Climate Change Taxes and Energy Efficiency in Japan

In 2003 Japan proposed a Climate Change Tax to reduce its CO₂ emissions to the level required by the Kyoto Protocol. If implemented, the tax would be levied on fossil fuel use and the revenue distributed to encourage the purchase of energy efficient equipment. Analysis using the MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model shows that this policy is unlikely to bring Japan into compliance with its Kyoto target unless the subsidy encourages improvement in energy intensity well beyond Japan’s recent historical experience. Similar demand-management programs in the US, where there has been extensive experience, have not been nearly as effective as they would need to be to achieve energy efficiency goals of the proposal. The Tax proposal also calls for limits on international emission trading. We find that this limit substantially affects costs of compliance. The welfare loss with full emissions trading is 1/6 that when Japan meets its target though domestic actions only, the carbon price is lower, and there is a smaller loss of energy-intensive exports. Japan can achieve substantial savings from emissions trading even under cases where, for example, the full amount of the Russian allowance is not available in international markets.     

Valuing the Incremental Benefits of Groundwater Protection when Exposure Levels are Known

Both economic theory and psychological research indicate that benefit functions for reductions in health risk exposures may be conditional on current exposures. Using nitrates found in household wells, it is demonstrated that perceptions of health risks across exposure levels are affected by the individual's current exposure level, thus providing support for a conditional benefits function approach. Functions of conditional incremental benefits are estimated from a contingent valuation study of households that had been informed of their water test results. Incremental benefits reach a peak at an intermediate level of nitrates and then decline. Possible explanations for this non-convexity are provided.     

Endogenous Transport Coefficients: Implications for Improving Water Quality from Multi-Contaminants in an Agricultural Watershed

The effectiveness of imperfect pollution control instruments is examined for a diffuse source, multi-contaminant problem in which the transport coefficients for sediment-bound residuals are endogenous. Similar evaluations fix the percentage of sediment deposited and optimize either for a single firm managing the whole watershed or on a firm by firm basis. This study shows that ignoring the dependence of the transport coefficients on intervening land uses creates a positive externality. The filtering potential of activities conducted by firms close to the receptor permits firms further away to undertake more profitable but erosive practices. Optimizing management choices, and consequently endogenizing the transport coefficients, for all firms simultaneously removes the externality. An empirical application combines hydrological simulation models with an economic optimization model for nutrient pollution of surface and ground water within an agricultural watershed. Although firms are homogeneous in abatement costs, differences in spatial location leave uniform instruments unable to achieve the water quality goal efficiently. An ambient tax/subsidy scheme can achieve the water quality goal efficiently but the informational requirements will be excessive in most situations where the transport mechanisms for residuals are dependent upon the practices of independent decision making units.     

Games of Climate Change with International Trade

We analyse games of greenhouse gas emission reduction in which the emissions and the emission reduction costs of one country depend on other countries' emission abatement. In an analytically tractable model, we show that international trade effects on costs and emissions can either increase or decrease incentives to reduce emissions and to cooperate on emission abatement; in some specifications, optimal emission reduction is unaffected by trade. We therefore specify the model further, calibrating it to larger models that estimate the costs of emission reduction, trade effects, and impacts of climate change. If trade effects are driven by total emission reduction costs of other countries cooperation is slightly more difficult than in the case without trade effects. If trade effects are determined by relative emission reduction efforts in other countries, cooperation becomes easier. Carbon leakage does not affect our qualitative insights, although it does change the numbers.     

Identifying the sources of energy use change: Multiple calibration decomposition analysis and structural decomposition analysis

Decomposition methodologies are requisite to identify the sources of changes in energy use or carbon dioxide emissions. This paper is an inquiry into the theoretical properties of such decomposition methodologies. The study first presents our new decomposition methodology – the Multiple Calibration Decomposition Analysis (MCDA) – as a tool for the investigation. Then, it theoretically reexamines an established decomposition methodology – the Structural Decomposition Analysis proposed by Casler and Rose (1998). Subsequently, the study empirically investigates the properties of both methodologies, applying them to an actual case: the changes in energy use and carbon dioxide emissions in Japan during the oil crises period, when the oil price had a significant influence on the economy. The result shows that understanding the theoretical properties of decomposition methodologies is essential for a precise interpretation of empirical results.     

Monetary policy and exchange rate dynamics in the Spanish economy

As the Spanish economy gets more integrated in international markets, the real exchange rate becomes a key determinant of the monetary transmission. In this paper we trace out the dynamic response of prices, output and the exchange rate following a monetary policy shock. We estimate a structural VAR model whose identification scheme is based on the long run properties common to a large class of models. The results suggest that a small model with efficient asset markets plus nominal inertia and long run monetary neutrality, captures the essential features of the monetary transmission mechanism in Spain. The interest rate shock is well identified and the exchange rate overshoots its long run value. There are no signs of liquidity puzzle nor of price puzzle or exchange rate puzzle either.     

The trade balance and the terms of trade in a two-country two-sector OLG economy

We consider a two-country, two-sector OLG model. It is shown that the trade balance and the relative price of exports are always positively related when exports are labor intensive regardless of the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption. A large response of savings to future prices becomes a sufficient condition for an inverse relation between these variables only if exports are capital intensive. In this case, a rise in the terms of trade can be followed by a trade balance decline if consumption goods are capital intensive and the income effect implied on savings is negative and large.     

Corporate merger,organizational form,and control of labor

This paper shows that, when two firms merge, the increase in the bargaining strength of the multiproduct firm arising from the merger when negotiating uniform wages with the workers is one of the reasons that account for corporate mergers. Moreover, there is a strategic variable that can be used to decrease union rents in the case of merging, namely, the organization of production decisions.     

The second-best use of social cost estimates

A significant literature has developed to estimate the damages to third parties from new electricity generation technologies. This paper focuses on how such estimates can be profitably used in the present regulatory environment, and in the potential new environment that may result from restructuring in the electricity industry.     

APEC气候变化合作与中国的策略选择

文章对APEC气候变化合作的背景、发展、意义和前景进行了政治经济分析,并着重阐释了美国和日本的气候政策及其对APEC气候变化合作的影响。在此基础上,文章指出了中国参与APEC气候变化合作的必要性,并提出了相应的对策建议。     

Vulgar economy in Marxian garb: a critique of Temporal Single System Marxism

This paper presents a critique of recent efforts, under the rubric of Temporal Single System Marxism, to defend Marx’s value theory against the claim that his transformation algorithm is flawed. Although Marx did make a number of errors in elaborating his theory of value and the profit rate, these missteps do not undermine his larger scientific project. Far greater damage has been inflicted by his would-be Temporal Single System defenders, who camouflage Marx’s errors by detaching him from his Ricardian roots; in the process they redefine value in a way that trivializes its function in Marx’s system.     

技术政策需求分析模型及其在应对气候变化领域的应用

针对目前在技术政策的制定与实施方面我国与发达国家有较大差距的现状,引入技术生命周期理论,建立技术政策需求分析模型;并应用于应对气候变化领域:在综述国内外应对气候变化的技术政策实施现状的基础上,通过列表对比分析,最终得出我国应对气候变化的技术政策需求,以期为政策制定者提供决策参考,为我国应对气候变化目标顺利实现提供政策支持。     

Measuring Passive Use Value: Pledges, Donations and CV Responses in Connection with an Important Natural Resource

This paper examines monetary valuations of lost passive-use benefits associated with damage to a unique environmental resource – a national park, elicited through contingent valuation, and compares them with actual donations to the same end, where the latter are interpreted as a quasi-market expression of willingness to pay for non-market resource services. The relationships between the two valuation approaches were investigated in the specific context of an environmental episode which damaged a unique natural endowment, Israel's Carmel National Park. The empirical analysis is based on data from two sample surveys; one sample was drawn from the population of people who either pledged or pledged and donated during a fund-raising campaign following the episode, with the proceeds dedicated to rehabilitation or prevention of future episodes; the second sample was drawn from the general population of the country. The results cannot be interpreted as providing unqualified support for the reliability of contingent valuation as a means for obtaining passive use values.     

国际气候谈判中欧美分歧探析

国际合作是人类应对全球气候变化的必然选择。由于利益诉求的差异,各国(国家集团)在国际气候谈判中产生了激烈的矛盾碰撞,导致谈判进程举步维艰。欧美在国际气候谈判中的矛盾是制约谈判进程的关键障碍之一。欧美为维护国家(集团)竞争力和争夺气候谈判领导权,在对待气候变化问题的态度、温室气体减排和构建后京都时代国际气候机制等重大问题上存在着深刻的分歧。     

Energy‐Related Environmental Policy and Its Impacts on Energy Use in Asia

Economic growth in Asia has increased in the past three decades and has heightened energy demand, resulting in rising greenhouse gas emissions and severe air pollution. To tackle these issues, fuel switching and the deployment of renewables are essential. In the present paper, we discuss the environmental regulations, mainly carbon pricing, implemented in Asia and discuss their achievements. Empirical studies using microdata have shown that carbon pricing in Asia can reduce carbon emissions by promoting energy efficiency. At the macro level, we observe some evidence of fuel switching from coal to natural gas among major emitters. However, more carbon pricing is necessary in Asia if we aim for the decarbonization of the economy.     

Sex and environmental policy in the U.S. House of Representatives

Using LCV score data, we find that female legislators favor stricter environmental policies than do their male counterparts. Moreover, gender-corrected estimates suggest that voters do not push environmental policy towards the middle, but rather select the ideologically closest candidate.     

Short- and long-term impact of remarkable economic events on the growth causes of China–Germany trade in agri-food products

This paper focuses on a systematic quantitative discussion of the short- and long-term impact of remarkable economic events on international trade in a two-stage framework. Firstly, procedures based on dummy variables are proposed to detect structural breaks, types and sizes of jumps caused by such events. Then we propose to apply a hierarchical CMS (Constant Market Share) model to all sub-periods determined by the detected change points to study the short- and long-term impact of those events on growth causes. Application to China–Germany trade in agri-food products shows that China's accession to WTO had a negative short-term impact on corresponding series. But its long-term impact on China's export competitiveness was clearly positive. The short-term impact of the EU's CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) reform on Germany's exports to China was also negative. Its long-term impact on export competitiveness was sometimes positive and sometimes negative. The financial crisis of 2008 caused a significant reduction of China's agri-food exports to Germany. But Germany's exports to China in 2009 were not affected by the financial crisis as much.     

美国应对气候变化政策新动向及其影响

奥巴马第二任期开始以来,美国政府在应对气候变化方面有一系列新动向,包括发布美国国家气候评估报告(草案)、力促相关行政措施出台、推动中美签署《中美应对气候变化联合声明》、针对德班平台谈判提出“轴辐式协议”全球气候治理框架等。一方面,由于国内政治因素的影响,美国的气候变化政策不会发生大的变化;另一方面,由于美国在全球经济、政治和外交中具有强大的综合实力,这些最新动向仍将对国际气候制度走向和全球低碳发展产生一定影响。我国在推动建立公平合理有效的国际气候制度和新型中美大国关系过程中,需谨慎权衡利弊,同时,从立法、财税、金融、标准、低碳技术研发与推广应用方面切实推进我国低碳发展。     

中国城市碳效率时空演变格局及优化研究

在碳效率视角下,考虑非期望产出采用超效率SBM模型对2006—2016年中国城市碳效率进行测定;构建空间马尔科夫链,从城市尺度研究了中国碳效率的时空演变特征和趋势;采用机器学习模型,对不同类型碳效率类型内碳排放特征与驱动因素进行分析。研究结果表明：中国城市碳效率呈梯度上升趋势,但整体碳效率仍处于中下水平,提升潜力巨大;城市碳效率水平具有稳定性,低效率类型城市存在“俱乐部收敛”现象,高效率类型城市虹吸效应大于集聚效应。最后基于上述研究给出低碳可持续发展建议。