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The Housing Market Impacts of Shale Gas Development

Lucija Muehlenbachs, Elisheba Spiller and Christopher Timmins

Technological Change, Vehicle Characteristics, and the Opportunity Costs of Fuel Economy Standards

Thomas Klier and Joshua Linn

Technological Change, Vehicle Characteristics, and the Opportunity Costs of Fuel Economy Standards

Thomas Klier and Joshua Linn

Is Weather Really Additive in Agricultural Production? Implications for Climate Change Impacts

Ariel Ortiz-Bobea

The Costs and Consequences of Clean Air Act Regulation of CO2 from Power Plants

Dallas Burtraw, Joshua Linn, Karen Palmer and Anthony Paul

A Review of Beijing’s Vehicle Lottery: Short-Term Effects on Vehicle Growth, Congestion, and Fuel Consumption Abstract: Many cities worldwide have considered vehicle restriction policies to curb proliferating problems of traffic and pollution. At the beginning of 2011, Beijing became the first city to allocate vehicle license plates using a lottery. We provide background on Beijing’s lottery, and analyze its short-term effects. We find that vehicle growth has been sharply curtailed, and congestion has been reduced. However, this policy may not reduce fuel consumption as much as expected

Jun Yang, Ying Liu, Ping Qin and Antung A. Liu

General Equilibrium Impacts of a Federal Clean Energy Standard

Lawrence H. Goulder, Marc Hafstead and Roberton Williams

Impact of Improved Farm Technologies on Yields: The Case of Improved Maize Varieties and Inorganic Fertilizer in Kenya

Wilfred Nyangena and Ogada Maurice Juma

Strict versus Mixed Use Protected Areas: Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve

Allen Blackman

Optimal Expectations and the Welfare Cost of Climate Variability

Yonas Alem and Jonathan Colmer

Distributional Consequences of Public Policies: An Example from the Management of Urban Vehicular Travel Abstract: This paper uses a spatially disaggregated computable general equilibrium model of a large US metropolitan area to compare two kinds of policies, “Live Near Your Work” and taxation of vehicular travel, that have been proposed to help further the aims of “smart growth.” Ordinarily, policy comparisons of this sort focus on the net benefits of the two policies; that is, the total monetized net welfare gains or losses to all citizens. While the aggregate net benefits are certainly important, in this analysis we also disaggregate these benefits along two important dimensions: income and location within the metropolitan area. The resulting identification of gainers and losers with these policies, though undoubtedly important to matters such as fairness and political feasibility, are rarely made. We find that these distributional effects are quite sensitive to the details of policy design. Classification-JEL: R13, R48, R52

Winston Harrington, Elena Safirova, Conrad Coleman, Sebastien Houde and Adam M. Finkel

Life-Satisfaction in Urban Ethiopia: The Role of Relative Poverty and Unobserved Heterogeneity

Yonas Alem

Designing by Degrees: Flexibility and Cost-Effectiveness in Climate PolicyAbstract: Substantially reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from electricity production will require a transformation of the resources used to produce power. This paper analyzes the economic consequences of a suite of different flexible and comprehensive policies to reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector, including a carbon tax, a tradable emissions rate performance standard, and two versions of a clean energy standard (CES). A technology-based CES can bring about substantial reductions in CO2 emissions but would neglect to harvest some economic reductions because it fails to affect decisions at three margins, including emissions rate heterogeneity in the natural gas and coal generation fleets and electricity demand reductions. Natural gas emissions rate heterogeneity can be addressed by crediting clean generation based on emissions rates instead of technology. Coal emissions rate heterogeneity can be addressed by altering the policy to credit all generators instead of just a subset. Demand reductions can be harvested by removing the subsidy component of the policy and allowing retail electricity prices to rise. Harvesting emissions abatement on all three margins saves about 40 percent of the discounted cumulative economic welfare costs of a technology-based CES through 2035, although the distributional implications are different. All of the policies result in substantial increases in social welfare.Classification-JEL: Q42, Q48, Q54, Q58

Anthony Paul, Karen Palmer and Matt Woerman

Poverty Persistence and Intra-Household Heterogeneity in Occupations: Some Evidence from Ethiopia

Yonas Alem

Does Forest Certification in Developing Countries Have Environmental Benefits? Insights from Mexican Corrective Action Requests

Allen Blackman, Alicia Raimondi and Frederick Cubbage

Auction Mechanisms for Allocating Subsidies for Carbon Emissions Reduction: An Experimental Investigation

Haoran He, Yefeng Chen and First Name Last Name

The Economics and Politics of “Green” Flood Control: A Historical Examination of Natural Valley Storage Protection by the Corps of Engineers

Carolyn Kousky

Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture: Evidence from China

Shuai Chen, Xiaoguang Chen and Jintao Xu

Explaining the Adoption of Diesel Fuel Passenger Cars in Europe

Joshua Linn

Do Entrance Fees Crowd Out Donations for Public Goods? Evidence from a Protected Area in Costa Rica

Alpízar, Francisco, Peter Martinsson and Nordén, Anna

Deep and Shallow Uncertainty in Messaging Climate Change

Roger Cooke

Payment Types and Participation in Payment for Ecosystem Services Programs: Stated Preferences of Landowners

Nordén, Anna

Measuring the Return on Program-Level Conservation Investments: Three Case Studies of Capabilities and Opportunity

James Boyd

Local Effects of Payments for Environmental Services on Poverty

Juan Robalino, Catalina Sandoval, Laura Villalobos and Francisco Alpizar Rodriguez

Heterogeneity in the Value of Life

Joseph Aldy and Seamus J. Smyth

The Economic Impact of Weather Variability on China’s Rice Sector

Shuai Chen, Xiaoguang Chen and Jintao Xu

Effects of Protected Areas on Forest Cover Change and Local Communities

Juan Jose Miranda, Leonardo Corral, Allen Blackman, Gregory Asner and Eirivelthon Lima

Effects of Protected Areas on Forest Cover Change and Local Communities: Evidence from the Peruvian Amazon

Juan Jose Miranda, Leonardo Corral, Allen Blackman, Gregory Asner and Eirivelthon Lima

Managing the Risks of Shale Gas Development Using Innovative Legal and Regulatory Approaches

Sheila Olmstead and Nathan Richardson

On the Impact of Weather Variability and Climate Change on Agriculture: Evidence from Ethiopia

Mintewab Bezabih, Salvatore Di Falco and Alemu Mekonnen

Assessing the Role of Renewable Energy Policies in Landfill Gas Energy Projects

Shanjun Li, Han Kyul Yoo, Jhih-Shyang Shih, Karen Palmer and Molly Macauley

Resistance to the Regulation of Common Resources in Rural Tunisia

Xiaoying Liu, Mare Sarr and Timothy Swanson

Stimulating Shale Gas Development in China: A Comparison with the US Experience

Lei Tian, Zhongmin Wang, Alan J. Krupnick and Xiaoli Liu

Natural Resource Collection and Children’s Literacy: Empirical Evidence from Panel Data in Rural Ethiopia

Abebe D. Beyene, Alemu Mekonnen and Zenebe Gebreegziabher

How Do Natural Gas Prices Affect Electricity Consumers and the Environment?

Joshua Linn, Lucija Muehlenbachs and Yshuang Wang

Hotelling under Pressure

Soren Anderson, Ryan Kellog and Stephen Salant

The Hotelling Model with Multiple Demands

Gérard Gaudet and Stephen Salant

Green Growth (for China): A Literature Review

Mun Ho and Zhongmin Wang

Damming the Commons: An Empirical Analysis of International Cooperation and Conflict in Dam Location

Sheila M. Olmstead and Hilary Sigman

Damming the Commons: An Empirical Analysis of International Cooperation and Conflict in Dam Location

Sheila M. Olmstead and Hilary Sigman

The Initial Incidence of a Carbon Tax across Income Groups

Roberton Williams, Hal Gordon, Dallas Burtraw, Jared Carbone and Richard D. Morgenstern

The Initial Incidence of a Carbon Tax across US States

Roberton Williams, Hal Gordon, Dallas Burtraw, Jared Carbone and Richard D. Morgenstern

The Labor Market Impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Oil Drilling Moratorium

Joseph Aldy

Terminating Links between Emission Trading Programs

William Pizer and Andrew Yates

The Crucial Role of Policy Surveillance in International Climate Policy

Joseph Aldy

How Should the World Bank Estimate Air Pollution Damages?

Maureen Cropper and Shefali Khanna

The Market Structure of Shale Gas Drilling in the United States

Zhongmin Wang and Qing Xue

Efficiency Costs of Social Objectives in Tradable Permit Programs

Kailin Kroetz, James Sanchirico and Daniel K. Lew

The Welfare Effects of Fuel Conservation Policies in the Indian Car Market

Randy Chugh and Maureen Cropper

Belt and Suspenders and More: The Incremental Impact of Energy Efficiency Subsidies in the Presence of Existing Policy Instruments

Sebastien Houde and Joseph Aldy