Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Environmental economics'

Information may resolve uncertainty and uncertainty is pervasive. Thus, seeking, producing and trading of information are common economic activities. This is also true in the economics of the environment and for the different stakeholders therein involved. The central aim of this research is to investigate some theoretical aspects of the value and effects of information in environmental economics. Information is valuable either as a decision aid in contexts where either health and environmental characteristics of goods are uncertain or as the object of direct valuation under different provision rules. In a choice context three questions arise providing grounds for empirical investigations.

This thesis consists of three chapters that investigate environmental policy questions from an empirical point of view. Chapter 1 examines the trustworthiness of official air pollution data sources for Beijing when compared to similar data from the US Embassy in Beijing. Using a statistical regularity, I find that the official data likely suffered from misreporting until the end of 2012. From 2013 onwards, however, misreporting appears to have stopped. Chapter 2 evaluates China's main air pollution control policy to study the effects of environmental regulation when institutions are weak. I find that the policy was ultimately successful in reducing air pollution, but that those effects only set in once the Chinese government started appropriate air pollution monitoring. Moreover, I quantify the efficiency of different policy instruments to control air pollution in China and find that - in contrast to the United States - a market-based solution and a technology mandate for scrubbers are nearly identical. Finally, Chapter 3 studies whether nudges can help consumers align intention and action when choosing their electricity contract. Using a survey experiment, we find that only a default nudge had a statistically and economically significant effect on consumers' decision to contract renewable energy.
Aquesta tesi consisteix en tres estudis que investiguen problemes relacionats amb la política de medi ambient des d’un punt de vista empíric. El capítol 1 examina fins a quin punt són fiables les dades sobre la contaminació de l’aire a Beijing quan es comparen amb dades semblants de l’ambaixada dels EUA. Mitjançant l'ús d'una regularitat estadística, proporciono evidència que les dades oficials segurament van ser manipulades fins a finals del 2012. A partir del 2013, però, les dades semblen indicar que es va posar fi a aquesta manipulació. El capítol 2 avalua la política xinesa més important duta a terme per frenar la contaminació de l’aire i pretén estudiar els efectes de la regulació del medi ambient en un context d’institucions febles. Demostro que aquesta política va aconseguir reduir la contaminació, però tan sols després que el govern xinès implementés el monitoreig adequat. A més, quantifico l'eficiència de diferents instruments polítics destinats a controlar la contaminació de l'aire a la Xina. Els resultats indiquen que - en contrast amb els EUA - pràcticament no hi ha diferències entre un instrument de mercat i l’ús prescriptiu de depuradores de gas. Finalment, el capítol 3 analitza si el fet d’introduir canvis en la informació pot ajudar els consumidors a seguir les seves intencions a l'hora de triar un contracte d'electricitat. A través d'un experiment en forma d’enquesta es demostra que només una preselecció té un efecte significatiu en els sentits estadístic i econòmic sobre la presa de decisió dels consumidors a l’hora de contractar energia renovable.

Chapter 1.This chapter investigates the direct behavioral impact of information-based regulations by examining the effect of ozone alerts on cycling trips in Sydney. Moreover, the dynamics of individuals' response is studied by examining the behavioral impact of two successive day ozone alerts on cycling demand. A common problem in estimating direct avoidance behavior is that an increase in the pollution level could be an endogenous response to alerts. While controlling for the endogenous effect of alerts and air quality, results show that cycling trips decrease by 35 percent in response to a smog alert. When alerts are issued for two successive days, however, individuals appear to neglect the second day alerts. Our findings also indicate that ozone alerts induce one and half times larger impacts on weekends compared to weekdays. These patterns suggest that the cost of cycling substitution for commuter goals is higher than leisure goals. Furthermore, the cost of intertemporally avoiding cycling is increasing over time. Chapter 2. If decisions with lasting consequences are influenced by extraneous or transient factors then welfare can be damaged. This chapter investigates the impact of outdoor temperature on high-stakes decisions (immigration adjudications) made by professional decision-makers (US immigration judges). In our preferred specification, which includes spatial, temporal and judge fixed effects, and controls for various potential confounders, a 10 F degree increase in case-day temperature reduces positive decisions by 6.55%. This is despite judgements being made indoors, `protected' by climate-control. Results are consistent with established links from temperature to mood and risk appetite and have important implications for evaluating the welfare-burden of climate change. Chapter 3. The carbon tax in the Canadian province of British Columbia is widely-regarded as a `poster child' application of market-based methods to address greenhouse gas emissions. However the implications for local air quality have been ignored. Using synthetic control and difference-in-difference methods, in this chapter we evidence a causal link from carbon tax implementation and level to increased nitrogen oxides NOx and ultra-fine particulates PM_2.5 pollution problems in Vancouver, the province's largest city. We provide evidence consistent with the mechanism working through induced switching from gasoline to diesel vehicles. The results prove highly robust to inclusion of a wide set of controls in various combinations, alternative specifications, and satisfy a set of falsification checks. The analysis points to the possibility of negative secondary effects of climate policies, contrary to the usual presumption that secondary benefits are inevitably positive.

The objective of this dissertation is to improve our understanding of environmental policies, particularly with respect to two emerging alternative approaches to regulation. They are alternatives to the command and control approach, which policymakers have relied on heavily since the early 1970s. One alternative is to introduce market-based policy instruments like emission taxes or tradable permits. Another alternative is to rely on voluntary approaches to environmental protection. This thesis will study these two alternatives. Our first essay will focus on voluntary programs (VPs) that aim to reduce emissions of pollutants. We try to explain theoretically why governments implement these programs and to examine the property of the VP which the regulator implements to maximize social welfare. We show that if setting an efficient mandatory standard is politically difficult, a regulator might implement the VP because it can generate higher social welfare than the mandatory standard. The abatement rate of the VP that generates the highest social welfare costs participating firms the same amount as the mandatory standard would. The second essay will empirically examine the determinants of environmental management system certifications, especially the ISO 14001 certification, which is a popular environmental practice, and their impacts on environmental performance. In particular, we focus on intra-industry spillovers of ISO 14001 adoption and environmental performance. We apply estimation methods of spatial econometrics to a Japanese facility’s dataset to deal with the spillovers. We find intra-industry spillovers of emissions reduction into the air between similarly sized facilities and of ISO 14001 adoption between similarly sized facilities that emit into water. The third essay will compare taxes and quotas, when an informed polluting industry influences them by political contributions to a government. We show that private information can improve social welfare under taxes but cannot improve it under quotas. Private information also reduces a comparative disadvantage of the taxes over the quotas when the government does not care about social welfare very much.

This research examines both health effects and market responses from local changes in environmental quality. Both can be of significant interest to policy makers. I examine the health effects of population exposure to pollution from a primary resource-extraction industry and the housing-market effects when an area is officially designated as being at risk from water pollution exposure. In Chapter II, I examine how adult mortality rates are affected by coal-mining activity in Appalachia. I find increased surface coal-mining activity leads to increased mortality attributable to internal causes, specifically among the population over age 65. Increased surface coal mining is most significantly associated with increases in mortality from cardiovascular disease, suggesting air pollution as a plausible mechanism. Chapter III documents the association between infant health and coal-mining activity in Appalachia. Descriptive evidence implies infant health outcomes are worse in certain Appalachian coal counties compared to other parts of the U.S., but after controlling for other sources of observed and unobserved heterogeneity, I find no evidence that changes in surface coal-mining activity directly affect birth outcomes in these counties. In Chapter IV, I evaluate the effect of a policy intervention in Oregon which provided information to residents regarding potential exposure to groundwater pollution from agricultural runoff. I find that this policy led to an increase in home prices for properties that were more likely to be reliant on public water supplies, suggesting that consumer demand shifted away from well-water-dependent properties that were at risk of contamination. The heterogeneity of the policy effect is consistent with a heightened awareness of groundwater quality among residents and housing market participants after the information was announced.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2012.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
This thesis examines various aspects of environmental economics. The first chapter estimates how individuals' beliefs about climate change are affected by local weather fluctuations. Climate change is a one-time uncertain event with no opportunities for learning; the belief updating process may not be fully Bayesian. Using unique survey data on beliefs about the occurrence of the effects of global warming, I estimate how individuals use local temperature fluctuations in forming these beliefs. I test for the presence of several well-known psychological heuristics and find strong evidence for representativeness, some evidence for availability and no evidence for associativeness. I find that very short-run temperature fluctuations (1 day - 2 weeks) have no effect on beliefs about the occurrence of global warming, but that longer-run fluctuations (1 month - 1 year) are significant predictors of beliefs. Only respondents with a conservative political ideology are affected by temperature abnormalities. In the second chapter, I examine the economic impacts of natural disasters by estimating the effect of hurricanes on US counties' economies 0-10 years after landfall. Overall, I find no substantial changes in a county's population, earnings, or the employment rate. The largest empirical effect of a hurricane is observed in large increases in government transfer payments to individuals, such as unemployment insurance. The estimated magnitude of the extra transfer payments is large. While per capita disaster aid averages $356 per hurricane in current dollars, I estimate that in the eleven years following a hurricane an affected county receives additional non-disaster government transfers of $67 per capita per year. Private insurance-related transfers over the same time period average only $2.4 per capita per year. The fiscal costs of natural disasters are thus much larger than the cost of disaster aid alone. Because of the deadweight loss of taxation and moral hazard concerns, the benefits of policies that reduce disaster vulnerability, such as climate change mitigation and removal of insurance subsidies, are larger than previously thought. Finally, the substantial increase in non-disaster transfers suggests that the lack of changes in other economic indicators may be in part due to various social safety nets. In the third chapter, I estimate the extent of adverse selection in area yield insurance. Despite a long-run decrease in developed countries' vulnerability to weather shocks, agriculture worldwide remains susceptible to weather fluctuations. If climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, as it is predicted to do, food prices will likely become more volatile. A well-functioning insurance market is key to keeping the agricultural sector stable. I discuss the institutional and empirical features of the US crop insurance market. I outline the ways in which market designers have attempted to minimize adverse selection and moral hazard, as well as the remaining ways in which the market remains vulnerable to these. I then test for a particular form of adverse selection: whether public information (last year's average yield in the county) that is not explicitly priced by crop insurance companies predicts takeup of area yield insurance plans. I find no evidence that the recent yield influences takeup. I then perform another reduced-form test, using end-of-growing season yields as predictors of insurance takeup at the beginning of the growing season, and find that area yield insurance takeup is higher when average yields are higher. This suggests that the net selection into area yield plans favors providers, not buyers of insurance. In some specifications, the total demand for crop insurance is affected by current and past yields as well, potentially due to changes in the desirability of other plans.
by Tatyana Deryugina.
Ph.D.

This dissertation comprises four essays on the topic of environmental economics and industrial organization. In the first essay, we develop a two-country world differential game model with a polluting firm in each country to investigate the equilibrium of the game between firms when they decide to trade or not and to see under which conditions social welfare coincides with the market equilibrium. In the second essay, we built a model where firms strategically choose whether to participate in an auction/lottery to attain pollution permits, or instead invest in green R&D, to show that, somewhat counterintuitively, a desirable side effect of the auction is in fact that of fostering environmental R&D in an admissible range of the model parameters. The third essay investigates a second-best trade agreement between two countries when pollution spillovers are asymmetric to examine the strategic behavior of governments in using pollution taxes and tariffs under trade liberalization. The fouth essay studies the profitability of exogenous output constraint in a differential game model with price dynamics under the feedback strategies.

This dissertation comprises four essays on the topic of environmental economics and industrial organization. In the first essay, we develop a two-country world differential game model with a polluting firm in each country to investigate the equilibrium of the game between firms when they decide to trade or not and to see under which conditions social welfare coincides with the market equilibrium. In the second essay, we built a model where firms strategically choose whether to participate in an auction/lottery to attain pollution permits, or instead invest in green R&D, to show that, somewhat counterintuitively, a desirable side effect of the auction is in fact that of fostering environmental R&D in an admissible range of the model parameters. The third essay investigates a second-best trade agreement between two countries when pollution spillovers are asymmetric to examine the strategic behavior of governments in using pollution taxes and tariffs under trade liberalization. The fouth essay studies the profitability of exogenous output constraint in a differential game model with price dynamics under the feedback strategies.

Esta tesis doctoral estudia distintos problemas de economía medioambiental, con un énfasis en la regulacción medioambiental (incluyendo políticas, aplicación y gobernanza) y en su cumplimiento por parte de las empresas. Consta de tres capítulos, unidos por el tema de regulación ambiental, específicamente, la visión desde los niveles internacional, nacional y de empresa. El primer capítulo estudia los acuerdos internacionales en materia de medio ambiente, siendo el aspecto innovador la toma en consideración de múltiples contaminantes con efectos correlaciondos y la secuencia de la negociación. Se muestra que una cooperación en la primera fase puede facilitar las negociaciones posteriores. Además, excepto para países simétricos, la secuencia de la negociación afecta a los resultados respecto a acuerdos, haciendo de la secuencia otro instrumento para aumentar la participación. En el segundo capítulo se analiza, en un marco en que la política medioambiental viene predeterminada, cómo debería distribuirse el poder para imponer la aplicación de las normativas en una estructura de aplicación centralizada, descentralizada o mixta. El capítulo se relaciona con la literarura sobre federalismo ambiental al incorporar una nueva perspectiva sobre los problemas relacionados con el cumplimiento de las normativas. Los sacrificios que deben hacerse al elegir entre centralización y descentralización recaen en la internalización de externalidades negativas y la consideración de la heterogeneidad entre regiones. Además, si las preocupaciones ambientales locales y centrales no coinciden, podrían surgir contradicciones donde cada nivel jurisdiccional prefiere lo opuesto como estructura de aplicación superior. En el tercer capítulo de la tesis me centro en otro aspecto del cumplimiento de las normativas medioambientales por parte de las empresas. Me centro en el estudio de cómo las características de una compañía, y en particular las de su gobierno corporativo, afectan al comportamiento de ésta con respecto al cumplimiento de la regulación medioambiental. Además del efecto disuasorio general de la regulación medioambiental, en este trabajo proporciono un nuevo aspecto que puede ayudar a entender la heterogeneidad que se observa en el comportamiento de las empresas en el terreno medioambiental. Propongo un modelo teórico que luego estudio empíricamente, y llego a la conclusión de que el impacto del gobierno de la compañía en el grado de cumplimiento con las normativa medioambiental presenta una forma funcional en U invertida, lo que explicaría que no se haya encontrado una relación significativa en la literatura empírica previa. Este hecho indica por tanto que además de las expectativas convencionales de que la mejora del gobierno corporativo debería reducir sus incumplimientos en materia medioambiental, puede darse también el efecto inverso.
This doctoral thesis is generally on environmental economics, with a slight focus on environmental regulation (including policy, enforcement and governance) and firm’s compliance. It consists of three essays, linked by the theme of environmental governance, specifically, the governance on the international, national and firm level. The first essay studies international environmental agreement, with its innovation in taking into account multiple pollutants with correlation effect and the negotiation sequence. It turns out that a cooperation in the first stage can facilitate later negotiations. And except for symmetric countries, the negotiation agendas matters for the membership outcome, which makes the sequence another instrument to possibly enlarge the participations. In the second essay, it analyzes when the environmental policy is predetermined, how the enforcement power should be distributed under centralized, decentralized or a mixed enforcement structure. The chapter brings the environmental federalism literature to a new perspective of compliance problems. The tradeoff between centralization and decentralization lies in internalizing negative externalities and accounting for heterogeneity across regions. Besides, if the environmental concern of the central and local agencies does not coincide, disagreements may arise where each jurisdictional level prefers the opposite as to the superior enforcement structure. The research then shifts to the environmental governance within the firm level in the third essay. I study whether and how a firm’s characteristics, in particular its corporate governance, affect the environmental compliance behavior. Besides the general deterrent effect of environmental regulation, this essay provides a novel angle in explaining the heterogeneity of corporate environmental performance. By both theoretical and empirical means, I find that the impact of firm’s corporate control on the degree of environmental violation exhibits an inverse-U trend. The failure to discover a significant relationship in previous empirical literature can thereby be explained. Hence, additional to conventional expectation that an improvement of a firm’s corporate governance should lessen its environmental incompliance, the reverse effect can also take place.

The aim of this thesis is to present and analyse the role of the environmental groups and the trade unions on the issue of the environmental protection through the economic methodology. The specific groups have strong connection with the environmental issue since the beginning of the environmental movement. However, the two groups stand on different positions in the market and in the society, therefore they have different objectives and different tools for the achievement of their targets. Following the groups' different characteristics, I analyse their targets and how these could influence the firms' technological choice, the level of the production, the profits and finally the level of the emissions released by the firms' production. In the second chapter, a deeper analysis on the behavior and the strategy of the environmental groups is provided in order to shed more light on their objectives from the beginning of the environmental movement. Following a review of the literature an analytical framework for studying targets or motivations of the environmental groups is analysed. Three interrelated factors which affect the strategy and the decisions of the group are identified; the group s size, their budget and the weight of impure altruism in their individual and collective objectives. A positive relation exists between the group s size and the financial contributions, and the interaction of the personal expectations with the collective objectives encourages and benefits the group s actions. In the third chapter following the experience from the real world, the participation of the environmental groups in the emissions trading system (ETS) is analysed. Concretely, a competition in an ETS as a game between two firms and environmental group is modelled. According to the results, there is a U-shape relationship between how polluting the chosen technology is and the degree of the environmentalists impure altruism. Firms choose a more polluting technology in the presence of the environmentalists than in their absence if they are characterised by a high enough degree of impure altruism. Finally, in the fourth chapter the influence of the trade unions on the firms' environmental technological choice is analysed. However, in addition to the literature and according to the real world experience the unions care for the environmental protection. Particularly, the decentralised structure is compared with the centralised structure under a Cournot duopoly. I conclude that the decentralised structure could always provide higher incentives to the firms for the adoption of a better (less polluting) technology. Furthermore, there is an inverse U-shape relation between the firm s emissions and the size of the market. Finally, the emissions could be less under the centralised case compared to the decentralised for relatively low market size.

This thesis investigates what motivates people to protect the environment and protect themselves from environmental risks. Specifically, the essays aim to enhance our understanding of how individual and situational factors drive decision-making in three areas that lie at the heart of behavioural environmental economics: contributions towards protecting public goods like biodiversity, choices under risk from environmental externalities like air pollution, and cooperation over shared common pool resources. The overarching goal of the thesis is to unpack the complex processes behind decision making, to identify policy-relevant mechanisms to promote both planetary and human health and wellbeing. Given this, the essays adopt an experimental approach to study themes like pro-social behaviour, affect, risk preferences, beliefs and social influence, in conjunction with different information and incentive-based interventions. Paper 1 explores the direct impact of different types of audiovisual information through the charismatic megafauna and outrage effect on contributions to biodiversity conservation. It also signals that mixed emotions could be drivers of pro-sociality in the conservation context. Paper 2 charts the indirect spillover effects of these video interventions on subsequent pro-environmental behavioural intentions. Taken together, the papers highlight the potential of the narratives in videos to encourage public engagement and conservation action to address the sixth mass extinction event. Papers 3 and 4 explore the psycho-social determinants of avoidance behaviours amongst active travellers, namely cyclists in London. In Paper 3, risk perception rather than risk preferences seem to be a better predictor of avoidance behaviour in the context and sample studied. Domain-specific risk preferences via the willingness to take health risks showed more behavioural validity as regards risk-taking while cycling, and the evidence for cross-context validity was not strong. Paper 4 showed that underlying beliefs about air quality determine how individuals respond to social norm messaging. These results collectively suggest that subjective beliefs about environmental risks influence individual choice under uncertainty in the context of air pollution avoidance. Paper 5 explores how the peer monitoring and punishment network structure affects cooperation in a commons dilemma. The results suggest that although free-riders are punished in all networks, incomplete and connected networks elicit lower punishment towards those who deviate less than the socially optimal amount. The complete network elicits more punishment, leaving this network as the least efficient at least in the short-run. Although individuals are initially optimistic about others pro-sociality across networks, beliefs converge to the selfish equilibrium more rapidly in complete networks. The results show that the underlying socio-spatial structure of peer monitoring institutions has welfare implications.

This dissertation contains three essays on Environmental Economics with particular reference to Natural Resource Consumption in modern economic systems. The work is devoted to two main topics investigated in the theoretical aspects and empirically analyzed. The first analysis focuses on estimating if there exists a relationship similar to the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) between Domestic Material Consumption indicator - provided by official statistics - and GDP using a cross-European panel of countries over the period 2000-2011. The second analysis focuses on the Regional management of mining and quarrying (m&q) resources in Italy. Under environmental federalism issues, the aim is to verify the relationship between quantities of these natural non-renewable resources extracted and m&q domestic price index and the effect of Regional Responsibility about m&q activity on m&q domestic producer price index over the period 1980-2010. The first essay: Domestic Material Consumption Indicator and Natural Resources: a European Analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve In this work, the relation between per capita Domestic Material Consumption indicator (DMC) assumed as a “potential environmental degradation” indicator and per capita income (GDP) is investigated. DMC is a physical measure developed by official statistics in recent years and derived from the Environmental Satellite Accounts System to evaluate the material dimension of human development and the environmental consequences of economic growth. While the economic literature has focused its attention mainly on pollution of air, water and land, we considered as environmental degradation the impact of production and consumption activities on natural resources extracted from the environment for the functioning of economic systems. In particular, we estimate if there exists a relationship similar to the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) between DMCpc indicator and GDPpc using a cross–European panel of countries (period 2000-2011). The estimations are based on two comparisons: EU-27 and 30 European countries including three neighbouring countries and Western and Eastern European countries. The results do not support the EKC hypothesis in the panel estimations. Turning points are very high and it is present a delink between DMCpc and GDPpc as in the case of CO2 emissions and income literature. The second essay: Use of Natural Non-renewable Resources and Environmental Federalism in Italy. Evidence from Regional Management of Mining and Quarrying. The separation of powers and responsibilities has evolved over time in Italy given that Constitutional provisions and political reasons have been pushing towards a greater decentralization since last thirty years. Under environmental federalism issues, an interesting case of study - capable of being empirically treated - is the attribution of power to the Regional governments over the management of mining and quarrying (m&q). This process is started in the ’70s with the Presidential Decree N. 616 of 1977. By examining Regional Laws, this paper highlights how misleading is the perception of policy makers of the real value of raw minerals domestically extracted. Raw minerals are non-renewable resources that seem considered closer to free access goods by considering the low value of fees and tariffs of right of excavation set. Using official statistics, the aim of our econometric analysis is to verify which is the relationship between the quantity extracted of these exhaustible natural resources and the m&q domestic producer price index. Moreover, we investigate if the supply curve could be influenced by the effect of Italian Regions Responsibility about m&q activity management over the period 1980-2010. The third essay: The exploitation of mineral resources in Italy analyzed through national and regional legislation. In Italy, Constitutional provisions in implementing local autonomies and political reasons have been pushing towards a greater decentralization of powers and responsibilities in many subjects since 1970. In this work we analyze the attribution of powers to the Regional governments over the management of mining and quarrying (m&q). Under environmental federalism issues, this process started with the Presidential Decree N. 616 of 1977. By examining in detail the most relevant National and Regional Laws on m&q activities, this paper highlights what has been the ability of the Regions in the use of regulatory and administrative tools to manage the exploitation of these non-renewable natural resources and to protect the natural environment, over the period 1970-2010. The Regional legislative framework appears diverse and incomplete. Policy makers activity shows evident difficulties due to the absence in many Regions both of Regional Plans of Extractive Activities, as provided by law, and of the care of negative externalities against the environment. Local governance seems consider mineral resources as open access goods showing a misleading perception about the nature and the value of raw minerals domestically extracted. This perception is reflected in very low tariffs of the right of extraction, not incorporating the component of the scarcity of such exhaustible resources and forgoing government revenues.

Dans le premier chapitre, co-écrit avec James Hammitt, nous proposons une relation théorique entre la propension à payer entre la réduction de petits risques de mortalité, la réduction de risques, la probabilité de survivre et le revenu. En plus, nous proposons une valeur de la vie statistique qui prend en compte la qualité des réponses. En utilisant une enquête de préférences déclarées dirigée à un échantillon représentatif de la population française nous explorons de combien et pourquoi les répondants s'éloignent des prédictions de la théorie de l'utilité espérée. On trouve que 40% des répondants se comporte comme la théorie d’utilité espérée prédit. Nos spécifications préférées estiment une valeur statistique de la vie entre 2.2 et 3.4 millions d’euro pour un adulte et 6 millions d’euro pour un enfant. Le deuxième chapitre s'intéresse à l'impact d'une campagne d'information de santé publique en France sur le comportement d'achat des consommateurs. Les motivations économiques derrière l'intervention publique dans le domaine de la santé et la nutrition sont partiellement soutenues par l'idée que les consommateurs ne disposent pas de l'information suffisante pour la prise d'une bonne décision. Dans cet article je prends comme étude de cas les maladies de tubes neurales, une maladie neurologique qui affecte 1 sur 1000 nouveaux née en France chaque année. J'utilise une méthode quasi expérimentale pour mesurer l'impact de la campagne d'information française sur la consommation d'acide folique à l'aide d'une approche réduite. Je combine une base de données très détaillée concernant les achats de nourriture avec une base de données de macro et micro nutriments. La stratégie d'identification consiste à exploiter la variation dans la nécessité de l'information concernant l'acide folique parmi les foyers: ceux qui sont en train de concevoir un bébé ou qui désirent en concevoir l'utilisent, tandis que ceux qui ne sont pas en train de concevoir ne l'utilisent pas. En outre, je fais une estimation structurelle de la demande de nourriture et de nutriments afin de capturer les changements potentiels des préférences qui auraient été causées par l'intervention. Les résultats suggèrent que la campagne d'information a eu un impact positif sur les préférences d'acide folique des foyers en risque et qu'elle a aidé à augmenter la disponibilité d'acide folique dans ces foyers. Finalement, en collaboration avec Jorge Florez-Acosta, nous identifions les coûts d'achat des consommateurs à l'aide d'une approche structurelle en utilisant une base de données des achats de nourriture des foyers français. Les coûts d'achat représentent les coûts réels ou perçus de visiter un nouveau magasin. Nous présentons un modèle de demande pour des magasins et des biens multiples qui représentent le problème d'optimisation du nombre de visite en termes de coûts d'achat individuels. Cette règle détermine si un consommateur visiterait un ou plusieurs magasins durant une période d'achat déterminée. Ensuite, nous estimons les paramètres du modèle et la distribution des coûts d'achat. Nous quantifions les coûts d'achat moyens par magasin visité. Ces coûts ont deux composantes : un coût moyen d'achat fixe et un coût moyen de transport par déplacement. Nous montrons que les consommateurs en capacité de visiter trois ou plus de magasins ont des coûts d'achat inférieurs à zéro, ce qui explique la faible proportion de consommateurs visitant trois ou plus de magasins présents dans notre base de données. Une fois les coûts d'achat sont pris en compte, la théorie montre que des pratiques, supposé, pro-concurrentiel peuvent réduire le bien-être et motiver l'intervention publique. Tels résultats théoriques n'ont toujours pas été testés empiriquement. Cet article représente un premier pas dans cette direction
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My dissertation considers three important aspects of energy and environmental economics: integration of renewable energy into the electricity grid, health impacts of oil and natural gas extraction, and a model of traffic dynamics that permits hypercongestion to arise. In my first chapter, I investigate the benefits and costs of geographically differentiating subsidies for rooftop solar photovoltaic systems. I estimate the intermittency costs of solar and subsidy spending required to achieve a given target by combining a model of the residential solar installation decision with a model of a system operator managing the region's electric grid. I find that offering the subsidy to a broader range of areas, rather than concentrating subsidies in the sunniest areas, reduces both intermittency costs and subsidy spending. I also find that differentiating subsidies to target the sunniest sites can reduce the subsidy spending needed to meet a solar generation target by over 5%. These savings are greater than the additional intermittency costs imposed by concentrating installations in the sunniest areas. Finally, I find there there is more to gain from differentiating subsidies in climatically and demographically diverse areas. In my second chapter, written with Wesley Blundell, we consider the health impacts of natural gas and oil extraction in North Dakota. In particular we focus on the health impacts of natural gas flaring, which is the combustion of unprocessed natural gas at wells. Flaring results in the combustion of various contaminants and complex hydrocarbons which leads to local air pollution. We focus on hospital visits related to respiratory and cardiovascular ailments. We find an effect of natural gas flaring on respiratory hospital admittances for zip codes within 30 and 60 miles of wells, but the effect diminishes at 90 and 120 miles. We also do not find any significant effects on cardiovascular visits, which are less likely to be exacerbated by air pollution. We also perform a placebo test using hospital admittances due to trauma in which we do not find any impact of natural gas flaring. My third chapter, written with Richard Arnott and Mehdi Naji, considers a top priority in transportation economics: the development of a model of rush-hour traffic dynamics that incorporate hypercongestion -- situations of heavy congestion where throughput decreases as traffic density increases. Unfortunately, even the simplest models along these lines appear in general to be analytically intractable, and none of the models that have made approximations in order to achieve tractability has gained widespread acceptance. We take a different tack, developing an analytical solution for a special case -- a no-toll equilibrium in an isotropic downtown area with identical commuters, the Greenshields' congestion technology, and the α - β cost function with no late arrivals permitted.

The study consists of three separate essays. The first essay reassesses and extends the papers by Pindyck (2000, 2002) which analyze the effects of uncertainty and irreversibility on the timing of emissions reduction policy. It is shown that proposed solutions for some of the optimal stopping problems introduced in these papers are incorrect. Correct solutions are provided for both the incorrect special cases and the general model through a numerical method since closed form solutions do not exist for these problems. In the second essay, singular control framework is employed in order to allow for gradual emission reduction instead of once-for-all type policies. The solution for the model is obtained using the numerical method introduced in the last essay. The effects of uncertainty and irreversibility on optimal emission reduction policy are investigated. The model is illustrated for greenhouse gas mitigation in the context of climate change problem and some of the model parameters are estimated using a state space model. In the third essay, a unified numerical method is introduced for solving multidimensional singular and impulse control models. The link between regime switching and singular/impulse control problems is established. This link results in a convenient representation of optimality conditions for the numerical method. After solving the optimality conditions at a discrete set of points, an approximate solution can be obtained by solving an extended vertical linear complementarity problem using a variety of techniques. The numerical approach is illustrated with four examples from economics and finance literature.

The chapters of this dissertation explore complementary areas of applied microeconomics, within the fields of experimental and environmental economics. In each case, preferences and institutions interact in ways that enhance or subvert efficiency. The first chapter, "The Girl Scout Cookie Phenomenon," uses a laboratory experiment to study favor trading in a public goods setting. The ability to practice targeted reciprocity increases contributions by 14%, which corresponds directly to increased efficiency. Subjects discriminate by rewarding group members who have been generous and withholding rewards from ungenerous group members. At least some reciprocal behavior is rooted in other-regarding preferences. When someone is outside the "circle of reciprocity," he gives less to the public good than in other settings. We find no evidence of indirect reciprocity. We find two behavioral types in each treatment, differing in baseline giving but not in tendency to reciprocate. The second chapter, "The Effects of Conservation Reserve Program Participation on Later Land Use," studies another public goods issue: conservation. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) pays farmers to retire farmland. We use a treatment effect framework to find that ex-CRP land is 21-28% more likely to be farmed than comparable non-CRP land. This implies that the CRP improves low-quality land, making it more attractive to farm. This could demonstrate inefficiency, since farmers gain private benefit from a program meant to provide a public good. On the other hand, farmed ex-CRP land is more likely to adopt conservation practices, although this may not be caused by CRP participation. The third chapter, "Learning from Mistakes," examines financial decisions by adult Rwandans in institutions inside and outside the lab. Over 50% of subjects make irrational choices over risk—choices that likely do not reflect their preferences, and are therefore likely inefficient—and these subjects share tendencies in their take-up of financial instruments. Risk-averse individuals are more likely to belong to a savings group and less likely to take out an informal loan. For those who make mistakes, however, as they become more risk averse, they are less likely to belong to a savings group and more likely to take up informal credit.

Essay I: In January, 2005, the EU launched the first international emissions trading system (EU ETS), aimed at reducing carbon emissions in a cost-effective way by means of a market-based instrument. In this paper, we use the treatment/control, before/after design of the natural experiment approach to investigate the treatment effect of the EU ETS on the profitability of a sample of Swedish energy firms in 2005 and 2006. We also investigate whether under-cap and over-cap firms respond differently to the EU ETS. The estimation results in general suggest no significant impact in 2005 and a negative significant impact in 2006. The sub-sample analysis suggests that profitability of under-cap and over-cap firms were affected differently by the EU ETS in 2005, but not in 2006. Essay II: The paper empirically explores the possible causes behind electricity price jumps in the Nordic electricity market, Nord Pool. A time-series model (a mixed GARCH-EARJI jump model) capturing the common statistical features of electricity prices is used to identify price jumps. By the model, a categorical variable is defined distinguishing no, positive and negative jumps. The causes for the jumps are then explored through the use of ordered probit models in a second stage. The empirical results indicate that the structure of the market plays an important role in whether shocks in the demand and supply for electricity translate into price jumps. Essay III: Scientific evidence indicates that human development faces multiple and interacting regime-switching environmental thresholds such as climate change, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss. And crossing one or more such thresholds would trigger rapid and large changes in our life-support system with widespread consequences. This paper attempts to study the effects of such thresholds on human well-being in a growth theoretical framework. We derive the accounting prices of pollution stocks such as the concentration of greenhouse gases for the risk of triggering catastrophic events, which are needed for conducting a dynamic cost-benefit analysis. We first analyze a simple model with a single threshold and then extend it to a planar system with correlated double thresholds with a joint probability distribution. the results can be applied for analyzing global climate change and ocean acidification risks, which are highlighted in a Nature article by Rockström et al. (2009). Essay IV: Lump-sum transfers as a means of tackling climate change are mainly perceived as a theoretical construct to achieve the first best Pareto optimum. The previous literature on lump-sum transfers normally focuses on the two polar cases: the absence of lump-sum transfers and perfect or unconstrained lump-sum transfers, leaving the middle way aside. In this paper, we attempt to explore the unmarked part by developing a model where transfer costs are explicitly taken into account. We show that whether the Pareto optimum characterized by the equalization of marginal abatement costs is attainable depends on the formation of transfer costs. When the marginal transfer cost is zero, the separability of equity and efficiency under perfect lump-sum transfers is kept. However, when the marginal transfer cost is positive, the optimum with equalization of marginal abatement costs is neither attainable, nor desirable. We also simulate a policy experiment in China to review the optimal abatement and transfer patterns between China's provinces within a framework of imperfect lump-sum transfers. The highlighted welfare gains is supportive of considering lump-sum transfers as a national climate change policy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references.
This thesis is a collection of three empirical essays on economic development and environmental economics. Chapter 1 measures the response of U.S. based multinational firms to the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), which dramatically strengthened U.S. environmental regulation. Using a panel of firm-level data over the period 1966-1999, I estimate the effect of regulation on a multinational's foreign production decisions. The CAAA induced substantial variation in the degree of regulation faced by firms, allowing for the estimation of econometric models that control for firm-specific characteristics and industrial trends. I find that the CAAA caused regulated multinational firms to increase their foreign assets by 5.3% and their foreign output by 9%. In aggregate, this increase represents approximately 0.6% of the stock of multinationals' domestic assets in polluting industries. Contrary to common beliefs, I find that heavily regulated firms did not disproportionately increase foreign investment in developing countries. Finally, this paper presents limited evidence that U.S. based multinationals increased imports of highly polluting goods when faced with tougher U.S. environmental regulation. Overall, these results are consistent with the view that U.S. environmental regulations cause U.S. firms to move capital and jobs abroad.
(cont.) Chapter 2 looks at the teacher absence. In the rural areas of developing countries, teacher absence is a widespread problem. This paper tests a simple incentive program based on teacher presence can reduce teacher absence, and whether this has the potential to lead to more teaching activities and better learning. In 60 one-teacher informal schools in rural India, randomly chosen out of 120, a financial incentive program was initiated to reduce absenteeism. Teachers were given a camera that had a temper-proof date and time function, along with instructions to have one of the children photograph the teacher and other students at the beginning and end of the school day. The time and date stamps on the photographs were used to track teacher attendance. A teacher's salary was a direct function of his attendance. The introduction of the program resulted in an immediate decline in teacher absence. The absence rate changed from an average of 42% in the comparison schools to 22% in the treatment schools. When the schools were open, teachers were as likely to be teaching in both types of schools, and the number of students present was roughly the same.
(cont.) The program positively affected child achievement levels: A year after the start of the program, test scores in program schools were 0.17 standard deviations higher than in the comparison schools and children were more likely to be admitted into regular schools. Chapter 3 estimates the labor supply effect of childbirth for Jewish and Muslim women in Israel. As a source of exogenous variation in childbirth I use preferences over the gender composition of children, which vary across the two cultural groups. While Israeli Arabs prefer sons, Israeli Jews have a relative taste for symmetric families (at least one son and one daughter). Highly educated Arabs and Jews appear to prefer small families, but are significantly more likely to have another child if they only have daughters. Using this exogenous variation in fertility, I find that Jewish women work less as a result of having a third child. Arabs work less as result of having a third child; however, this decrease is not significant at conventional levels. When extending the analysis to look at the labor supply response to a fourth child, I find that Jewish women are less likely to work with an additional child, whereas Muslim women are more likely to be employed. However, religious institutions may not be fully responsible for these differences in behavior.
(cont.) Instead, other socioeconomic characteristics may attribute to the observed differences in the labor supply response across religious groups.
by Rema Hanna.
Ph.D.

This thesis approaches the global cooperation problem of climate change mitigation from a cultural standpoint. The research is inspired by the observation that voluntary efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions exist and more interestingly that there is heterogeneity in the level of voluntary action across countries. To what extent could this be explained by cultural differences? In Chapter 1, I argue the within-country culture of cooperation sustained by trust – the expectation that a random member of society is trustworthy – positively affects cooperative behavior in the international arena via reputation effects. I theoretically motivate this hypothesis and provide empirical evidence that countries associated with high trust have reduced greenhouse gas emissions more substantially than countries that display low levels of social trust. I further explore this line of argument in Chapter 2 by looking at how trust affects compliance. This chapter provides empirical evidence that trust facilitates firms’ compliance decisions in an international climate change regulation (EU ETS), which makes enforcement less costly in high-trust countries. In Chapter 3, I turn my attention to potential determinants of trust. The paper focuses on the effect of migration on trust among neighbors in the context of Mexico. The findings suggest that migration negatively affects the formation of trust between individuals due to the expected short-term nature of the relationship.

Fighting poverty and protecting the environment are two of the most urgent challenges facing the international community at the start of the 21st century (United Nations, 2015). One aspect that will be crucial in this challenge is aligning environmental, energy and development policy in order to create a triple dividend between the three policy fields. Additionally, integrating environmental protection policies with poverty reduction strategies is by no means a new concept, but as we continue to think about these challenges, it is important to link environmental and economic components together through a type of development that is economically feasible, socially desirable and environmentally benign. Within each of these challenges lies different possible interventions, but space must be created for public policy to be at the center of these challenges in order to generate the best available evidence and guide our decision making. This dissertation consists of three independent chapters that represent responses to these challenges, and provides empirical evidence that can guide specific policy recommendations in the fields of development economics, and environmental and resource economics. Universal access to modern energy services is central to the international sustainable development agenda. According to the International Energy Agency (2010, 2017), 1.4 billion people across the world did not have access to electricity, and 2.7 billion people still rely on traditional use of solid biomass. The international development agenda has placed an emphasis on improving access to electricity as well as made large investments in the energy sector throughout developing countries. It is argued that the universalization of access to electric energy in the world is of fundamental importance for the eradication of poverty and the reduction of social inequality (Kaygusuz, 2011). Despite the large investments made in the energy sector to increase rural electrification and the diffusion of modern cooking systems, relatively little is known about the impact such policies have on household well-being (Bonan et al., 2017). From an individualistic point of view, energy is a material prerequisite to achieving valued capabilities (Nussbaum, 2001). Energy is interconnected with the socio-economic and human development of the individual, and deprivations of energy interact with health and education in different ways to undermine an individual’s well-being. In recent years there has been a movement towards multidimensional methodologies built upon the foundations set forth by Alkire and Foster (2007, 2011) and Alkire and Santos (2010) as well as research focused specifically on multidimensional energy poverty (Nussbaumer et al., 2012). Thinking about energy poverty through a multidimensional lens, examines the underlying problems of different types of ‘poverties’ rather than just poverty, and asks the question of ‘poor in what’ in addition to ‘who is poor’. With the recent movement towards multidimensional analysis, parallel with resources being allocated towards energy programs, understanding how these two areas interact is imperative. Building upon the multidimensional framework set forth by Nussbaumer et al. (2012), the premise of the second chapter of this dissertation is to jointly analyze how multidimensional energy poverty deprivations affect different measures of education in Uganda. The first goal builds upon previous work by Nussbaumer et al. (2012) who postulate six energy components: 1) modern cooking fuel, 2) indoor air pollution, 3) access to electricity, 4) household appliance ownership, 5) radio or television, and 6) mobile phone. The sample population is then classified as to whether the respondent has access to electricity or not, and then whether the respondent has achieved other possible energy components within the MEPI. Exploiting the data in this manner demonstrates that access to electricity is unable to capture whether other household energy domains have been achieved. After motivating the need for the use of a multidimensional framework through descriptive statistics, the study moves to weight each of the energy domains. This is done through a Factor Analysis, which searches for inter-correlations amongst the variables within the index. Using the derived weights, the MEPI is constructed for each individual in the sample. Last the study applies the MEPI in a regression analysis and compares its effects to that of access to electricity on measures of education. In order to address methodological challenges of attribution, this study draws upon an IV strategy employed by Dinkelman (2011) that uses the land gradient of the community. Where this study differentiates from the previous empirical strategy is it will use the land gradient of rural households. This will be the first time that this IV strategy is employed at the individual/household level. I find that the MEPI improves upon our understanding as to the effects energy poverty has on measures of education. This is seen in the precision of the estimated coefficients and smaller standard errors as well as the ability of the MEPI to estimate significant results that access to electricity is unable to. The results further demonstrate that there are other important energy mechanisms beyond access to electricity that must be considered within an individual’s set of energy capabilities, and this may explain the insignificant or inconsistent findings of previous studies based on simpler indicators (like access to electricity). Analyzing household energy deprivations from a multidimensional perspective makes several important contributions to the literature on energy poverty. The first is the ability to quantitatively characterize the type of energy poverty an individual suffers from. The methodologies employed in this chapter better illustrate complementary input mechanisms beyond the singular dimension of whether an individual has access to electricity. Furthermore, considering only access to electricity may lead to a misdiagnosis of the true problem, which is that individuals may have access to electricity, but are unable to realize the benefits of the energy through appliances or modern cooking technologies. From a methodological point of view this misdiagnosis may introduce measurement bias into the analysis. The developed MEPI framework attempts to reconcile this problem and expand the literature’s ability to measure energy poverty. The second contribution comes from the use of Factor Analysis, which is a model based approach that seeks to reproduce the inter-correlations amongst variables and is focused on explaining the common variance across indicators instead of total variation. This methodology is employed to assign context specific weights to each of the components within the MEPI. This is the first time that energy poverty has been quantitatively characterized in such a manner in order to be used in causal modeling. Additionally, insights gained from the weighting analysis can be used by policy makers to prioritize different energy deprivations. Third a contribution is made through the use of an innovative IV that builds-on the work by Dinkelman (2011), who uses the local land gradient to instrument for the MEPI access to electricity. This analysis uses the land gradient of the household as an instrument, which provides a more accurate depiction of actual electricity access as the average local land gradient can hide the fact that some households in a community may or may not have electricity. Chapters 3 and 4 of this dissertation study the interrelated dynamics of development economics, environmental and natural resource economics. In Chapter 3, I focus on how development impacts the environment through the effects that a community-driven development program of small-scale infrastructure projects in the Philippines had on forest coverage. In Chapter 4, I analyze the opposite direction by focusing on how a changing environment impacts development. Specifically, Chapter 4 analyzes the impact of a policy intended to revitalize the mining sector in the Philippines in terms of an unintended increase in malaria cases. The loss of forest coverage is a global as well as a local and regional environmental concern. Globally deforestation represents around 9 percent of anthropogenic carbon emissions (Le Quéré et al., 2015). Local and regional impacts from deforestation can lead to land degradation such as a reduction in soil fertility, increased runoff into fisheries as well as a loss of biodiversity. Additionally, stemming deforestation in low-income countries is viewed as one of the most cost-effective solutions to reducing global CO2 emissions (Nabuurs et al., 2007; Stern, 2007). As developing countries continue to build infrastructure in parallel with their development needs, one challenge to confront is how to meet the development needs in a sustainable manner. One solution could lie in community-driven development (CDD) programs, which can best be characterized by the movement of responsibility over resources and planning decisions. This type of program supports a bottom-up approach to development by decentralizing the decision making process to the local level. Where the issue of deforestation and increasing frequency of CDD programs throughout the world come together, is that international donors and multilateral organizations are targeting CDD programs as a strategy for climate change mitigation and adaptation (Arnold et al., 2014). The objective of Chapter 3 is to examine whether the goals of fighting poverty and protecting the environment are in contradiction by asking whether development aid has unintended environmental effects in regards to deforestation, focusing on a CDD program in the Philippines. This question is derived from several areas. First is in regards to the scarcity of evidence on the environmental impacts of actions designed to reduce poverty, as well as in the opposite direction of the poverty impacts of actions designed to protect the environment (Alpízar and Ferraro, 2020). Second there is surprisingly very little evidence on the impact international aid has on the environment and more specifically forest coverage. Third, even as international donors and multilateral organizations position CDD programs with the parallel strategies of poverty reduction and climate change mitigation and adaptation, little empirical evidence exists on the effects CDD programs have on the environment and forest coverage. This chapter will address each of these areas by providing rigorous empirical evidence of the effects international aid has on deforestation. In this study, I utilize satellite-generated forest coverage data to analyze the effects development aid has on deforestation through a large-scale CDD program in the Philippines called KALAHI-CIDSS (KC). In order to disentangle this relationship, I exploit the manner in which the CDD program was allocated to municipalities through a regression discontinuity design (RDD) and a randomized control trial (RCT). The former leverages quasi-experimental variation, where the main identifying assumption is that municipalities on either side and close to the eligibility cut-off are systematically similar except that one received the program and the other did not. The later strategy leverages experimental variation between municipalities that were randomly selected via lottery to either be treated by the KC program or remain a part of the control for three years. I find evidence that indicates the KC program had strong and statistically significant effects on deforestation. Eligible municipalities in the RDD period experienced an average of 236 percent more deforestation and treated municipalities in the RCT period experienced an average of 265 percent more deforestation than the control. The paper makes several important contributions to the literature and the under-standing of the effects development aid has on the environment. First, each of the empirical strategies have the ability to overcome traditional concerns stemming from the non-randomness of aid allocation, in order to uncover a causal estimate of the effects development aid has on deforestation, and more specifically the effect that CDD programs have on deforestation. Second, each of the empirical strategies analyzes the same development program, but from two different time periods in which the Philippines experienced different levels of deforestation. Third is the scale of the program, since this study represents the largest evaluation of the environmental effects that a CDD program has had on deforestation. Additionally the Philippines offers a context that has substantial spatial heterogeneity in terms of economic, social and ecological diversity. Fourth, a rich dataset on subproject characteristics is exploited with information on the type of implemented subproject, the number of household beneficiaries, construction duration and the subproject cost. This information has yet to be exploited for a CDD program and additionally offers a unique dimension to understand how different types of subprojects such as infrastructure, education/health facilities, water/electricity, water protection, and support projects differentially impact the environment. Last, a contribution is made to whether higher levels of poverty lead to more deforestation relative to less poor areas. This refers to the environmental Kuznets curve or the contrasting view of the poverty-environment hypothesis, which remains an open debate in the environmental literature. The latter suggests that as income grows, even at low income levels, the surrounding environmental quality improves, while the former indicates the existence of a non-monotonic relationship where rising living standards first increases pressure on the environment and then later improve them. By exploiting the structure of the RDD, I am able to find limited support for the environmental Kuznets curve. Finally, Chapter 4 focuses on the unintended consequences of changes in development policy. It reverses the previous Chapter’s direction of thinking, from how development may impact the environment, to how policy-driven environmental changes may impact development and more specifically health outcomes. In this regard, land transformation and land clearance activities are likely to increase diseases, and roughly one quarter of the global burden of disease can be attributed to environmental changes (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2008). One disease that is susceptible to such environmental changes is malaria. This is due to the fact that cleared lands are generally more exposed to sunlight and prone to puddle formation with more neutral pH levels that can favor Anopheline larvae development (Patz et al., 2000) as well as a loss of biodiversity can reduce or eliminate species that prey on Anopheline larvae or Anopheles mosquitoes (Laporta et al., 2013; Yasuoka and Levins, 2007). Deforestation is one form of land transformation that has been shown to alter the disease ecology of malaria (Berazneva and Byker, 2017; Chakrabarti, 2018; Garg, 2019; Keesing et al., 2010; MacDonald and Mordecai, 2019; Pattanayak and Pfaff, 2009; Tucker et al., 2017). Another form of land transformation that could be potentially linked to the emergence and proliferation of malaria is through mining activities. These have received much less attention in the literature, which has focused on small geographical areas and localized effects of malaria (De Santi et al., 2016; Rozo, 2020; Valle and Lima, 2014) or on a corollary relationship between gold mining and malaria (Barbieri et al., 2005; Caselli and Tesei, 2016; De Santi et al., 2016). With this in mind, this chapter aims at analyzing whether there is an ecological response from mining activities, by investigating how a change in extractive resource policy in the Philippines led to more cases of malaria. In January 2004, the government of the Philippines launched the Minerals Action Plan (MAP) with the goal of revitalizing the mining sector. As a result, the policy change led to a reduction in the mining permit process between application and the grant of a permit from 3-5 years to 6 months in 2005 (Fong-Sam, 2005). Using the MAP reform, I exploit two sources of variation in the timing of the MAP reform as well as spatial variation in the distribution of mineral endowments through a difference-in-difference (DID) approach that compares provinces with and without gold deposits before and after the reform. The basic pathway in which gold mining is hypothesized to accelerate the reproductive environment of the Anopheles mosquito is through the process of leaving behind slow-moving bodies of water, which happen to be the common location of many gold mines. If the stagnant pools of water are left open, they can provide an ideal breeding site for the Anopheles mosquito to reproduce. I find evidence that is consistent with an ecological response, where the policy change to a more extractive resource position had a statistically significant effect on the incidence of malaria. More specifically, after the MAP reform, provinces with gold deposits had 32 percent more malaria cases relative to provinces without gold deposits. There are three main contributions this chapter intends to make. First, it moves beyond corollary results and provides causal estimates by exploiting the timing of the reform as well as the spatial distribution of geological endowments. Second, it provides the first nation-wide causal estimates of the impact gold mining has on the incidence of malaria. Third, it analyzes a policy that encouraged the expansion of the mining sector. This differentiates from the Rozo (2020) context in Colombia, where the bulk of the argument is placed on the fact that illegal gold miners do not comply with mining regulations and have limited knowledge on measures needed to protect themselves from malaria or safety measures to prevent the reproduction of malaria. Evidence from this chapter indicates that it is not necessarily a legal versus illegal issue, as a legal expansion of the resource extraction sector through the MAP reform also led to an increase in the incidence of malaria.

This dissertation includes three distinct chapters looking at different challenges faced by developing countries. The first chapter examines the situation of farmers under climate change by mapping future climatic conditions onto the distribution of agricultural revenue in India. The second chapter uses the Mexican conditional cash transfer (CCT) program Progresa to investigate the relationship between income, education and fertility. Finally, the third chapter studies the extent to which preferential tariffs extended by OECD countries have helped least developing countries (LDC) diversify their exports. Given the issues explored by these essays, I contribute to several distinct strands of the economic literature, yet each paper is motivated by its policy relevance and is embedded in the issues faced by developing economies.

Over the last 10 years, the solar photovoltaic (PV) market has experienced tremendous growth due in part to government incentive programs. However the effect and welfare analysis of these policy instruments remain ambiguous. In the first chapter of my dissertation, we estimate a dynamic model of households investment decisions on rooftop PV systems to understand the impact of these programs on residential solar installations and evaluate the outcome of alternative incentive policies. The model separately evaluates the effect of system prices, up-front subsidies, tax credits and production revenues using a 5-year data set collected by the California Solar Initiative program, which subsidized solar installations in California. The results indicate that capacity-based subsidies are equally effective as production-based subsidies, but that the latter are more efficient. With a $100 social cost of carbon, the total subsidies in California would be welfare neutral. If California were only as sunny as Frankfurt, Germany, this value has to be $200 to be welfare neutral. We find that without subsidies, 85% of the existing installations would not have occurred. The second chapter of my dissertation is on the political economics of corruption. This is a relevant question in the Environmental Economics due to the human factors involved in government regulations. We investigate the effects of unhindered corruption in the entry-certifying process of an industry on market structure and social welfare. To gain entry, a firm must pay a bribe-maximizing official an exogenous percentage of anticipated profit, in addition to the usual set up cost. This would lead to a monopoly, but only in markets without pre-existing firms. A benevolent social planner may use bribery to the benefit of society by either manipulating the number of pre-existing firms in the market, or by setting up independent (corrupt) licensing authorities. A socially optimal number of firms in the market may be reached by choosing the right number of pre-existing firms or by having exactly two licensing authorities. These mechanisms may be seen as restoring second-best efficiency in settings characterized by two major sources of distortion: Imperfect competition and corruption.

The thesis consists of three independent chapters on environmental and urban economics. A central theme explored in this thesis is what determines the distribution of economic activities across space. My exploration in this direction begins with the roles of industrial pollution and transportation infrastructure in shaping the spatial distribution of skills, and extends to evaluate the spatial allocation efficiency of renewable energy projects. The first chapter,“The Long Shadow of Industrial Pollution: Environmental Amenities and the Distribution of Skills”, investigates the role of industrial pollution in determining the competitiveness of post-industrial cities, with a focus on their ability to attract skilled workers and shift to a modern service economy. I assemble a rich database at a fine spatial resolution, which allows me to track pollution from the 1970s to the present and to examine its impacts on a whole range of outcomes related to productivity and amenity, including house prices, employment, wages, and crime. I find that census tracts downwind of highly polluted 1970s industrial sites are associated with lower housing prices and a smaller share of skilled employment three decades later, a pattern which became evermore prominent between 1980 and 2000. These findings indicate that pollution in the 1970s affected the ability of parts of cities to attract skills, which in turn drove the process of agglomeration based on modern services. To quantify the contribution of different mechanisms, I build and estimate a multi-sector spatial equilibrium framework that introduces heterogeneity in local productivity and workers’ valuation of local amenities across sectors and allows the initial sorting to be magnified by production and residential externalities. Structural estimation suggests that historical pollution is associated with lower current productivity and amenity; the magnitudes are higher for productivity, more skilled sectors and central tracts. I then use the framework to evaluate the impact of counterfactual pollution cuts in different parts of cities on nationwide welfare and cross-city skill distribution. The second chapter, “Travel Costs and Urban Specialization: Evidence from China’s High Speed Railway” examines how improvements in passenger transportation affect the spatial distribution of skills, exploiting the expansion of high speed railway (HSR) project in China. This natural experiment is unique because as a passenger-dedicated transportation device that aims at improving the speed and convenience of intercity travel, HSR mostly affects urban specialization through encouraging more frequent intercity trips and face-to-face interactions. I find that an HSR connection increases city-wide passenger flows by 10% and employment by 7%. To further deal with the issues of endogenous railway placement and simultaneous public investments accompanying HSR connections, I examine the impact of a city’s market access changes purely driven by the HSR connection of other cities. The estimates suggest that HSR-induced expansion in market access increases urban employment with an elasticity between 2 and 2.5. The differential impacts of HSR on employment across sectors suggest that industries benefiting more from enhanced market access are the ones intensive in nonroutine cognitive skills, such as finance, IT and business services. These findings highlight the role of improved passenger travel infrastructure in promoting the delivery of services, facilitating labour sourcing and knowledge exchange across cities, and ultimately shifting the specialization pattern of connected cities towards skilled and communication intensive sectors. In the last chapter, “Where does the Wind Blow? Green Preferences and Spatial Misallocation in the Renewable Energy Sector” , I focus on the spatial allocation efficiency of renewable energy projects. How efficiently are renewable energy projects distributed across the US? Are “greener” investors worse at picking sites? Using extensive information on wind resources, transmission, electricity prices and other restrictions that are relevant to the siting choices of wind farms, I calculate the predicted profitability of wind power projects for all possible locations across the contiguous US, use this distribution of this profitability as a counterfactual for profit-maximizing wind power investments and compare it to the actual placement of wind farms. The average predicted profit of wind projects would have risen by 47.1% had the 1770 current projects in the continental US been moved to the best 1770 sites. I also show that 80% and 42% respectively of this observed deviation can be accounted for by within-state and within-county distortions. I provide further evidence that a large proportion of the observed within-state spatial misallocation is related to green investors’ tendency of invest locally and sub-optimally. Wind farms in more environmentally-friendly counties are more likely to be financed by local and non-profit investors, are closer to cities, are much less responsive to local fundamentals and have worse performance ex-post. The implementation of state policies such as Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and price-based subsidies are related to better within-state locational choices through attracting more for-profit investments to the “brown" counties, while lump-sum subsidies have the opposite or no effects. My findings have salient implications for environmental and energy policy. Policy makers should take account of the non-monetary incentives of renewable investors when determining the allocative efficiency of policies.

Benefit-cost analysis of environmental policies typically focuses on benefits to human health and well-being. When it comes to humans' willingness to pay (WTP) for improvements in the quality of life for other species, however, the evidence is limited. We argue that the other-species morbidity-reduction component of WTP should be calculated net of any "outrage" component associated with the cause of the harm. This net WTP is likely to be correlated with the premium that people are willing to pay for chicken products from birds for which the quality of life has been enhanced by improved animal welfare measures. This paper uses a conjoint choice stated preference survey to reveal the nature of systematic heterogeneity in preferences for "humanely raised" versus "conventionally raised" chicken. We also use latent class analysis to distinguish between two classes of people - those who are willing to pay a premium for humanely raised chicken and those who are not. Proposition 21 on California's 2010 ballot concerned an $18 annual surcharge on vehicles to support state parks. Prop 21 failed, implying 25% of these parks risk closure. Voting patterns at the Census tract level depend on gross price, incomes, age profiles, political ideology, environmental preferences, the availability of local substitutes, and park salience. We simulate counterfactual scenarios under which Prop 21 might have passed and use county-level hold-out samples to illustrate the predictive ability of our model. The California Air Resources Board is slowly phasing out perchloroethylene as the main input in dry cleaning operations in the state. Exploiting differential implementation of this regulation between SCAQMD (South Coast Air Quality Management District) and the rest of the state, we examine the effect of this regulation on the propensity for dry cleaning businesses to exit the industry. We find that regulation has encouraged early exit from the industry in some cases. We also find that regulation decreased ambient concentrations of perchloroethylene in the atmosphere. This dissertation contains both published and unpublished co-authored material. It also contains an appendix for chapter II as a supplemental file.

Cette thèse comporte quatre essais et porte sur les questions fondamentales sur la relation entre l’environnement et le développement économique. Le premier chapitre cherche à identifier les déterminants individuels et contextuels qui affectent la volonté de contribuer des gens à la lutte contre la pollution environnementale. Nos résultats révèlent que les individus riches, les personnes éduquées ainsi que les personnes possédant des valeurs post-matérialistes sont plus susceptibles d’être préoccupées par la pollution environnementale. On remarque que la caractéristique du pays de ces individus affecte leur volonté à contribuer. Ainsi, dans les pays à forte démocratie avec une forte stabilité gouvernementale, les individus sont réticents à faire des dons pour prévenir les dommages environnementaux. Le deuxième chapitre examine la relation entre la croissance économique et la dégradation de l’environnement en s’interrogeant sur la relation U inversée de Kuznets. Nos résultats empiriques ne révèlent aucune preuve de ladite relation. Cependant, nous notons l’existence d’une relation non linéaire entre la croissance économique et la dégradation de l’environnement. Les émissions ont tendance à augmenter un rythme plus rapide dans les premiers stades de la croissance économique puis dans les dernière étapes, cette hausse persiste mais à un rythme plus lent. Le troisième chapitre étudie la relation de causalité de long terme entre la consommation d'énergie propre et la croissance économique dans un groupe de pays de l’Afrique subsaharienne. Le résultat révèle l'existence d'une relation d'équilibre à long terme entre la consommation d'énergie propre et la croissance économique. En outre, la dynamique de court terme et de long terme indiquent une relation de causalité à la Granger unidirectionnelle de la consommation d'énergie propre vers la croissance économique sans aucun effet rétroactif. Le dernier chapitre de cette thèse cherche à investiguer sur la convergence des émissions de gaz entre les provinces canadiennes. L'étude montre que les émissions de gaz des provinces canadiennes sont caractérisées des convergences de clubs. En d'autres termes, on détecte l'existence d'une segmentation des émissions entre les provinces canadiennes
This thesis comprises four empirical essays on environmental and development economics. In the first chapter, we examine to what extent individual and contextual level factors influence individuals to contribute financially to prevent environmental pollution. We find that rich people, individuals with higher education, as well as those who possess post-materialist values are more likely to be concerned about environmental pollution. We also observe the country in which individuals live matter in their willingness to contribute. More precisely, we find democracy and government stability reduce individuals’ intention to donate to prevent environmental damage mainly in developed countries. The second chapter deals with the relation between economic growth and environmental degradation by focusing on the issue of whether the inverted U-shaped relation exist. The study discloses no evidence for the U-shaped relation. However, the empirical result points toward a non-linear relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth, that is, emissions tend to rise rapidly in the early stages with economic growth, and then emissions continue to increase but a lower rate in the later stages. The third chapter investigates the long-run as well as the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in a group of Sub-Saharan Africa. The result discovers the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between clean energy consumption and economic growth. Furthermore, the short-run and the long-run dynamics indicate unidirectional Granger causality running from clean energy consumption to economic growth without any feedback effects. The last chapter of this thesis concerns with convergence of emissions across Canadian provinces. The study determines convergence clubs better characterizes Canadian’s emissions. In other words, we detect the existence of segmentation in emissions across Canadian provinces

Environmental goals such as urban water conservation and pollution control regulations are typically achieved through price and non-price methods. This dissertation offers an analysis of the non-price approaches, including the rationing of water for particular users, installation of particular technologies, and adoption of particular certifications to achieve environmental goals. To begin, an analysis of California’s 2015 urban water conservation mandate was performed. Results indicate that the average welfare loss of the mandate is $6,107 per acre-foot of restriction in Northern California and $2,757 per acre-foot of restriction in Southern California. In terms of monthly household-level willingness-to-pay (WTP) to avoid the mandate, results illustrate that households have a WTP between $5 and $200 per month. Northern Californian utilities were generally in compliance with their mandated conservation targets, while Southern Californian utilities tended to fall short. The second essay focuses on analyzing how web-based Home Water Use Reports (HWURs) affect household-level water consumption in Folsom City, California. The HWURs under study, offered by the company Dropcountr (DC), share social comparisons, consumption analytics, and conservation information to residential accounts, primarily through digital communications. We found that there is a 7.8% reduction in average daily household water consumption for a typical household under treatment of the DC program. Results suggest that the effect of DC varies by the baseline consumption quintile, the number of months in the program, the day of the week, message type, and enrollment wave. Furthermore, we find that indicate these responses to DC program likely come from the information channel rather than moral suasion. The final essay studies the effectiveness of ISO-14001 on pollution reduction as a non-price pollution control approach. Manufacturers have been increasingly relying on environmental management systems (such as ISO 14001 based ones) to comply with government regulations and reduce waste. In this essay, we investigated the impact of ISO 14001 certification on manufacturers’ toxic release by release level. Results show that ISO 14001 had a negative and statistically significant effect on the top 10% manufacturing sites regarding the on-site toxic release, but it did not reduce off-site toxic release. Therefore, one should not expect ISO 14001 to have a uniform impact on manufacturing sites’ environmental performance. For large firms, encouraging voluntary adoption of ISO 14001 might be an effective government strategy to reduce on-site pollution.

Urban and Environmental Economics are two branch of Economics that are more and more tightly interconnected and always should be. Trying to study how population is distributed across cities is a key point for several issues, either from a theoretical point of view or from a policy implementation point of view. Among the policies possibly affected by population distribution, policies dealing with climate change are one of the most affected, as people keep attributing a growing importance to the quality of their life, to the protection to natural risks and, then, policy makers have to care about how people are spread across cities. Viceversa, an effective climate policy should try to improve people’s life quality and to leave at least unaltered the population distribution, as it can cause, for example, job losses due to company relocation, which can alter in a substantial way the way in which population distributes in cities. In this thesis work, we aim to provide the international scientific community with new insights on some of the most relevant topics in these two branches: What is the actual distribution of population in cities of a country and what were the processes leading to it? Using different demographics variables or introducing some demographic characteristics (as age structure) could lead us to different results and give us different insights on the way in which people distribute across cities in a country? Could the greenhouse gas emissions behavior of a company be affected by the way in which the company is given the rights to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide? These are the main topics concerning the three chapters of which this thesis is constituted.

This Doctoral thesis studies how nudges can help protect the environment. Three empirical and one theoretical studies investigate applications of green nudges and identify situations where they should, or should not, be used to promote environmental conservation. In Chapter 1, we explore the interplay between nudges and financial policy instruments using an incentivized online experiment that reproduces daily energy behaviors. We find that these two tools do not perform better when implemented together than individually. Our results suggest that in some situations, displacements between behavioral and financial policy tools are more likely to arise than synergies. Chapter 2 presents a field study in which a behavioral intervention is used to promote energy conservation in the workplace. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find a significant reduction in branches’ monthly consumption outside the work schedule only, but not on overall consumption. Our findings suggest that nudges that are effective in the household context do not necessarily prompt behavioral change in the working environment. In Chapter 3, we develop a behavioral model for the usage of in-home displays that provide real-time feedback on energy consumption, focusing on social housing. On top of the cost-benefit analysis between financial and moral utility, on the one hand, and the effort from using them, on the other hand, we add the role of cognitive biases. This study seeks to improve the design of behavioral policies aimed at tackling energy poverty. Chapter 4 presents an incentivized online experiment that studies moral cleansing in the interpersonal and environmental domains. We find that bad behaviors that impact others trigger costly moral cleansing, whereas those that impact the environment do not even trigger costless cleansing. This empirically shows that people perceive environmental issues differently from other moral issues.

Environmental policy in the U.S. is often enacted at both the federal level and the state level. This dissertation uses unique data derived from a combination of a detailed simulation model of the U.S. electricity sector and an integrated assessment model of air pollution dispersion and valuation to examine three problems in state and federal environmental policy. These data represent the “taxes” (or shadow cost of abatement) on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are efficient for each state when considering only their own costs and benefits, and also the level of federal uniform tax on the same pollutants that maximizes each state’s net benefits. This data is used in three analyses. First, we examine the case of environmental federalism. Differences in spillovers across states, together with differences in population density and local cost structures create substantial spatial heterogeneity in the economics of air pollution. Uniform federal control and state level control both have advantages and disadvantages, and it is unclear which is more efficient. For the case of sulfur dioxide (nitrogen oxides), when states choose their own level of pollution, 31.5% (76.2%) of the potential benefits under the nationally optimal scheme are lost. The uniform tax only results in a loss of 0.19% (2.32%) of the potential benefits. The data derived, which are directly based on the costs and benefits of air pollution, provide a broad measure of constituent interest. These variables are used to explain state adoption of green electricity policies and federal legislative voting on environmental issues. In contrast to previous studies, it is found that constituent interest and ideology are both important determinants in the formation of environmental policy. Lastly, it is widely known in the literature that states act strategically when choosing policies. This result also persists for state-level environmental stringency. We use unique weighing matrix specifications to distinguish between tax competition and competition based on spillover effects. It is also shown that higher marginal damages of pollution limit strategic behavior.

This thesis is composed of three independent essays. In the first chapter, I analyze the effect of a biofuel-favorable policy in the U.S. on fetal health. I show that the policy led to an expansion in the production of corn, a pesticide-intensive crop, and to increased risk of fetal conditions previously associated with exposure to corn pesticides. In the second chapter, I examine the role of agricultural productivity as a mechanism linking rainfall shocks to civil wars in African countries. I show that rainfall over agricultural land and during the growing season has a hump-shaped relationship with agricultural output, which is mirrored by a U-shaped relationship with civil war risk. In the third chapter, I examine the effect of various selling schemes for testing tubewell water for arsenic on test uptake and, conditional on adverse news, on health-protective behavior. I find that uptake is increased by fees that depend on test results, and that social networks and public information can promote health-protective behavior.
Esta tesis consta de tres ensayos independientes. En el primer capítulo, analizo el efecto de una ley estadounidense que favorece la producción de biocombustibles sobre la salud fetal. Demuestro que la ley aumentó la producción de maíz, un cultivo con altos requerimientos de pesticidas, y el riesgo de enfermedades fetales asociadas con la exposición a pesticidas. En el segundo capítulo, estudio cómo la productividad agrícola puede mediar la relación entre shocks de lluvia y guerras en países africanos. Midiendo el nivel de lluvia sobre el territorio agrícola y durante la fase de crecimiento, demuestro que éste tiene una relación en forma de U-invertida con la producción agrícola, y una relación en forma de U con la incidencia de guerras civiles. En el tercer capítulo, estudio el efecto de diversas modalidades de venta de pruebas de arsénico para agua de pozo sobre la demanda por las mismas y, para familias que reciben noticias adversas, sobre su comportamiento para evitar el arsénico. Encuentro que la demanda aumenta cuando el precio a pagar depende de los resultados de la prueba, y que las redes sociales e información pública pueden promover medidas para evitar el agua contaminada.

Aquesta tesi de doctorat fa servir l’estadística i el modelatge d’econometria per explorar, en termes empírics, tres qüestions sobre energia i economia ambiental. El primer estudi aborda la connexió energia-economia en una perspectiva amplia: emprant l’energia, dades d’ingressos i població de 133 països durant quatre dècades, proporciona un examen gràfic de la intensitat energètica combinant anàlisis estàtics i dinàmics per avaluar la utilitat d’aquest popular indicador. L’ús de ‘Gapminder’ permet la visualització de quatre variables a la vegada per tal de donar a conèixer els patrons que caracteritzen les dades de l’energia i del PIB a llarg termini. Les conclusions de l’article responen negativament a la pregunta del títol. El segon estudi entra en la producció. Amb un enfocament sobre les entrades, la capacitat de substitució capital/energia s’investiga mitjançant la estimació de la funció de producció del sector manufacturer de set països de la OECD. Utilitzant una especificació de ‘Translog’ de quatre entrades, la substitució de les entrades és quantificada per la elasticitat creuada de substitució. Aquest tractament econòmic tradicional proporciona figures actualitzades sobre els límits tecnològics dins els quals els sistemes econòmics han d’operar durant temps d’escassetat d’energia, restriccions ambientals i volatilitat dels preus dels recursos. Una altra prova de que l’energia (barata) i matèries primeres són entrades essencials per la producció, tal com la coneixem i, per tant, que el món no pot seguir avançant sense recursos naturals. L’últim capítol tracta una qüestió urgent tant per la salut humana com pel medi ambient: les sempre creixents emissions del sector del transport, i focalitzant sobre vehicles de carretera. Després d’estimar la demanda dels consumidors tant pels combustibles tradicionals i com pels eco-combustibles àmpliament disponibles, i el gas liquat del petroli (GLP) i el metà, simulo els efectes d’introduir una taxa de carboni a Itàlia tant sobre l’elecció de combustible/vehicle i com en les emissions. Els resultats indiquen una positiva resposta del consumidor cap al GLP i metà, dirigint-se cap a una significant reducció del CO2; sent la difusió de la seva infraestructura de proveïment un factor essencial. Tots els estudis estan publicats a revistes científiques, i fan servir dades originals i verificables i procediments de càlcul, per tal de contribuir sobre noves i rellevants idees.
This PhD thesis uses statistics and econometric modelling to explore in empirical terms three energy and environmental economics issues. The first study approaches the energy-economy connection in a broad perspective: employing energy, population and income data for 133 countries over four decades, it provides a graphical examination of energy intensity combining static and dynamic analyses to assess the usefulness of this popular indicator. The use of Gapminder graphical tool allows the visualization of four variables at the time so as to unveil long term patterns characterizing energy and GDP data. The article conclusions answer negatively to the title’s question. The second study enters into production. With a focus on inputs, capital/energy substitutability is investigated by estimating the production function of the manufacturing sector for seven OECD countries. Using a four-input translog specification, input substitution is quantified by the cross-price elasticity of substitution. This traditional economics treatment provides updated figures about the technological limits in which economic systems have to operate during times of energy scarcity, environmental constraints and resource price volatility. One more proof that (cheap) energy and raw materials are essential inputs in production, as we know it and, thus, the world cannot get along without natural resources. The last chapter concerns an urgent issue for both human health and the environment: the ever-increasing emissions form the transport sector, focusing on road vehicles. After estimating consumer demand for both traditional and widely-available eco-fuels, LPG and methane, I simulate the effects of the introducing a carbon tax in Italy on both fuel/vehicle choice and emissions. The results indicate a positive responsiveness of consumer toward LPG and methane, leading to significant CO2 reduction; an essential factor being the diffusion of their refueling infrastructure. All the studies, are published in scientific journals, and they use original and verifiable data and calculation procedures, to contribute to relevant and new insights.

This dissertation consists of two independent studies. The first study belongs to the field of environmental economics and the second is on international trade, with a focus on offshoring. In the first study, we investigate firm investment in advanced abatement technology under a heterogeneous firms framework. In contrast to existing literature, we find that the optimal level of investment in advanced abatement technology is an inverted U-shaped function of firm productivity. More-productive firms have superior environmental performance, in the sense that they have lower emission per unit of output. Comparative statics shows that in response to a tighter environmental regulation, more-productive firms tend to raise their investment in advanced abatement technology while less-productive firms do the opposite. Key theoretical predictions are confirmed by Chinese data. The second study analyzes the decision of a multinational firm from a developed country to slice a production chain to allocate different tasks of the production chain globally. The process involves a wide range of tasks that varies from very routine jobs to very research and development (R&D) intensive work. We find that under certain conditions, a drop in offshoring costs (1) leads to more slicing (an increase in the length of production chain) and more offshoring, (2) stimulates R&D, and (3) raises employment in the developed country.
published_or_final_version
Economics and Finance
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy