paper introduces patent counts and investment as explanatory variables for the export market share the results show that non price variables have an important impact on the determinations of long run competitiveness

gstp tariff reduction and its effects on south south trade in manufactures using a gravity model with import tariffs on manufactures as an explanatory variable both at the import and at the export side the impact of tariffs on trade in manufactures is analyzed for a sample of 39 less developed country ldc importers the consequences of an agreement on a global system of trade preferences gstp for manufactures are estimated by lowering these tariffs for intra ldc trade by 20 and 50 alternatively the short term effects are found to be relatively modest and the long term effects considerably larger trade diversion from developed country dc to ldc suppliers has only limited impact

economic efficiency and mixed public private insurance abstract in this paper we discuss the efficiency properties of insurance markets where supplementary private insurance is allowed to exist together with a compulsory government insurance plan our main conclusion which is contrary to both those of besley 1989 and selden 1993 is that in a simple model focusing on the moral hazard problem alone a mixed system will generally be strictly less efficient than a purely private competitive system we also show that selden s 1993 main proposition is valid only in very special circumstances which reduces the significance of his result on the welfare properties of systems of mixed government private insurance

an institutional analysis of payments for environmental services abstract in this paper the characteristics and functioning of pes is analyzed from an institutional perspective while in theory pes is seen as a market solution to environmental problems as an alternative to state hierarchical and community governance a review of a large amount of case studies shows that pes in practice depends rather fundamentally on state and or community engagement hence pes are foremost a reconfiguration of the roles of public bodies and communities becoming core intermediaries or buyers first to establish pes rights to the land that delivers the environmental service must be clarified this demands public action second transacting over environmental amenities is very costly creating markets for environmental services depends therefore crucially on state and community facilitation hence buyers are often public agencies high transaction costs also influence price setting payments do not follow the market format as intermediaries frequently are setting the price with users often being unaware even of the fact that they pay finally the distinction between payments as incentives and as fair compensations is emphasized while payments may strengthen community relations and simplify action for environmental care they may also introduce a purely instrumental logic and in some cases worsen the environmental status by crowding out environmental virtues for the future greater awareness of these dynamics is warranted

embodied carbon tariffs in a world where the prospects of a global agreement to control greenhouse gas emissions are bleak the idea of using trade policy as an implicit regulation of foreign emission sources has gained many supporters in countries contemplating unilateral climate policies embodied carbon tariffs tax the direct and indirect carbon emissions embodied in imported goods the appeal seems obvious as oecd countries are on average large net importers of embodied emissions from non oecd countries carbon tariffs could substantially extend the reach of oecd climate policies we investigate this claim by simulating the effects of embodied carbon tariffs with a computable general equilibrium model of global trade and energy use we find that embodied carbon tariffs do effectively reduce carbon leakage however the scope for improvements in the global cost effectiveness of unilateral climate policy is limited the main welfare effect of the tariffs is to shift the burden of oecd climate policy to the developing world

economic impact assessment of turkey s post kyoto vision on emission trading for the post kyoto period turkey strongly emphasizes the establishment of national emission trading system by 2015 and its integration with the eu ets along its accession process to the eu in this paper we study the mechanisms of adjustment and economic welfare consequences of various ets regimes that turkey considers to apply by 2020 i e regional ets and international trading within the eu ets we conduct our analysis under the current eu 20 20 20 emission target 20 and also under its revised version 30 we find that turkey has economic gains from linking with the eu ets under the 20 cap in comparison to the domestic etss despite the eu s welfare loss under linkage in comparison to the case where turkey has domestic abatement efforts it still prefers linking as it increases economic well being compared to the case where turkey does not abate under 30 cutback turkey has critical output loss under linkage due to high abatement burden on the eu while the eu is better off as it passes some of its abatement burden to turkey therefore emission quotas and their allocation across the ets and non ets sectors become highly critical in distributing the overall economic gains from bilateral trading

the effects of capital income taxation on international competitiveness and trade flows using an intertemporal equilibrium model this paper analyzes how lower source based taxes on capital income impact trade performance and international competitiveness it shows that depending on import shares and intertemporal and intratemporal substitution elasticities capital accumulation may induce changes in real interest rates and the terms of trade that stimulate domestic saving even if financial capital is perfectly mobile internationally import shares appear important determinants of exchange rate effects numerical simulations illustrate these results copyright 1989 by american economic association

vertical fiscal externalities and the environment we show that imposition of a state level environmental tax in a federation crowds out pre existing federal taxes we explain how this vertical fiscal externality can lead unilateral state level environmental policy to generate a welfare gain in the implementing state at the expense of other states even absent any environmental benefits using a computable general equilibrium model of the canadian federation we show that vertical fiscal externalities can be the major determinant of the welfare change following environmental policy implementation by a state government our numerical simulations indicate that as a consequence of vertical fiscal externalities state governments can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 20 percent without any net cost to themselves

economic and environmental impacts of the kyoto protocol in 2003 the kyoto protocol which imposes legally binding greenhouse gas emission constraints on industrialized countries is likely to enter into force the protocol has been celebrated as a milestone in climate protection but standard economic theory casts doubt that it will go beyond symbolic policy in this paper we show that the final concretion of the kyoto protocol is consistent with the theoretical prediction kyoto more or less boils down to business as usual without significant compliance costs to ratifying parties jel classification d58 q43 q58 consequences economiques et environnementales du protocole de kyoto en 2003 le protocole de kyoto qui impose aux pays industrialises l obligation de reduire leurs emissions de gaz a effet de serre entrera probablement en vigueur si le protocole a ete accueilli comme un grand pas en avant dans le combat pour proteger l environnement la theorie economique jette un regard sceptique sur la portee reelle d un tel accord et le considere comme un geste symbolique dans ce memoire on montre que la concretisation finale de l accord de kyoto s arrime aux predictions theoriques kyoto n est rien de plus que business as usual et n impliquera pas de couts significatifs pour les parties qui ont signe le protocole

social security longevity and moral hazard abstract recently several authors have argued that social security can have positive effects on savings and welfare when individuals possess hidden information about their longevity that is when there is adverse selection in annuity markets this paper considers the related problem of the effects of social security when individuals can take hidden actions to affect their longevity that is when there is moral hazard in annuity markets in contrast to the adverse selection models we show that social security never raises welfare in a pure moral hazard economy as well social security may either increase or reduce longevity depending on the characteristics of the health related goods consumed it is suggested that a complete analysis of social security needs to consider both adverse selection and moral hazard

unilateral co2 reductions and carbon leakage the consequences of international trade in oil and basic materials a recursively dynamic general equilibrium model featuring six world regions with trade in energy and non energy goods is used to simulate the period from 1990 through 2100 in 10 year intervals the simulations explore the effect of unilateral action by the oecd to curb global co2 emissions unilateral cuts create incentives for free riding by non participating regions so that global emissions are reduced by less than the amount that the oecd cuts back its regional emissions carbon leakage occurs through two channels first basic materials production increases in unconstrained regions resulting in increased carbon intensity of gdp second reductions in oecd oil imports cause the world oil price to fall leading to an increased energy intensity in the non participant regions in this paper we use a general equilibrium model to assess the extent to which these two mechanisms reduce the effectiveness of oecd reductions in curbing global co2 concentrations

the costs of compliance a cge assessment of canada s policy options under the kyoto protocol canada has committed itself under the kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012 on average by six per cent from the base 1990 level as of 2009 however canada s greenhouse gas emissions are far above its 1990 level which calls for stringent short term policy measures if canada is to meet its legally binding commitment this paper uses a multi region multi commodity static general equilibrium model to quantify the economic impacts of alternative compliance strategies for canada in the context of climate policies undertaken by other kyoto parties the numerical results confirm fears by canadian policymakers of substantial economic adjustment costs should canada fulfill its kyoto commitments solely through domestic action however a rigorous use of the project based cdm on top of international emissions trading could allow canada to live up to its international climate policy commitment at politically much more tolerable costs

optimal emission pricing in the presence of international spillovers decomposing leakage and terms of trade motives abstract carbon leakage provides an efficiency argument for differentiated emission prices in favor of emission intensive and trade exposed sectors under unilateral climate policy however differential emission pricing can be used as a beggar thy neighbor policy to exploit terms of trade adopting an optimal tax framework we propose a method to decompose the leakage and terms of trade motives for emission price differentiation we employ our method for the quantitative impact assessment of unilateral climate policy based on empirical data we find that the leakage motive yields only small efficiency gains compared to uniform emission pricing likewise the terms of trade motive has rather limited potential for strategic burden shifting we conclude that in many cases the simple first best rule of uniform emission pricing remains a practical guideline for unilateral climate policy design

annuities and individual welfare advancing annuity demand theory we present suffcient conditions for the optimality of full annuitization under market completeness that are substantially less restrictive than those used by yaari 1965 we examine demand with market incompleteness finding that positive annuitization remains optimal widely but complete annuitization does not how uninsured medical expenses affect demand for illiquid annuities depends critically on the timing of the risk a new set of calculations with optimal consumption trajectories very different from available annuity income streams still shows a preference for considerable annuitization suggesting that limited annuity purchases are plausibly due to psychological or behavioral biases

revealed comparative advantage and competitiveness in hungarian agri food sectors we examine the competitiveness of hungarian agriculture and food processing in relation to that of the eu based on four indices of revealed comparative advantage using highly disaggregate data for the period 1992 to 1998 consistency tests suggest that the indices are less satisfactory as cardinal measures but are useful in identifying the demarcation between comparative advantage and comparative disadvantage hungary is shown to have a comparative advantage in a range of agri food products including animals and meat this complements the findings of those studies that have used price and cost based approaches in identifying competitiveness in cereals and crops results indicate that the rca indices when interpreted as a binary measure have remained surprisingly stable during the period of transition although there is evidence of a weakening in the level of comparative advantage as revealed in the balassa index

wto ministerial conference in singapore environmental diversity versus harmonization 1 introductionin december 1996 a newera of the international trade regime started with the rstwto ministerial conferencein singapore substantialprogress hasbeenachievedin freeing trade in information technology products and a north south collision oninternational labour standards has been averted however these successes over shadow the apparant stagnation in the area of trade and environment at last aftermanyyearsofintensivediscussions manyhadhopedthatthe rstwtoministerialconferencewouldaddressthissensitivepolicy eld outofthewiderangeofissuesthat can be dealt with under this heading two gure prominently trade measurespursuantto multilateral environmentalagreementsandeco labellingschemes thisnote rstly tries to explain why exactly these two issues draw most of the atten tion of policymakers and secondly discusses how these issues can be resolvedagainst the background of established welfare theory it also tries to make clearwhy the ministers in singapore pussyfooted around these issues and only decidedthat the wto committee on trade and environment has to continue its explora tory work to come to grisp with these issues insights from the literature on thetrade environment interface are rst summarized in eight propositions 2 propositions on trade and environmentbefore setting forth the propositions it is good to knowthat in analyticalstudies ontrade and environment the following distinctions are usually made first there areon the one hand local and national environmental problems and on the other handtransboundary i e international and global environmental problems the formerrefer to externalities caused by domestic environmental distortions that do notexpell beyond national borders the latter refer to environmental problems thataffect welfare both in the home country and in one or more foreign countries

climate policy induced investments in developing countries the implications of investment risks international climate policy has assigned the leading role in emissions abatement to the industrialized countries while developing countries remain uncommitted to binding emission reduction targets however cooperation between the industrialized and the developing world through joint implementation of emission abatement promises substantial economic gains to both parties in this context the policy debate on joint implementation has addressed the question of how investment risks to project based emission crediting between industrialized countries and developing countries affect the magnitude and distribution of such gains in our quantitative analysis we find that the incorporation of country specific investment risks induces rather small changes vis a vis a situation where investment risks are neglected only if investors go for high safety of returns is there a distinct decline in the overall volume of emission crediting and the associated total economic benefits while the welfare effects of risk incorporation for industrialized countries are unequivocally negative the implications across developing countries are ambiguous whereas low risk developing countries attract higher project volumes and benefit from higher effective prices per emission credit compared to a reference scenario without risk the opposite applies to high risk countries sensitivity analysis with respect to higher risk estimates show that shifts in the comparative advantage of emission abatement against high risk countries may become dramatic as only very low cost mitigation projects will be realized driving down the country s benefits from emission crediting to the advantage of low risk developing countries this result is supported by empirical evidence on regional imbalances of activities implemented jointly under the pilot phase of the kyoto protocol

is india specialising in polluting industries evidence from us india bilateral trade recently the apex environmental agency of india observed that domestic industrial pollution has been increasing at an alarming rate over the last two decades and the need to rein in traditional polluting industries this raises the pertinent question of whether the poor domestic pollution regime has affected the pattern of india s trade in dirty manufactured products in the post liberalisation era since 1991 we find that on the whole india has remained a net importer of pollution intensive manufactured goods however there is a distinct trend of increasing specialisation in specific dirty industries especially in the bilateral trade with high income countries and to a lesser degree with low income countries the usa being india s single largest country trading partner in the post liberalisation era we test for pollution offshoring at the finer industry level in us india bilateral trade while we find that the pollution haven effect is not significant india s specialisation in certain dirty manufacturing industries through the last decade remains a disturbing trend india needs to integrate environmental sustainability within industrial growth urgently and it is pertinent to implement policies which would reflect the true pollution costs in an industry that is increasingly competing in the international market

infectious disease and preventive behavior in an overlapping generations model abstract this paper incorporates prevalence of disease and agent s preventive behavior i e health investment into a small open overlapping generations model and investigates the dynamic behaviors of the competitive equilibrium allocation using the model it is shown that agents prevalence elastic behaviors which are supported from empirical studies can be obtained and that such agents behaviors cause the cyclicity of the spread of disease we also show that although the agents preventive behavior in a competitive equilibrium may be insufficient because of the existence of external effects a one shot medical aid from foreign countries does not necessarily improve the agents welfare in the pareto sense

consistency tests of alternative measures of comparative advantage the commodity pattern of comparative advantage across countries is a central concept in international trade theory since the concept is based upon autarkic prices which are not observable in post trade equilibria its use in empirical research is most difficult the literature reports numerous alternative indices that purport to measure comparative advantage this paper examines the extent to which various measures are consistent using a large sample of trade flows the results have important implication for judging empirical studies based upon particular choices of a measure for comparative advantage

two way capital flows cross hauling in a model of foreign investment this paper presents a simple model of a small open economy which is open to both commodity trade and foreign investment of a sector specific kind and which exhibits the phenomenon of cross hauling or reverse flows of internationally mobile capital in two different sectors the model which assumes that a single domestic factor is combined with internationally mobile but sector specific capital in each of two sectors one of which produces a non traded good appears to be the simplest possible which permits cross hauling as an endogenous phenomenon

the eu decarbonisation roadmap 2050 what way to walk we carry out a detailed cge computable general equilibrium analysis of the eu decarbonisation roadmap 2050 on a macroeconomic and on a sectoral level herein we study a reference scenario that implements existing eu policies as well as 3 unilateral and 3 global climate action scenarios we identify global climate action with international emissions trading and the full equalization of co2 prices across all eu sectors as a reasonable policy option to avoid additional costs of the decarbonisation roadmap to a large extent this policy option may include cdm clean development mechanism in the sense of where flexibility in an extended form if there are countries without emissions caps moreover we identify diverse sectoral effects in terms of output investment emissions and international competitiveness we conclude that the successful realization of the eu decarbonisation roadmap probably requires a wise and joint consideration of technology policy design and sectoral aspects

international trade and environmental regulation time series evidence and cross section test this paper examines empiricallywhether more stringent domestic environmental policiesreduce the international competitiveness ofenvironmentally sensitive goods esgs our timeseries evidence indicates that there are no systematicchanges in trade patterns of esgs in the last threedecades despite the introduction of more stringentenvironmental regulations in most of the developedcountries in the 1970s and 1980s this observedphenomenon is then subjected to a multi countryeconometric test using an extended gravity equationframework the test suggests that overall morestringent environmental regulations do not reducetotal exports exports of esgs and exports ofnon resource based esgs neither was there anyevidence to support the hypothesis that new tradebarriers emerge to offset the effects of morestringent environmental regulations

the eu 20 20 2020 targets an overview of the emf22 assessment three computable general equilibrium models are used to estimate the economic implications of a stylized version of eu climate policy if implemented at the lowest possible cost the 20 emissions reduction would lead to a welfare loss of 0 5 2 0 by 2020 second best policies increase costs a policy with two carbon prices one for the ets one for the non ets could increase costs by up to 50 a policy with 28 carbon prices one for the ets one each for each member state could increase costs by another 40 the renewables standard could raise the costs of emissions reduction by 90 overall the inefficiencies in policy lead to a cost that is 100 125 too high the models differ greatly in the detail of their results the ets non ets split may have a negligible impact on welfare while the renewables standard may even improve welfare the models agree however that the distortions introduced by total eu package imply a substantial welfare loss over and above the costs needed to meet the climate target the marginal total and excess costs reported here are notably higher than those in the impact assessment of the european commission

forward and backward intergenerational goods why is social security good for the environment this paper studies the ability of nonmarket institutions to invest optimally in forward intergenerational goods figs such as education and the environment when agents are selfish or exhibit paternalistic altruism we show that backward intergenerational goods bigs such as social security play a crucial role in sustaining investment in figs without them investment is inefficiently low but with them optimal investment is possible we also show that making the provision of bigs mandatory crowds out the voluntary provision of figs and that population aging can increase investment in figs

markets in environmental governance from theory to practice abstract the aim of this paper is to clarify what is meant by markets for ecosystem services es the defining characteristic of markets is interaction through trade two main dimensions are identified as basis for classifying markets in es firstly we have markets with and without intermediaries secondly some markets for es are created by defined liabilities like caps on emissions while other trades come about voluntarily altogether six forms of markets are identified with two being incomplete the paper also offers an analysis of the most important existing markets for es using the developed classification regarding payments for ecosystem services pes most are not markets not even incomplete this is so as most resources are raised through taxes or fees command not trade moreover most payments are best characterized as subsidies cap and trade systems like those for carbon qualify as markets but depend crucially on the politically defined cap moreover it is this cap that protects the environment while the idea with markets in es is to escape command and control it is observed that c c is essential for these markets to work

old age longevity and mortality contingent claims this paper analyzes the savings and longevity impacts of mortality contingent claims defined here as income measures such as annuities and life insurance under which earned income is contingent on the length of one s life the postwar increase in mandatory annuity and life insurance programs as well as the rapid increase in the life expectancy of older ages motivates a better understanding of the incentive effects that mortality contingent claims have on longevity related behavior we claim that these incentives in often alter the standard conclusions obtained about old age support when mortality is treated exogenously in particular we argue that annuities involve moral hazard effects that increase longevity and among other things introduce a positive interaction between public programs for health care and income support for the elderly programs that have grown enormously in developed countries

is environmental efficiency trade inducing or trade hindering abstract global efforts to identify strategies for sustainable economic growth and development underline the need for understanding important links between environmental policies and international trade in this paper by constructing an environmental efficiency index for 111 countries from 1980 to 2009 we are able to empirically test for one such link an improvement in the environmental efficiency index in terms of carbon dioxide emissions reflects a decrease in the cost of efforts to mitigate the environmental costs associated with growth countries that improve their environmental efficiency are found to experience strong international trade effects both through increased exports and increased imports while the positive link between efficiency improvements and exports is supportive of the porter hypothesis the positive link between efficiency improvements and imports is supportive of strong positive income effects on account of environmental efforts these results which are robust to alternative estimation strategies lend strong support to global efforts to improve countries environmental efficiencies

the world price of coal a significant increase in the seaborne trade for coal over the past 20 years has unified formerly separate coal markets into a world market in which prices move in tandem by virtue of its large domestic market the usa has become the residual supplier and price setter in the world coal market changes in multifactor productivity have been the primary cause of the long term fluctuations in coal prices that have been observed in the usa since the end of the second world war and in the world coal market

effects of unilateral climate policy on terms of trade capital accumulation and welfare in a world economy we present a two good two country overlapping generations model where emissions arise from production and each country has a domestic emission permit system when one country unilaterally reduces her cap on emissions her output available for domestic and foreign consumption diminishes more than in the other country with unchanged consumption expenditure shares for both goods the domestic terms of trade improve while capital stocks decline in the reducing and less strongly in the non reducing country improving terms of trade in the reducing country and falling capital stocks lead in total to welfare losses in both countries however if the country which unilaterally reduces her emission permits is a net creditor to the world economy and the golden rule applies her own welfare loss remains below that of the non reducing country

the public finance of healthy behavior lifestyle can often affect the likelihood an individual will have a future illness subsidies often mitigate the consequences of poor lifestyle choices in this paper we explore tax subsidy policies that lower the consequences of incurring ill health we find that a funding mechanism consistent with current us policy lowers the investment in healthy lifestyles by both the wealthy who pay taxes and the poor who receive subsidies we also explore alternative policy interventions such as investing in research to lessen the impact or probability of the disease

reconciling theory and practice an alternative conceptual framework for understanding payments for environmental services article i nfo this article provides an alternative and novel theoretical approach to the conceptualization and analysis of payments for environmental services pes we devote special emphasis to institutional and political economy issues which have been somewhat neglected in the literature on pes we argue that the coasean and pure market approach dominating the conceptualization of pes in the literature cannot be easily generalized and implemented in practice by contrast taking into account complexities related to uncertainty distributional issues social embeddedness and power relations permits acknowledging the variety of contexts and institutional settings in which pes operate the alternative approach presented in this introductory article to the special section may be more appealing to pes practitioners since while avoiding restrictive and prescriptive standpoints it allows some key sources of complexities they usually deal with on the ground to be more easily understood

international coal trade and restrictions on coal consumption coal consumption is a major source of co2 emissions and other air pollutants and is therefore a focus of environmental policy however countries that restrict their coal consumption will likely expand their coal exports to foreign markets with fewer restrictions on consumption the adjustment in international trade will mitigate the impact on coal industry employment but will also reverse some of the reduction in global emissions this paper quantifies the impact of restrictions on coal consumption in the united states and several other large countries on global coal consumption trade and industry employment the impact calculations are based on an econometric model of the international coal market the parameters of the model are fitted to panel data on coal consumption and production in 53 countries

assessment of european union transition scenarios with a special focus on the issue of carbon leakage this paper uses the model gemini e3 to simulate and assess the transition scenario to 2020 framed by the european union in its energy climate directive and it raises several issues in this connection after a brief description of the model the paper presents the results of the scenarios mainly the values of the major indicators of carbon price both in the ets and in non ets sectors and the welfare cost of the eu policy under the various configurations considered while it is independent of the scenario in the ets sector in the non ets sector the value of carbon is very sensitive to the provisions of the directive and in particular the option of resorting to the flexibility mechanisms the welfare cost also varies significantly according to scenarios and its value for the entire eu is more than double in the scenario closest to the directive as compared to the least cost one the paper also addresses the very sensitive issue of carbon leakage and argues in favor of a new concept of net leakage the analysis shows that while carbon leakage may affect some specific sectors at the aggregate level it does not represent a real concern with a magnitude of at most a few percent of ghg abatement by annex b countries

cleaning up while cleaning up pollution abatement interest groups and contingent trade policies this paper analyzes the political economy of environmental policy formation in a trading economy with established rules for administered protection we argue that the social costs associated with the adoption of an inefficient environmental regime are likely to be compounded by induced restrictions on trade when the effected industries are import competing the preferences of interest groups for alternative environmental regimes tend to be linked to the legal institutional setting in which trade policy is conducted under existing rules and practices in the area of administered protection there is reason to believe that interest group preferences for an inefficient approach to pollution control will be strengthened because the adoption of such a regime is more likely to lead to a concomitant increase in trade barriers

differentiated carbon prices and the economic cost of decarbonization employing a numerical general equilibrium model with multiple fuels end use sectors heterogeneous households and transport externalities this paper examines three motives for differentiated carbon pricing in the context of swiss climate policy fiscal interactions with the existing tax code non hbox co 2 related transport externalities and social equity concerns interaction effects with mineral oil taxes reduce carbon taxes on motor fuels and transport externalities increase them we show that the cost effective overall carbon tax on motor fuels should be lower than the one on thermal fuels this is found in spite of the fact that pre existing taxes on motor fuels are well below our estimate of the transport externality per unit of transport fuel consumption differentiating taxes in favor of motor fuels yields only slightly more equitable incidence effects among households suggesting that equity considerations play a minor role when designing differentiated carbon pricing policies

exploring the links between equity and efficiency in payments for environmental services a conceptual approach this paper addresses the relationship between equity and efficiency in pes schemes from a conceptual point of view emphasis is placed on the role of the institutional setting social perceptions about economic fairness or distributive justice of the payments uncertainty and interactions between agents including power relations we introduce the heuristic concept of the efficiency equity interdependency curve to illustrate potential combinations between equity and efficiency that may be theoretically possible the paper argues that different types of institutional factors determine which equity efficiency combinations may be potentially feasible influence the actual combination that will be achieved on the ground and condition possible changes in that combination due to exogenous factors by stressing the role of institutional aspects in shaping the equity efficiency relationship the paper attempts to go beyond the dominant coasean vision of pes