Journal: Economics Working Paper Series

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CER-ETH – Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich

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Publications 1 - 10 of 14
  • Emission Reduction and Profit-Neutral Permit Allocations
    Item type: Working Paper
    Nicolaï, Jean-Philippe (2015)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    The present paper addresses two policy objectives that the environmental regulator aims to accomplish: to implement a market for permits and make regulation acceptable for businesses. Profit-neutral permit allocations are defined as the number of permits that the regulator should give for free so that profits after regulation (i.e. profits that the firm realizes in the market for products plus the value of the allowances granted for free) are equal to profits before regulation. The paper demonstrates that a low number of free allowances is sufficient to meet these two goals. Moreover, even when the reduction is high, the regulator can fully offset losses if the concerned sectors are not in a monopoly context. The suggested model is developed by assuming that firms compete "à la Cournot", use polluting technologies and the demand function is iso-elastic. It is then illustrated by the first two phases of the EU Emissions Trading System.
  • Social equity concerns and differentiated environmental taxes
    Item type: Working Paper
    Abrell, Jan; Rausch, Sebastian; Schwarz, Giacomo A. (2016)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    This paper examines pollution tax differentiation across industries in light of social equity concerns using theoretical and numerical general equilibrium analyses in an optimal tax framework. We characterize the drivers for non-uniform optimal taxes emanating from the interaction of household heterogeneity with social preferences. Quantitatively assessing the case of price-based CO2 emissions control in the U.S. economy, we find that optimal carbon taxes differ largely across industries, even when social inequality aversion is low. Our results are robust with respect to the stringency of the environmental target, non optimal redistribution schemes, and parametric uncertainty in firms’ and households’ equilibrium tax responses.
  • Elections, contracts and markets
    Item type: Working Paper
    Gersbach, Hans; Müller, Markus (2006)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    As the performance of long-term projects is not observable in the short run politicians may pander to public opinion. To solve this problem, we propose a triple mechanism involving political information markets, reelection threshold contracts, and democratic elections. An information market is used to predict the long-term performance of a policy, while threshold contracts stipulate a price level on the political information market that a politician must reach to have the right to stand for reelection. Reelection thresholds are offered by politicians during campaigns. We show that, on balance, the triple mechanism increases social welfare.
  • Intergenerational transfers, lifetime welfare and resource preservation
    Item type: Working Paper
    Valente, Simone (2006)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    This paper analyzes overlapping-generations models where natural capital is owned by sel sh agents. Transfers in favor of young agents reduce the rate of depletion and increase output growth. It is shown that intergenerational transfers may be preferred to laissez-faire by an inde nite sequence of generations: if the resource share in production is su¢ ciently high, the welfare gain induced by preservation compensates for the loss due to taxation. This conclusion is reinforced when other assets are available, e.g. man-made capital, claims on monopoly rents, and R&D investment. Transfers raise the welfare of all generations, except that of the first resource owner: if resource endowments are taxed at time zero, all successive generations support resource-saving policies for purely sel sh reasons.
  • Financial Intermediation and Deposit Contracts: A Strategic View
    Item type: Working Paper
    Larocca, Vittorio (2015)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    This paper investigates competition among financial intermediaries in a finite-trader version of the Diamond and Dybvig (1983) economy under no aggregate uncertainty. The economy is populated by self-interested financial intermediaries that compete strategically over deposit contracts offered to consumers. Both exclusive and nonexclusive competition perspective are considered, in both cases multiple equilibria arise if banks do not have an initial endowment. When financial intermediaries have a sufficient level of endowment, regardless the competition perspective adopted, the first best allocation is the unique equilibrium allocation
  • Growth and enduring epidemic diseases
    Item type: Working Paper
    Bell, Clive; Gersbach, Hans (2006)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    This paper studies the formation of human capital and its transmission across generations when premature adult mortality is a salient feature of the demographic landscape, either permanently or in the form of a long-period wave that follows the outbreak of an epidemic. We establish several threshold properties of the model, for such a shock can severely retard economic growth, even to the point of leading to an economic collapse. Premature adult mortality may exacerbate inequality under nuclear family arrangements. Pooling mortality risks with equal treatment of all children may fend off, or even induce, a collapse, depending on the initial conditions and the size and duration of the shock. Awareness campaigns may also trigger a collapse by introducing undesirable expectational feedbacks.
  • Knowledge diffusion, endogenous growth, and the costs of global climate policy
    Item type: Working Paper
    Bretschger, Lucas; Lechthaler, Filippo; Rausch, Sebastian; et al. (2015)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    This paper examines the effects of knowledge diffusion on growth and costs of climate policy. We develop a general equilibrium model with endogenous growth which represents knowledge diffusion between sectors and regions. Knowledge diffusion depends on accessibility and absorptive capacity which we estimate econometrically using patent and citation data. Knowledge diffusion leads to a “greening” of economies boosting productivity of “clean” carbon-extensive sectors. Knowledge diffusion lowers the costs of global climate policy by about 90% for emerging countries (China) and 20% for developed regions (Europe and USA), depending on the substitutability between differ ent knowledge types.
  • Numerical solution of optimal control problems with constant control delays
    Item type: Working Paper
    Brandt-Pollmann, Ulrich; Winkler, Ralph; Sager, Sebastian; et al. (2006)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    We investigate a class of optimal control problems that exhibit constant exogenously given delays in the control in the equation of motion of the differential states. Therefore, we formulate an exemplary optimal control problem with one stock and one control variable and review some analytic properties of an optimal solution. However, analytical considerations are quite limited in case of delayed optimal control problems. In order to overcome these limits, we reformulate the problem and apply direct numerical methods to calculate approximate solutions that give a better understanding of this class of optimization problems. In particular, we present two possibilities to reformulate the delayed optimal control problem into an instantaneous optimal control problem and show how these can be solved numerically with a state-of-the-art direct method by applying Bock’s direct multiple shooting algorithm. We further demonstrate the strength of our approach by two economic examples.
  • The climate challenge for agriculture and the value of climate services: application to coffee-farming in Peru
    Item type: Working Paper
    Lechthaler, Filippo; Vinogradova, Alexandra (2016)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    The use of climate information in economic activities, typically provided by climate services, may serve as a possible adaptation strategy to changing climate conditions. The present paper analyzes the value of climate services aimed at improving agricultural productivity through a reduction in weather-associated risks. In the first part, we provide a theoretical foundation for estimating the value of climate services by proposing a stochastic life-cycle model of a rural household which faces uncertainty with respect to the timing and the size of an adverse weather shock. We subsequently calibrate the model to match the environment of coffee producers in the Cusco region of Peru and provide a range of estimates for the value of climate services for a single average household, the region, and the country as a whole. In the second part of the paper we use empirical data to verify the numerical estimates. We assess the value of climate services in the agricultural sector in Cusco based on a choice experiment approach. Data are analyzed using a standard as well as a random parameter logit model allowing for preference heterogeneity. Farmers show a significant willingness-to-pay for enhanced climate services which is particularly related to the service accuracy and geographic resolution. On average, the yearly value of a climate service in the coffee sector is found to be in the range $20.64 - $21.10 per hectare and $8.1 - $8.2 million for Peru as a whole.
  • Firm Heterogeneity, Industry Dynamics and Climate Policy
    Item type: Working Paper
    Jo, Ara; Karydas, Christos (2023)
    Economics Working Paper Series
    We develop a dynamic general equilibrium model to quantify the interaction between climate policy, industry dynamics, and the elasticity of substitution between clean and dirty energy in the economy. The model incorporates empirical observations that firms differ substantially in their potential for energy substitution and that the economy is growing more capable of substituting clean for dirty energy over time as environmental regulation becomes more stringent. Our model highlights the effect of dynamic industry response on increasing the average elasticity of substitution in the economy due to the exit of least flexible firms in response to climate policy. The higher average elasticity of substitution increases the effectiveness of the policy at reducing emissions, resulting in a 35 percent decrease in the size of the carbon tax required to achieve carbon neutrality.
Publications 1 - 10 of 14