Transferable quotas,enforcement costs and typical firms: An empirical application to the Norwegian trawler fleet

An alternative to traditional regulations of fisheries to avoid rent dissipation is the use of individual transferable quotas (ITQ _s ) where prices in the quota market provide the necessary information to owners of harvest rights to contract with each other. However, even under such a decentralized regime, information on the underlying technology of the fishing vessels is also necessary. First, since most fisheries consist of many interrelated production processes, in order to avoid rent dissipation by discarding wrong output mix etc., the structure of production in the multispecies fishery must be known to design a proper quota system. Second, an ITQ system may create incentives for misreporting by understating the actual catch. This may especially be the case where the expected degree of self-enforcement is low. The paper proposes a way to reduce the information requirements under regulation with asymmetric information by constructing a typical firm and comparing performance for the other vessels to this firm. Based on the typical firm, and if the industry is relatively homogenous, the performance and hence catch of any other firm in the industry can be predicted within a certain range. Further, the paper applies this idea to the Norwegian trawler fleet to assess the production structure in terms of jointness, input-output separability, and the supply and demand elasticities for the fishing firms. This information characterizes the fishery and thus how the quota system may be designed and how to construct a yardstick in order to reduce the enforcement cost under a decentralized regulation of ITQs.The authors would like to thank Trond Bjørndal, Røgnvaldur Hannesson, Ola Flaaten and two referees for useful comments and suggestions.     

Market Power and Welfare in Electricity Markets Employing Tradable Green Certificate Systems

Within the last 25 years, liberalization (deregulation) of electricity markets around the world has been undertaken with the goal of replacing long-standing monopoly rights with fully competitive markets. In addition, many nations have begun employing “tradable green certificate” systems to promote electricity generation from renewable (“green”) energy sources (wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectric, etc.), with the primary objective of mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel (“black”) producers. In this paper, we examine some welfare implications of the use of green certificate systems in electricity markets under alternative market structures. We demonstrate that under a wide variety of scenarios, an oligopolistic market structure may perform better in terms of welfare than a competitive market structure. We also demonstrate that there will typically be an optimal level of market power summarized by a conjectural variations parameter that depends on the cost structure of both green and black firms. Our model provides insights into the policy challenge of electricity market design and suggests an approach that could be applied in a more general model.     

Grid Parity and Cost Reduction Incentives for “Green Producers” in Electricity Markets

In an electricity market, a feed-in tariff promotes attainment of a so-called “green quota” through a system of subsidies designed to ensure renewable energy investors a “normal rate-of-return”. However, the subsidies should track technological advances closely with the expectation that they will be phased out when the renewable technology reaches an appropriate “maturity threshold” (i.e., grid parity). Grid parity is typically defined as the point where the levelized cost of electricity equals the price of purchasing electricity from the grid. However, it has been recognized that this definition of grid parity is flawed due to the intermittent nature of many renewable resources. We propose a definition which allows us to distinguish between grid parity and least-cost grid parity. We demonstrate that under a green quota and an emissions cap, welfare may be higher if the policy maker forgoes least-cost grid parity and phases out the feed-in system sooner rather than later. We show that while green producer cost reduction incentives under the feed-in tariff are perverse, they can be restored by offering a “menu” of values of the policy variables and allowing full discretion in terms of the decision to engage in cost-padding, pure waste, etc.     

Does affirmative action reduce gender discrimination and enhance efficiency? New experimental evidence

We investigate experimentally the impact of quota policies on gender discrimination in hiring decisions by testing whether affirmative action increases female employment. We also ask whether firm performance is affected by such policies. Our experiment consists of three treatments. In the baseline (no quota) treatment, groups of two employers and six potential job candidates are formed. Employers have to hire two workers based on information on candidate characteristics including gender and years and subject of study. The second, low penalty, treatment is identical to the baseline except there is a quota such that at least half of the employees hired must be women. If this quota is not respected, the firm has to pay a penalty. The last, high penalty, treatment is the same as the low penalty treatment except that the penalty is significantly higher. We find that women are ranked unfavorably in the absence of a quota, and the introduction of a quota significantly reduces gender discrimination. Firm performance is not affected by the introduction of quotas.     

State Trading and Tariff Rate Quotas: The Case of Korea's Rice Imports

This paper analyzes the effects of trade liberalization of tariff‐rate quotas under import “state trading enterprises” (STEs) in agriculture. An analytical framework is provided to determine the importance of which instrument is binding under competition (the in‐quota or out‐of‐quota tariff or the quota) and under the initial STE equilibrium. It also depends on whether or not the STE controls both the domestic market prices and owns/controls the import quota (and whether it is obligated to fill the quota or not). An empirical example of the rice STE in South Korea has simulations showing that an increase in imports can be achieved through a moderate expansion of the quota or a decrease in the out‐of‐quota tariff to the level where it becomes binding. However, a significant level of quota expansion induces the STE to switch to the autarky solution and social welfare declines.     

Climate Policy under Technology Spillovers

We study climate policy when there are technology spillovers between countries, as there is no instrument that (directly) corrects for these externalities. Without an international climate agreement, the (non-cooperative) equilibrium depends on whether countries use tradable quotas or carbon taxes as their environmental policy instruments. All countries are better-off in the tax case than in the quota case. Two types of international climate agreements are then studied: One is a Kyoto type of agreement where each country is assigned a specific number of internationally tradable quotas. In the second type of agreement, a common carbon tax is used domestically in all countries. None of the cases satisfy the conditions for the social optimum. Even if the quota price is equal to the Pigovian level, R&D investments will be lower than what is socially optimal in the quota case. It is also argued that the quota agreement gives higher R&D expenditures and more abatement than the tax agreement.     

信贷规模与房地产价格的非线性动态关系研究

本文运用非线性平滑转换模型对我国房地产价格与信贷规模的动态关系进行了研究,研究发现:2000年到2009年我国信贷规模的变动是房地产价格变动的格兰杰原因,信贷规模对房地产价格存在非线性影响,两者之间的关系适合使用LSTR1模型来拟合,当信贷规模的增长超过45.76%时,信贷规模的变动会对房地产价格产生影响,前一期和当期信贷规模增加1%,会分别导致当期房地产价格上涨0.3135%和0.0970%。研究结果的政策含义是只要房地产信贷规模控制在适当的范围,信贷规模的变动对于房地产价格的上涨就会有显著减弱,本文进一步指出在这种情况下,只有合理控制其他推高房地产价格上涨的因素才可能取得良好的调控效果。     

Tariff and Quota Equivalence in Vertically Related Markets

This paper re‐examines the issue of tariff and quota equivalence by introducing an upstream market into the Hwang and Mai (1988 ) model, and then allowing the two downstream firms to cross‐haul within each other's market. We assume the upstream monopolist can select either a two‐part or a one‐part tariff pricing strategy. It is found that if the upstream firm adopts a two‐part (one‐part) tariff pricing strategy, then the market price of the final good under a tariff will be higher (lower) than that under an equivalent quota; that is, the quota is set at the import level under the tariff regime. This result stands in stark contrast to the prior findings of both Hwang and Mai (1988 ) and Fung (1989 ). Moreover, if the quota rent is set as being equal to the tariff revenue, the social welfare under a tariff will necessarily be lower than that under an equivalent quota.     

2010年英国的科技政策和科技举措

纵观英国2010年的科技发展概况,财政紧缩成为英国科研投入的“紧箍咒”。尽管英国把科学研究经费保持在原来的464亿英镑水平,这意味着英国的核心科研经费在很大程度上得到了保证,但笔者认为从整体上对英国未来的创新不利。英国政府适时推出了一系列重要科技举措,其中包括稳定核心科研经费、设定技术移民限额、发布国家基础设施规划、支持企业行动和计划、筹备建立世界上第一个绿色投资银行等,举措影响深远。     

基于BIM技术的绿色工程解决方案研究

建筑业资源消耗量巨大,发展绿色工程迫在眉睫,但基于现有技术实现绿色工程存在不少困难。探索将BIM技术运用到工程项目中,实现工程绿色化。介绍了绿色工程的概念,分析了BIM应用现状,以成都市南城都汇六期汇彩园商业及住宅项目BIM实践为例,从BIM策划、投标报价策略分析、管综优化、限额领料等方面进行剖析和论证,阐述了BIM应用于绿色工程的实践效果。     

The effects of periodic quotas limiting the stock of imports of durables

Analyses of trade quotas typically assume that the quota restricts the flow of some nondurable good. Many real-world quotas, however, restrict the stock of durable imports. We consider the cases where (1) anyone is free to export against such quotas and where (2) only those allocated portions of the total quota are free to export against such quotas. Recent econometric investigations of such quotas have focused on the price of the durable as an indicator of tightness induced by the quota. We show why this is an inappropriate indicator and suggest alternatives.     

建筑施工企业定额在企业运行中的作用及制定原则和方法

施工企业要生存壮大,就现在的建设市场形势,有一套切合企业本身实际情况的企业定额是十分重要的。企业定额要体现本企业在某方面的技术优势。企业定额的所有单价都实行动态管理。企业定额各单项的平均造价要比社会平均价低。企业定额要具有先进性、合理性。企业定额的运用可以提高企业效益,有助于规范市场,提高市场占有率,易适应工程量清单计价。     

碳排放配额政策的环境效应和贸易效应研究

基于不完全市场竞争理论,构建了两个对称国家碳排放配额政策选择与企业碳减排选择的两阶段博弈模型,运用逆向求解法求得了均衡解,并通过进一步分析碳排放许可证政策、碳排放配额许可交易政策和许可交易碳排放权合作政策的福利效应,得出了两国政府碳排放配额政策选择的激励相容条件和参与约束条件,确定了全局稳定均衡最优解及其条件;此外,还分析了两国政府碳排放许可证政策、碳排放配额许可交易政策和许可交易碳排放权合作政策的环境效应和贸易效应。结果表明：从福利效应来看,许可交易碳排放权合作政策是全局稳定最优解,可以资源的有效配置,实现Pareto改进;从环境效应来看,许可交易碳排放权合作政策也是严格占优的,有助于减少各国和全球净污染排放量;从贸易效应来看,碳排放配额许可交易政策好于许可交易碳排放权合作政策。因此,北-北型对称国家会优先选择许可交易碳排放权合作政策,南一南型对称国家在一定时期内仍然会优先选择碳排放配额许可交易政策,南-南或北-北型对称国家之间容易实现碳排放政策合作,实现全球环境合作还有待时日。     

Competitive General Equilibrium with Finite Change and Theory of Policy Making

We visit the non‐equivalence of tariff and quota in higher dimensional finite change trade models when goods outnumber factors of production. Under competitive conditions, exogenous shocks (e.g., exposure to international trade) support the production of only a subset of commodities. If we try to protect some of the vanishing goods, tariff and quota will have different results when a tariff turns out to be a more restrictive policy than a quota, contrary to the conventional wisdom.     

Organisational change and the productivity effects of green technology adoption

This study investigates induced productivity effects of firms introducing new environmental technologies. The literature on within-firm organisational change and productivity suggests that firms can achieve higher productivity gains from adopting new technologies if they adapt their organisational structures. Such complementarity effects may be of particular importance for the adoption of greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement technologies. The adoption of these technologies is often induced by public authorities to limit the social costs of climate change, whereas the private returns are much less obvious. This study finds empirical support for complementarity between green technology adoption (either CO₂-reducing or resources and energy efficiency-enhancing technologies) and organisational change. While the sole adoption of green technologies is associated with lower productivity, the simultaneous implementation of green technologies and organisational innovations is not.     

Putting Foxes in Charge of the Hen-House: The Political Economy of Harvest Quota Regulations

This paper considers a dynamic common agency model of natural resource harvest quota regulation in which both conservationists and harvesters vie to influence the regulator’s quota allocations as well as the choice of regulator. Conservationists tend to benefit from the adoption of regulation since the regulator will reduce the aggregate harvest quota relative to the unregulated equilibrium. Harvesters, however, only support the adoption of regulation if the regulator places sufficient weight on their welfare. Because harvester’s support of regulation is conditional while conservationist’s support of regulation is unconditional, harvester’s interests tend to be over-represented in the truthful Markov Perfect equilibrium.     

Smuggling and Bhagwati's Nonequivalence Between Tariffs and Quotas

The authors extend Professor Bhagwati's analysis about the nonequivalence between trade policy instruments when domestic production is monopolized and the terms of trade are endogenous, by allowing for smuggling. They show that the dominance of the ad valorem tariff over the quota is not robust. Tariffication can lower welfare even when the level of illegal imports is quite small. However, tariffication with a specific tariff is always beneficial because the specific tariff dominates the ad valorem tariff and the quota with or without smuggling. Smuggling (or the threat) also tends to lower the second–best tariff/quota, and increases welfare when imports are restricted by a quota, but lowers it under a tariff.     

On the Equivalence of Tariffs and Quotas under a Revenue Constraint

This paper sets out a duopolistic model to examine the price and welfare equivalence of tariffs and quotas, given the quota rent is equal to the tariff revenue. It shows that the domestic welfare ranking of the two trade policies crucially depends on the relative costs of the domestic and foreign firms; when the domestic firm's relative costs are lower than those of the foreign firm, a quota regime generally leads to a higher welfare level than that of an equivalent tariff regime. This finding contrasts sharply with the conclusions of Dasgupta and Stiglitz (1977 ), where it was found that a tariff regime always generates higher domestic welfare.     

The welfare effects of import “subquotas” on heterogeneous product categories

In spite of its importance to policy makers, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the welfare effects of one aspect of trade policy-how to implement an import quota that applies to a heterogeneous product category. The government can impose a simple quota that applies indiscriminately to all goods within the product category or it can divide the quota among them with subquotas. In this paper, we analyze the welfare effects of subquotas. Under certain simplifying assumptions we find that a system of subquotas nearly always exists that provides greater welfare than a simple quota for a large country that retains quota rights or for a large or small country that gives quota rights away to foreigners. However, subquotas cannot increase the welfare of a small country that retains quota rights. The difference lies in the effect of imports on the home country's terms of trade.The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the US International Trade Commission. The authors are grateful for helpful comments on an earlier draft by anonymous referees.     

Import sensitive products and perverse tariff‐rate quota liberalization

Abstract This paper shows that a Tariff‐Rate‐Quota's (TRQ) minimum access expansion can perversely trigger domestic price increases. Often, TRQs have prohibitive over‐quota tariffs to mimic import quotas in providing minimum market access. In the WTO's Doha Round, it is likely that countries using TRQs will avoid aggressive tariff reductions if they increase the quota portion of TRQs. We show that when the import price lies between the unit cost of production and the price received by domestic upstream firms, an increase in import quota as a share of domestic production may cause an increase in the domestic retail price.