{"title":"Endogenous Risk and Habitat Loss from Climate Change: An Application to Seal Management After the November Rain","authors":"R. Horan, C. Sims, D. Finnoff","doi":"10.1086/725153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/725153","url":null,"abstract":"The role of climate change on stochastic resource growth has yet to be analyzed in a bioeconomic setting, which is important given that increased weather variability is a key climate change feature. We construct a bioeconomic analysis in which mean and variance impacts of climate change produce multiple elements—population stochasticity, mean habitat loss, and greater habitat variability—impacting the riskiness of resource management. Our results show that change in the variance of weather events is an important consideration for managing at-risk species and may create countervailing conservation incentives relative to considering only mean impacts. We apply our analysis to North Atlantic harp seals, which are uniquely susceptible to climate change, as they require sea ice to breed and raise their pups. Harp seal conservation incentives and negative economic impacts of habitat loss are tempered when accounting for both reduced mean sea ice levels and increased sea ice variability.","PeriodicalId":47114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42764805","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}
Zhilin Hu, Haoyang Li, Liguo Lin, W. Sun, Maigeng Zhou
{"title":"Monitoring Technologies, Environmental Performance, and Health Outcomes: Evidence from China","authors":"Zhilin Hu, Haoyang Li, Liguo Lin, W. Sun, Maigeng Zhou","doi":"10.1086/725111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/725111","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we take the establishment of automatic surface water quality monitoring stations (automatic stations) in China as an example to explore the effects of adopting advanced monitoring technologies in enforcing environmental regulations. Automatic stations use real-time water quality monitoring and electronic-reporting technologies to go beyond traditional field inspection and monitoring and create novel enforcement approaches. We show that the establishment of downstream automatic stations significantly restrains industrial water pollution discharged and benefits human health. Specifically, the establishment of downstream automatic stations reduces wastewater emissions from upstream counties by 22%. Consequently, the death rate from digestive diseases decreases by 2.26 persons per 10,000 population and the life expectancy at birth increases by 3.14 years with the establishment of downstream automatic stations. This study provides clear evidence that advanced monitoring technology improves enforcement of environmental regulations, which brings significant health benefits and enhances social welfare.","PeriodicalId":47114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45644288","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":"Adaptation Infrastructure and Its Effects on Property Values in the Face of Climate Risk","authors":"D. Kelly, Renato Molina","doi":"10.1086/725109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/725109","url":null,"abstract":"We evaluate the effect of climate adaptation infrastructure investments on property transaction prices, using data on over 400,000 property transactions and 162 infrastructure projects in Miami-Dade County, an area that is highly vulnerable to flooding and sea level rise due to climate change. Exploiting the timing and siting of different adaptation projects in Miami-Dade, we are able to identify significant gains in property values after completion of adaptation infrastructure projects. These gains are concentrated in areas close to the project and for projects that are visually identifiable. Our results suggest an aggregate mean benefit, net of adaptation cost, of about $0.68 million per project and almost $300 million in aggregate net benefits for all projects in our sample. Most projects generated positive net benefits, indicating that the vast majority of adaptation efforts are being placed in areas passing a benefit-cost test.","PeriodicalId":47114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44750127","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":"Clean Air and Cognitive Productivity: Effect and Adaptation","authors":"N. Cook, A. Heyes, N. Rivers","doi":"10.1086/724951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724951","url":null,"abstract":"We observe 1.8 million university course grades for 88,959 adults who learn and complete examinations in a much less polluted environment than previously studied. We use a within-student identification strategy and find robust evidence of a negative and causal effect of exam-day outdoor air pollution on course performance. The effect of pollution persists beyond the same-day effect. Female students are more sensitive than males, and effects are greatest when students are engaged in unfamiliar tasks. We explore two margins of adaptation, one infrastructural, one behavioral. Working in a new building, and particularly if it is high quality (LEED Gold), provides significant mitigation. Relocating to a floor above ground level also offers partial protection.","PeriodicalId":47114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48767976","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":"Economic Policy and Technology Choice of Heterogeneous Producers","authors":"Michael Hübler, G. Schwerhoff","doi":"10.1086/724517","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724517","url":null,"abstract":"This article introduces a new Hopenhayn-Melitz-type model of heterogeneous producers with endogenous technology choice. Different from previous trade models, it describes smallholder producers in rural areas of developing countries in the context of environment and development economics. Shocks (climate change) and various policies affect the producers’ endogenous choice between market entry or exit and between simple or advanced technology. This adds new margins of adjustment to models used in this context. Based on these mechanisms, the theoretical analysis identifies a novel type of the rebound effect via market entry. The numerical application to coffee production in rural Vietnam shows that secondary effects of the shocks, such as changes in the number of producers, can be larger than the original impact. Technology-supporting policies can have unintended detrimental side effects on less productive producers.","PeriodicalId":47114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43685809","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":"Does Environmental Regulation Matter for Income Inequality? New Evidence from Chinese Communities","authors":"Bihong Huang, Ying Yao","doi":"10.1086/724519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724519","url":null,"abstract":"This study uses data from an ongoing, open-cohort, longitudinal China Health and Nutrition Survey to examine how the environmental regulation aimed at abating sulfur dioxide (SO2) alters income distribution. We find that this regulation induces a 14%–27% decrease in income inequality, depending on the measurement method. An improvement in income inequality is achieved by lowering the wages of high-income groups while keeping the wages of low-income groups (especially blue-collar workers) unchanged. This change in the labor market can be attributed to a policy that primarily targets emissions from power plants while leaving the manufacturing sector unaffected. As a result, the manufacturing sector continues to create jobs and absorb the blue-collar workers dismissed from other sectors, mitigating the widening income gap. Our study sheds new light on the role of environmental policy in reshaping the labor market and its implications for income distribution.","PeriodicalId":47114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41986256","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":"RCTs against the Machine: Can Machine Learning Prediction Methods Recover Experimental Treatment Effects?","authors":"Brian C. Prest, Casey J. Wichman, K. Palmer","doi":"10.1086/724518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724518","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate how successfully machine-learning (ML) prediction algorithms can be used to estimate causal treatment effects in electricity demand applications with nonexperimental data. We use three prediction algorithms—XGBoost, random forests, and LASSO—to generate counterfactuals using observational data. Using those counterfactuals, we estimate nonexperimental treatment effects and compare them to experimental treatment effects from a randomized experiment for electricity customers who faced critical-peak pricing and information treatments. Our results show that nonexperimental treatment effects based on each algorithm replicate the true treatment effects, even when only using data from treated households. Additionally, when using both treatment households and nonexperimental comparison households, standard two-way fixed effects regressions replicate the experimental benchmark, suggesting little benefit from ML approaches over standard program evaluation methods in that setting.","PeriodicalId":47114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42460100","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":"One-to-Many Matching with Complementary Preferences: An Empirical Study of Market Concentration in Natural Gas Leasing","authors":"Ashley Vissing","doi":"10.1086/724498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724498","url":null,"abstract":"In two-sided markets with multidimensional contracting, what are the costs and benefits of market concentration? I study this question using data that describe drilling firm negotiations with private landowners for access to mineral rights. Firms benefit from signing geographically proximate contracts through economies of density. Using newly collected data, I model bilateral negotiations as a one-to-many match between firms and landowners and extend the framework to allow complementary preferences among firms for geographically proximate leases. The model estimates imply substantial market concentration in leasing activity that benefits drilling firms and is costly to private landowners through fewer legal protections. Counterfactual experiments that require more landowner concessions in leasing agreements suggest that landowners’ gains outweigh firms’ costs, increasing total welfare by at least 10%. Moreover, firms do not appear to respond to higher leasing costs by signing many fewer leases, suggesting that firms would have likely continued drilling in Tarrant County.","PeriodicalId":47114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49561833","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":"Full-Information Selection Bias Correction for Discrete Choice Models with Observation-Conditional Regressors","authors":"Y. A. Chen, A. Haynie, Christopher M. Anderson","doi":"10.1086/719794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/719794","url":null,"abstract":"We examine self-selection in polychotomous choice models that construct attribute values for each alternative conditioned on observed choices. Using observations made only when the alternative was chosen ignores private information which was a basis for the decision, biasing resulting estimates. We suggest a full-information maximum likelihood procedure that performs well at the extremes of the choice set in our sample, and use an “identification at infinity” weighting to identify levels. We apply the model to understanding fishing location choice in the economically significant Bering Sea pollock fishery, where expected catches at each location are constructed from harvests observed when that location is chosen.","PeriodicalId":47114,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43552345","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}