post green revolution food systems and the triple burden of malnutrition developing country food systems have changed dramatically since the green revolution period at the same time malnutrition still represents a challenge and is now understood to encompass the three simultaneous dimensions of undernourishment micronutrient deficiencies and over nutrition manifest in overweight and obesity these changes in food systems and in the understanding of the global malnutrition challenge necessitate fresh thinking about food systems based strategies to reduce malnutrition this paper introduces a special section that offers such new perspectives we discuss trends with respect to indicators of the triple burden of malnutrition to understand the extent of global malnutrition challenges and then relate those to food systems transformation in developing countries

valuation of marginal co2 abatement options for electric power plants in korea the electricity generation sector in korea is under pressure to mitigate greenhouse gases as directed by the kyoto protocol the principal compliance options for power companies under the cap and trade include the application of direct co2 emission abatement and the procurement of emission allowances the objective of this paper is to provide an analytical framework for assessing the cost effectiveness of these options we attempt to derive the marginal abatement cost for co2 using the output distance function and analyze the relative advantages of emission allowance procurement option as compared to direct abatement option real option approach is adopted to incorporate emission allowance price uncertainty empirical result shows the marginal abatement cost with an average of 14 04 ton co2 for fossil fueled power plants and confirms the existence of substantial cost heterogeneity among plants which is sufficient to achieve trading gains in allowance market the comparison of two options enables us to identify the optimal position of the compliance for each plant sensitivity analyses are also presented with regard to several key parameters including the initial allowance prices and interest rate the result of this paper may help korean power plants to prepare for upcoming regulations targeted toward the reduction of domestic greenhouse gases

comparing supply side specifications in models of global agriculture and the food system this article compares the theoretical and functional specification of production in partial equilibrium pe and computable general equilibrium cge models of the global agricultural and food system included in the agmip model comparison study the two model families differ in their scope partial versus economy wide and in how they represent technology and the behavior of supply and demand in markets the cge models are deep structural models in that they explicitly solve the maximization problem of consumers and producers assuming utility maximization and profit maximization with production cost functions that include all factor inputs the pe models divide into two groups on the supply side 1 shallow structural models which essentially specify area yield supply functions with no explicit maximization behavior and 2 deep structural models that provide a detailed activity analysis specification of technology and explicit optimizing behavior by producers while the models vary in their specifications of technology both within and between the pe and cge families we consider two stylized theoretical models to compare the behavior of crop yields and supply functions in cge models with their behavior in shallow structural pe models we find that the theoretical responsiveness of supply to changes in prices can be similar depending on parameter choices that define the behavior of implicit supply functions over the domain of applicability defined by the common scenarios used in the agmip comparisons in practice however the applied models are more complex and differ in their empirical sensitivity to variations in specification comparability of results given parameter choices is an empirical question to illustrate the issues sensitivity analysis is done with one global cge model magnet to indicate how the results vary with different specification of technical change and how they compare with the results from pe models

the price of pollution a dual approach to valuing so2 allowances under the 1990 clean air act amendments a market based scheme to reduce u s sulfur dioxide emissions takes effect in 1995 indications are that participation in the market will be light and allowance prices will be lower than was once expected using an output distance function approach for wisconsin coal burning utility plants we estimate the shadow price of so2abatement which should approximate the allowance price the estimated average shadow price is above the prices at which the few observed allowance trades have occurred wisconsin s stringent state so2legislation may explain a portion of this divergence

viewpoint climate impacts on agriculture searching for keys under the streetlight abstract this paper provides a critical assessment of the literature estimating the consequences of climate impacts in agriculture and the food system this literature focuses overwhelmingly on the impact of elevated co2 concentrations in the atmosphere higher temperatures and changing precipitation on staple crop yields while critically important for food security we argue that researchers have gravitated to measuring impacts under the streetlight where data and models are plentiful we argue that prior work has largely neglected the vast majority of potential economic impacts of climate change on agriculture a broader view must extend the impacts analysis to inputs beyond land including the consequences of climate change for labor productivity as well as for purchased intermediate inputs largely overlooked is the impact of climate change on the rate of total factor productivity growth and the potential for more rapid depreciation of the underlying knowledge capital underpinning this key driver of agricultural output growth this broader view must also focus more attention on non staple crops which while less important from a caloric point of view are critically important in redressing current micronutrient deficiencies in many diets around the world the paper closes with numerical simulations that demonstrate the extent to which limited input and output coverage of climate impacts can lead to considerable underestimation of the consequences for food security and economic welfare of particular significance is the finding that humans in the humid tropics are likely more vulnerable to heat stress than are many of the well adapted crops such as rice by omitting the impact of heat stress on humans most studies of climate impacts greatly understate the welfare losses in the world s poorest economies

modelling labour market adjustment to trade liberalisation in an industrialising economy this paper investigates labour market responses to trade liberalisation in an industrialising country short and long run responses of employment and wages are examined using a specific factor trade model which underpins the empirical work employment and wage equations are estimated using dynamic panel techniques for importable and exportable sectors in mauritius and for a period covering both the pre and post liberalisation regimes the empirical testing finds some support for the theoretical predictions of differential responses between sectors increases in female participation however appear to have dampened the adjustment burdens of liberalisation on importables there is relatively little evidence available about the effects of trade induced shifts in the composition of demand on inter industry employment and wage levels in developing countries analyses of the factor content of imports and exports suggest that a shift from import substitution is to export promotion ep policies will typically in the case of a developing country expand the more labour intensive industries increase labour demand overall and drive up real wages in the long run but trade liberalisation and increased foreign competition may not only affect the composition of the tradeables goods sector i e the distribution between importables and exportables they may also affect both the efficiency with which all firms use factors including labour and the distribution of output within a sector between more and less efficient firms thus the net long run effects of trade liberalisation on employment will depend upon the balance of structural and efficiency effects which cannot be identified from analyses of the composition of trade alone further we must also recognise that the short and long run effects of trade liberalisation on employment and wages may diverge the divergence depending on the degree of factor mobility and the competitiveness of labour markets the aim of this paper is to model labour market adjustment to trade liberalisation in an industrialisingz country it will do so using panel data evidence for mauritius an economy that has undergone significant trade liberalisation and transformation during the 1980s indeed mauritius is viewed simultaneously as a successful liberaliser and an economy with extensive government intervention in the labour market it provides a valuable test base

discounting and distributional considerations in the context of global warming the economics of global warming is reviewed with special emphasis on how the cost depends on the discount rate and on how costs in poor and rich regions are aggregated into a global cost estimate both of these factors depend on the assumptions made concerning the underlying utility and welfare functions it is common to aggregate welfare gains and losses across generations and countries as if the utility of money were constant but it is not if we assume that a e co2 equivalent dlubling implies costs equal to 1 5 of the income in both high and low income countries a pure rate of time preference equal to zero and a utility function which is logarithmic in income then the marginal cost of co2 emissions is estimated at 260 590 usd ton c for a time horizon in the range 300 1000 years an estimate which is large enough to justify significant reductions of co2 emissions on purely economic grounds the estimate is approximately 50 100 times larger than the estimate made by nordhaus in his dice model and the difference is almost completely due to the choice of discount rate and the weight given to the costs in the developing world as well as a more accurate model of the carbon cycle finally the sensitivity of the marginal cost estimate with respect to several parameters is analyzed

the social cost of carbon and its policy implications the shadow price or social cost of carbon is an important indicator of the global incremental damage done by emitting greenhouse gases today cost benefit analysis would set the optimal amount of greenhouse gas emission reduction at the point where this social cost just equals the incremental cost of controlling emissions the higher the value for the social cost of carbon the more control is warranted this comparison assumes that cost benefit analysis is the correct way of determining climate change policy and many believe this is not the case because of the very long term irreversible and potentially catastrophic nature of global warming but in the short run at least a comparison of cost and benefits is required and in any event all decisions imply costs and benefits but what is the right figure for the social cost of carbon this paper reviews the uk government s assessment of the cost and concludes that it has been set far too high because of a misreading of the integrated assessment models used to balance costs and benefits moreover adoption of the uk government s shadow price would have formidable implications for energy policy in the uk and for policies on afforestation copyright 2003 oxford university press

directional shadow price estimation of co2 so2 and nox in the united states coal power industry 1990 2010 abstract shadow prices also termed marginal abatement costs provide valuable guidelines to support environmental regulatory policies for co 2 so 2 and no x the key contributors to climate change this paper complements the existing models and describes a directional marginal productivity dmp approach to estimate directional shadow prices dsps which present substitutability among three emissions and are jointly estimated we apply the method to a case study of co 2 so 2 and no x produced by coal power plants operating between 1990 and 2010 in the united states we find that dsp shows 1 1 times the maximal shadow prices estimated in the current literature we conclude that estimating the shadow prices of each by product separately may lead to an overestimation of the marginal productivity and an underestimation of the shadow prices

pollution from the electric power sector in japan and efficient pollution reduction abstract under the scheme of the kyoto protocol there are plans for the efficient reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the electric power sector nuclear power generation which emits no carbon dioxide in the process of generating electricity has come under scrutiny however this energy produces a new environmental issue the disposal of radioactive waste first we derive shadow prices of carbon dioxide and low level waste as marginal abatement costs in the case of the electric power sector in japan employing a directional output distance function it is found that the shadow prices are us 39 per tonne for carbon dioxide and us 1531 per liter for low level waste secondly we calculate the indirect morishima elasticity between carbon dioxide and low level waste in order to identify their substitutability and it is found that the substitution of low level waste for carbon dioxide is easier than the reverse this result suggests that with the amount of generated electricity fixed carbon dioxide can be substituted more easily by low level waste when the relative price of carbon dioxide increases for example as a result of implementation of a carbon dioxide tax or an emissions trading system

on international equity weights and national decision making on climate change abstract estimates of the marginal damage costs of carbon dioxide emissions require the aggregation of monetised impacts of climate change over people with different incomes and in different jurisdictions implicitly or explicitly such estimates assume a social welfare function and hence a particular attitude towards equity and justice we show that previous approaches to equity weighting are inappropriate from a national decision maker s point of view because domestic impacts are not valued at domestic values we propose four alternatives sovereignty altruism good neighbour and compensation with different views on concern for and liability towards foreigners the four alternatives imply radically different estimates of the social cost of carbon and hence the optimal intensity of climate policy

discounting the distant future how much do uncertain rates increase valuations abstract we demonstrate that when the future path of the discount rate is uncertain and highly correlated the distant future should be discounted at significantly lower rates than suggested by the current rate we then use two centuries of us interest rate data to quantify this effect using both random walk and mean reverting models we compute the certainty equivalent rate that summarizes the effect of uncertainty and measures the appropriate forward rate of discount in the future under the random walk model we find that the certainty equivalent rate falls continuously from 4 to 2 after 100 years 1 after 200 years and 0 5 after 300 years at horizons of 400 years the discounted value increases by a factor of over 40 000 relative to conventional discounting applied to climate change mitigation we find that incorporating discount rate uncertainty almost doubles the expected present value of mitigation benefits

cost minimizing regulation of sulfur emissions regional gains in electric power environmental regulations set maximum allowable rates for sulfur dioxide emissions from electric utilities by ignoring firm differences in marginal abatement costs and preventing emissions trading these standards do not minimize the cost of reducing einissions this paper estimates marginal abatement cost functions for 56 utilities for 1973 79 marginal costs vary substantially across firms due to differences in the price of low and high sulfur fuels and the intensity of regulation the potential savings from a cost minimizing reallocation of abatement resources are estimated for five regions current expenditures are found to be 47 higher than cost minimizing levels i mplementation of the 1970 clean air act amendments relies extensively on technology based emission standards economists long have recognized that these standards can result in an inefficient allocation of pollution control resources engineering based restrictions ignore or oversimplify differences in abatement costs among polluters limited empirical research suggests that current standards result in substantially higher costs as much as ten times higher than a cost minimizing regulatory scheme 2 these studies however are based on engineering estimates of marginal abatement costs the models often assume that all polluters adopt control technologies that are required only for new plants and that have been largely unadopted by polluting firms 3 the impact of changing factor prices on marginal abatement costs typically is ignored the difficulty is that the resulting estimates of the cost of regulation neither adequately reflect the range of control options available to polluters nor take into account how polluters actually have responded to environmen

the assessment emu four years on this paper reviews the functioning of the economic and monetary union over the first 4 years of its existence monetary policy is viewed as having been of the inflation targeting type but with a tendency towards delay and conservatism in adjustment which may also reflect over optimistic output growth forecasts the resulting pressure on the stability and growth pact sgp illustrates the weakness in the consensus view of the harmonious interaction of monetary fiscal and supply side policies which requires policy in all three areas to be correct in discussing reform of the sgp a looser but still constraining form of fiscal agreement is advocated the supply side and balance of payments issues involved in inter country adjustment also interact importantly with the sgp and are identified as key areas of difficulty in a still immature monetary union with separate labour market structures here the mechanisms for coordination are more or less absent copyright 2003 oxford university press

estimating the marginal abatement cost curve of co2 emissions in china provincial panel data analysis abstract this paper estimates the marginal abatement cost curve macc of co2 emissions in china based on a provincial panel for the period of 2001 2010 the provincial marginal abatement cost mac of co2 emissions is estimated using a parameterized directional output distance function four types of model specifications are applied to fit the mac carbon intensity pairs the optimal specification controlling for various covariates is identified econometrically a scenario simulation of china s 40 45 carbon intensity reduction based on our macc is illustrated our simulation results show that china would incur a 559 623 yuan t roughly 51 57 increase in marginal abatement cost to achieve a corresponding 40 45 reduction in carbon intensity compared to its 2005 level

fiscal stress and the production of public safety a distance function approach abstract faced with increasing crime rates but nonincreasing budgets local governments are seeking cost saving means of providing public safety this paper investigates a bureaucracy s response to fiscal stress as well as its ability to efficiently substitute civilian for uniformed personnel exploiting duality theory a distance function is used to model technology retrieve information concerning substitutability and shadow prices of personnel and test for cost minimization morishima elasticities are adopted to allow for asymmetry in substitution between types of personnel it is found that the more adverse the public safety environment and budgetary condition the more efficiently resources are allocated

shadow prices and pollution costs in u s agriculture abstract we use the directional output distance function to derive estimates of production inefficiency shadow prices for polluting outputs and the associated pollution costs using a quadratic functional form for the directional output distance function and data for the u s agricultural sector during 1960 1996 we find that the pollution costs the shadow values from the runoff and leaching of pesticides are 6 of crop and animal revenues and are highest in the midwest and lowest in the western states if states were to reduce technical inefficiency and operate on the production frontier pollution costs could be reduced by 7

marginal abatement costs of carbon dioxide emissions and its influencing factors a global perspective abstract reducing co 2 emissions has become a major and urgent environmental goal worldwide in this paper we sample the data of 41 regions including 165 countries from 2000 to 2014 and adopt a gravity model to obtain an overview of the global flows of co 2 emissions energy consumption the global economy and capital stock since the beginning of the 21st century we then investigate global technical efficiency reduction potential shadow prices and factors influencing the marginal abatement costs of co 2 emissions based on a quadratic directional output distance function the empirical results show the following 1 the global centres of gravity for co 2 emissions energy consumption and capital stock have accelerated their shift to the asian inland in the 21st century but the global centre of gravity for the economy did not show the same trend 2 global technical inefficiency demonstrates a u shape with a turning point in 2007 average annual total global co 2 emissions could be reduced by 4482 28 mt and the global marginal abatement costs of co 2 emissions are approximately 673 74 697 73 usd t 3 the relationship between economic development and marginal abatement costs is represented by a u shaped curve the world is currently in the climbing phase of this curve implying that controlling co 2 emissions is becoming more costly moreover energy structure industrial structure and co 2 emissions are negatively correlated with marginal abatement costs finally the financial crisis has had a significant effect on marginal abatement costs