Research Papers in Economics
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Asymmetric Phase Shifts in the U.S. Industrial Production Cycles
No full textWe identify the cyclical turning points of 74 U.S. manufacturing industries and uncover new empirical regularities: (i) Cyclical phase shifts are highly concentrated around the aggregate turning points; (ii) In contrast to the conventional notion of a sudden stop and slow recovery, troughs are much more concentrated than peaks; (iii) Occurrences of phase shifts across industries support the spillovers through input-output linkages; (iv) The common macroeconomic shocks, such as exogenous changes in the federal funds rate, government spending, and oil prices, are significant drivers of industrial phase shifts; (v) Both monetary and fiscal policy shocks are more effective in recessions.Business cycles; Comovement; Turning points; Asymmetrie
New public policy proposal for the management of industrial toxic substances in São Paulo State, Brazil
No full textIn order to find out an alternative to traditional environmental policies in the State of São Paulo (Brazil), which have been mainly focused on legal standard compliance for air and water emissions, as well as in soil contamination, the Environmental Agency of São Paulo State — CETESB — launched a research project entitled Industrial Toxic Substances Use Reduction Programme. The project was launched in 2006 with funding from the United States Trade and Development Agency. Its aim was to propose new policies and strategies to reduce industrial releases of toxic compounds to the environment. Its general steps were the identification of an initial toxic chemical targets list; a review of successful programmes in the United States; the development of key elements and the establishment of alternative combinations of those elements for the implementation of an indigenous programme. Since project completion, CETESB has been discussing the possibility of implementing the results through a pilot project being developed jointly with industry representatives. This pilot project will serve as a model for a broader industrial toxic substances reduction programme to be implemented in São Paulo State
Using power sector reform as an opportunity to increase the uptake of renewable energy in the power sector: Responding to peak oil and climate change in Caribbean and Pacific small island developing States, between 1970‐2010
No full textSmall island developing States (SIDS) have narrow resource bases and are usually extremely reliant on fossil fuel based energy for transport and electricity generation. These island economies are thus particularly vulnerable to the impacts of peak oil and also to climate change, impacts which are likely to not only hamper economic development but also adversely affect the quality of life of local inhabitants. In order to reduce the vulnerability of SIDS to peak oil, an urgent transition to renewable sources of energy is necessary. This paper propounds that the reform of power sector that took place in Caribbean and Pacific SIDS (particularly between 1970 and 2000) should have been viewed as an opportunity to re‐orient power producers away from the proclivity to utilise conventional fossil fuel uses. Reasons why reform measures did not result in a substantive transition are put forward. Moreover, recommendations towards facilitating a transition to renewable energy in the power sector through future reforms are proposed
Shellfish aquaculture and First Nations' sovereignty: The quest for sustainable development in contested sea space
No full textAquaculture tenures or leases have become an increasingly important management tool for regulating access rights to coastal and offshore marine habitat. Tenure, as a form of private property rights to marine space, is generally considered a prerequisite for aquaculture development, as are the associated exclusive access rights which provide necessary incentives for producers to invest in infrastructure. The shellfish industry in British Columbia (BC), Canada, is presented as a case study of a transition from a primarily common property wild fishery to a rights‐based system for aquaculture. In BC, seafood production has grown substantially during the past two decades as a result of aquaculture production. However, despite the inherent economic advantages of the tenuring system for increasing seafood production, rights to aquaculture sites in BC remain highly controversial, particularly in response to environmental concerns and infringements on Aboriginal territorial claims. Shellfish farming has, to‐date, been far less controversial than salmon farming; however, shellfish aquaculture has not been uniformly adopted across the province, and analyses of industry capacity or economic opportunities for coastal communities have failed to adequately explain development patterns. This paper, which identifies perceptions of the risks and benefits of the shellfish aquaculture tenuring system, presents the results of 56 interviews conducted with individuals involved in shellfish production in BC. Results indicate that heightened perceptions of risk about shellfish aquaculture tenuring are related to unresolved Aboriginal territorial claims, economic dependence on wild shellfish resources, as well as place‐based values favouring access to wild resources. Underlying values and cultural understandings also strongly shape public perceptions of the risks of aquaculture, and as such, influence local decisions to either accept or resist industry growth. In this case, interviewees' risk perceptions were found to be more important indicators of the potential for industry expansion than studies of capacity or economic cost‐benefit analyses
Cross‐sectoral and participatory approaches to combating desertification: The Iranian experience
No full textAnti‐desertification planning in Iran operates at the national level through the Five Year Development Plans, the National Plan to Combat Desertification — a long‐running scheme for which the Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Management Organisation (FRWO) is responsible — and the recently developed National Action Programme to Combat Desertification (the NAP). The Iranian NAP was formulated following the country's ratification of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and drew heavily on the experience, expertise and collaboration of personnel in FRWO. Development and implementation of the NAP has had major policy impacts in Iran in the two main areas of generating cross‐sectoral cooperation between government instruments at the national planning level and by community participation in local projects to combat desertification. Documenting the evolution of cross‐sectoral and participatory approaches to desertification in Iran shows that the NAP provided impetus towards a transformation of previous procedures, a policy impact that is continuing to generate change
“Is the concept of a green economy a useful way of framing policy discussions and policymaking to promote sustainable development?”
No full textEstimating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from paratransit in Bandung, Indonesia: Reducing the transaction costs of generating conservative emissions baselines
No full textIn developing countries, paratransit often meets essential mobility needs with older, inefficient vehicles that degrade air quality and emit greenhouse gases (GHGs). International climate change finance mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or Green Climate Fund (GCF) could help fund cleaner vehicles. However, these mechanisms require generating a credible business‐as‐usual GHG baseline to compare against actual emissions. For paratransit, irregular scheduling and erratic driving behaviour add to a well‐documented list of factors that make the transaction costs prohibitively expensive for constructing robust transport baselines. This paper compares the relative accuracy and affordability of constructing five baselines for motorcycle taxis or ojeks in Bandung, Indonesia. The baselines that were constructed incorporate data that was gathered from one day and one week studies using revealed preference surveys as well as using real time global positioning systems (GPS) over one week into fuel efficiency and fuel consumption‐based emissions calculation techniques. The calculations show that the week‐long fuel consumption survey data generated the lowest fuel efficiency and highest GHG estimates. Driver survey data may therefore help construct a relatively low cost conservative baseline, especially when triangulated by GPS‐verified distance travelled data. The study concludes with several promising future research areas, including expanding the period of estimation for paratransit; examining the relationship between self‐reported distance and fuel consumption data; optimizing survey administration; and promoting climate finance mechanisms that engage stakeholders to lower the transaction costs of data gathering
A theory of chemicals regulation and testing
No full textRisk management of chemicals requires information about their adverse effects such as toxicity and persistence, for example. Testing of chemicals allows for improving the information base for regulatory decision‐making on chemicals' production and use. Testing a large number of chemicals with limited time and resources forces a prioritization of chemicals. This paper proposes a decision model that provides a ranking of chemicals according to “urgency to test”. The model adopts a value‐of‐information approach describing the expected welfare gains from regulatory actions that respond to test information. We determine the value‐of‐information of tests revealing chemicals' levels of toxicity and persistence. We compare our findings to the prioritization of chemicals in the new European Chemicals Regulation “REACH”, where several tens of thousands of chemicals are to be tested in order to fill existing information gaps and to implement more effective risk management. We find that the main lines of chemicals' prioritization under REACH receive backing from our decision model. However, prioritization for testing can be further improved by accounting for testing costs and the sensitivity of regulatory action with respect to the test information
