{"title":"Air pollution and innovation","authors":"Felix Bracht , Dennis Verhoeven","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103102","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103102","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>If air pollution harms innovation — and therefore future productivity — existing assessments of its economic cost are incomplete. We estimate the effect of fine particulate matter concentration on inventive output in 977 European regions. Exploiting thermal inversions and weather-induced ventilation of pollutants for identification, we find that a decrease in air pollution equivalent to the average yearly drop in Europe leads to 1.2% more patented inventions in a given region. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that accounting for the effect on innovation increases the economic cost of air pollution as assessed in prior work by about three quarters.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103102"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Perception and protection: The effect of risk exposure on demand for index insurance in Mongolia","authors":"Lukas Mogge , Kati Kraehnert","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103113","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103113","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study provides novel evidence on how risk exposure shapes demand for index-based weather insurance. The focus is on Mongolia, where index-based livestock insurance is offered as a commercial product to pastoralists threatened by extreme weather events that cause high livestock mortality. The analysis draws on district-level data covering the whole country, spanning eleven years. Our study exploits a particular feature in the design of the Mongolian index insurance: The insurance sales period predates the payout period of the previous insurance season, which allows us to separate the effects of risk exposure from the income effects of payouts. Results from a two-way fixed effects model show that demand for index insurance increases in areas exposed to adverse winter conditions during the insurance sales period, when pastoralists have to decide about purchasing insurance coverage for next year's winter. We argue that results are best explained by availability bias, with households adapting their risk perception in response to adverse weather conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103113"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How to pollute a river if you must","authors":"Yuzhi Yang , Erik Ansink , Jens Gudmundsson","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103105","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103105","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We propose the river pollution claims problem to distribute a budget of emissions permits among agents located along a river. A key distinction from the standard claims problem is that agents are ordered exogenously. For environmental reasons, the specific location along the river where pollutants are emitted is an important concern. In our analysis, we combine this environmental concern with standard fairness considerations. We characterize the class of <em>externality-adjusted proportional rules</em> and show that they strike a balance between fairness and minimizing environmental damage in the river. We also propose two novel axioms that are motivated by the river pollution context and use them to characterize two priority rules. We illustrate the rules through a case study of the Tuojiang Basin in China.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103105"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Clearing the air: Women in politics and air pollution","authors":"Anna Laura Baraldi, Giovanni Fosco","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103106","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103106","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Policies and actions are likely to be influenced by the different attitudes to environmental issues of male and female policy-makers. The present paper analyzes the relationship between women politicians and air pollution levels in the context of Italy. We use a gender quota measure (Law 215/2012) as an exogenous shock to the percentage of female municipal councilors. We show that the enforcement of Law 215 significantly reduces the number of days per year when at least one among all the different types of air monitoring stations installed in the provincial capital municipalities detects excess levels of PM10 and PM2.5 with respect to their daily limit. We also assess the causal impact of female in city council on the measures of air pollution by the Wald estimator that shows negative sign meaning that an increase in the percentage of female councilors reduces air pollution. This research provides evidence of the most likely mechanism driving these results by showing that an increase in female officeholders due to Law 215 has a positive impact on a number of environmental friendly policies and measures (e.g. cycle lanes, urban green spaces, district heating) aimed at reducing harmful air particles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103106"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Natural disasters and the demand for health insurance","authors":"Ha Trong Nguyen, Francis Mitrou","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103108","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103108","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Amidst growing concerns over heightened natural disaster risks, this study pioneers an inquiry into the causal impacts of cyclones on the demand for private health insurance (PHI) in Australia. We amalgamate a nationally representative longitudinal dataset with historical cyclone records, employing an individual fixed effects model to assess the impacts of various exogenously determined cyclone exposure measures. Our findings reveal that only the most severe category 5 cyclones significantly increase the likelihood of individuals acquiring PHI in both the concurrent and subsequent years. Furthermore, the effect diminishes as the distance from the cyclone's eye increases. The largest estimated cumulated impact amounts to over 5 percentage points, representing approximately 11% of the sample mean and aligns with documented effects of certain PHI policies aimed at enhancing coverage. Furthermore, our findings withstand a series of sensitivity assessments, including a placebo test and three randomization examinations. Moreover, the cyclone impacts are more pronounced for younger demographics, individuals of higher socioeconomic status, and inhabitants of coastal or historically cyclone-affected areas. Additionally, after ruling out income, transfers, health status, and premiums as mechanisms, our study furnishes suggestive evidence that cyclone-induced home damage and heightened psychological stress are plausible pathways through which cyclones increase PHI uptake.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103108"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
John C. Strandholm , Ana Espinola-Arredondo , Felix Munoz-Garcia
{"title":"Greener or cheaper goods: Economies of scope in R&D investments","authors":"John C. Strandholm , Ana Espinola-Arredondo , Felix Munoz-Garcia","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103107","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103107","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines firms’ incentives to simultaneously invest in cost-reducing and in green R&D (abatement) under the presence of regulation. We show that, without regulation, firms only invest in cost-reducing R&D when economies of scope are absent, but invest in both types of R&D otherwise. With regulation, investments exhibit strategic complementarities, with and without economies of scope, leading to more investments in cost-reducing R&D, thus requiring more stringent emission fees. Assuming that firms invest in only one form of R&D, a traditional approach in the literature, gives rise to an undertaxation problem. This inefficiency is attenuated if R&D investments exhibit economies of scope, but emphasized if pollution is severe, and the market is concentrated; which is further increased when investment decisions are sequential.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103107"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decentralized renewable energy to grow manufacturing? Evidence from microhydro mini-grids in Nepal","authors":"Robyn C. Meeks , Hope Thompson , Zhenxuan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103092","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103092","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Firms in developing countries often identify electricity as a major constraint to operations. Decentralized renewable energy sources, which are often promoted as a tool to achieve sustainable development, could help alleviate these constraints by providing “clean” electricity to locations that are difficult to reach with the centralized electric grid. We investigate whether electrification in Nepal – via microhydro plants and their mini-grids – helped grow the manufacturing sector and thereby induce structural transformation. Mini-grids led to a small but statistically significant increase in manufacturing establishments. Following electrification, females and males were more likely to be employees and less likely to be self-employed. Likewise, usual employment activities shifted from labor in agriculture to salary and wage work. In locations with smaller generation capacities, the impacts of mini-grids on labor-related outcomes were smaller. There is suggestive evidence of larger impacts in locations with better market access.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103092"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Storms, early education and human capital","authors":"Martino Pelli , Jeanne Tschopp","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103104","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103104","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores how school-age exposure to storms impacts the education and primary activity status of young adults in India. Using a cross-sectional cohort study based on wind exposure histories, we find evidence of a significant deskilling of areas vulnerable to climate change-related risks. Specifically, our results show a 2.4 percentage point increase in the probability of accruing educational delays, a 2 percentage point decline in post-secondary education achievement, and a 1.6 percentage point reduction in obtaining regular salaried jobs. Additionally, our study provides evidence that degraded school infrastructure and declining household income contribute to these findings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103104"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143181974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Money versus procedures — Evidence from an energy efficiency assistance program","authors":"Bettina Chlond , Timo Goeschl , Martin Kesternich","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103080","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103080","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In many countries, governments have put in place targeted programs intended to support energy efficiency investments by low-income households, but have encountered low take-up even when subsidies are high. Using evidence from a large energy efficiency assistance program, we demonstrate that seemingly small procedural changes can substantially improve take-up and that these changes have effects comparable to significantly raising subsidies. Observing 77,305 durable goods purchase decisions in a refrigerator replacement program, our RD design exploits two quasi-exogenous temporal discontinuities in voucher value and procedures. Despite seeming disadvantageous, the procedural changes actually raise replacement rates among the target demographic of low-income households, an effect roughly equivalent to raising voucher values by 35 Euro. These results suggest that even under fixed budgets, the performance of energy efficiency assistance programs can be improved through empirically guided procedural design.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103080"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143183286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Collateral damage: The environmental consequences of US sanctions","authors":"Chengjiu Sun , Shanshan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103103","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103103","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the impact of US sanctions on environmental quality of target countries during the period 1995–2022. Using DID method and an event study approach, we find a significant detrimental impact of US sanctions on environmental health. Notably, these sanctions lead to deteriorating air quality, compromised drinking water safety, elevated levels of heavy metals, and worsened waste management. In addition, we show that the adverse effect of sanctions on environmental health ⅰ) is greater for multilateral sanctions than unilateral sanctions; ⅱ) is more pronounced when targeting a single country compared to multiple targets, ⅲ) is primarily driven by economic sanctions (trade and financial sanctions), ⅳ) increases with the severity of sanctions, and ⅴ) decreases over time, but does not fully dissipate until 9.7 years later. We also identify two primary mechanisms: increased natural resources dependency of the economy, and reduced urgency of environmental sector in public policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"130 ","pages":"Article 103103"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143183287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}