立地条件对麻栎人工林碳储量的影响

在江淮山地丘陵区,通过样地调查,研究了坡向和w对麻栎（Quercusacutisima）人工林系统碳密度及其空间分布的影响。结果表明：阴坡（SHS）树木碳密度显著高于阳坡（sus）（P〈0．05）,Wt镕i《1低的立地（sus）树木碳密度显著高于w、高的（suss）（P〈0．05）。3种立地条件下麻栎各器官碳密度分配均为：干碳密度〉根碳密度〉枝碳密度〉叶碳密度。SUS和SHS林木分配较多的碳同化物供给树干生长,SUSS林木分配较多的碳同化物供给根系和枝的生长。凋落物碳密度在SUS和SHS之间没有显著差异（P〉0．05）,而SUSS则显著低于SUS和SHS（JPl〈0．05）。整个剖面（0～50cm）土壤有机碳密度SHS显著高于SUS和SUSS（P〈O．05）,SUS和SUSS之间没有显著差异（P〉0．05）。麻栎人工林系统总碳密度大小为SHS（146．9t·hm^2。）〉SUS（116．9t·hm^-2）〉SUSS（102．6t·hm^-2）,SHS显著高于其他2种立地条件（P〈0．05）,SUS与SUSS之间没有显著差异（P〉0．05）。3种立地条件下均为土壤碳密度〉树木碳密度〉凋落物碳密度,凋落物碳密度占林分总碳密度的比例仅为2．1％～3．6％。SUS和SHS土壤碳密度占林分总碳密度的比例低于SUSS,而树木碳密度占林分总碳密度比例则相反。由此可见,在江淮山丘区,w较低的阴坡（SHS）最有利于麻栎人工林碳储量的累积,相对于w、较高的立地（suss）,较低的Wf±镕6砾1（sus）更有利于树木碳储量的增加。     

不同海拔高寒放牧草甸的生态系统呼吸与环境因子的关系

在全球变化的背景下,为了研究藏北高寒放牧草甸的生态系统呼吸和土壤呼吸特征,沿着3个海拔高度（4 300、4 500和4 700 m）观测了2010年7-9月白天的呼吸通量。同时,观测了同期的土壤温度、土壤水分含量、空气温度和相对湿度,在定性分析土壤水分含量和呼吸通量关系的基础上,将其分成低、中和高3个水平,在此基础上,分析生态系统呼吸、土壤呼吸与土壤温度、土壤水分含量、空气温度以及相对湿度的关系。结果表明,空气温度是决定生态系统呼吸和土壤呼吸变异的主导因子;生态系统呼吸、土壤呼吸以及裸地的土壤呼吸的Q10值分别为1.83～3.07、1.54～4.13和1.29～2.89;总体而言,生态系统呼吸和土壤呼吸Q10值随着海拔的升高和土壤水分含量的增加而增大。     

Conservation agriculture and climate resilience

Agricultural productivity growth is vital for economic and food security outcomes which are threatened by climate change. In response, governments and development agencies are encouraging the adoption of ‘climate-smart’ agricultural technologies, such as conservation agriculture (CA). However, there is little rigorous evidence that demonstrates the effect of CA on production or climate resilience, and what evidence exists is hampered by selection bias. Using panel data from Zimbabwe, we test how CA performs during extreme rainfall events - both shortfalls and surpluses. We control for the endogenous adoption decision and find that use of CA in years of average rainfall results in no yield gains, and in some cases yield loses. However, CA is effective in mitigating the negative impacts of deviations in rainfall. We conclude that the lower yields during normal rainfall seasons may be a proximate factor in low uptake of CA. Policy should focus promotion of CA on these climate resilience benefits.     

Do energy efficiency standards hurt consumers? Evidence from household appliance sales

We build novel welfare-based price indices for major household appliances that leverage changes in same-model prices and how consumers substitute between exiting, continuing and new models. We then evaluate how minimum energy efficiency requirements and changing criteria for Energy Star™ labels affected these indices in the U.S. between 2001 and 2011, a period of time when some appliances experienced standard changes while others did not. We find that prices declined while quality and consumer welfare increased, especially when standards become more stringent. We also find that much of the price index decline can be attributed to standards-induced innovation, or cannibalism, not to inter-manufacturer competition. Our results also add to a growing body of evidence that the Consumer Price Index exaggerates inflation due to inadequate account of quality and substitution to new goods.     

Redistribution and pollution taxes with non-linear Engel curves

This paper analyses optimal corrective taxation and optimal income redistribution. The Pigouvian pollution tax is higher if pollution damages disproportionally hurt the poor due to equity weighting of pollution damages. Moreover, under general utility functions, optimal pollution taxes should be set below the Pigouvian tax if the poor spend a disproportionate fraction of their income on polluting goods. However, if Engel curves are linear, optimal pollution taxes should follow the first-best rule for the Pigouvian corrective tax even if the government wants to redistribute income and the poor spend a disproportional part of their income on polluting goods. The often-used quasi-linear, CES and Stone-Geary utility functions all have linear Engel curves. If Engel curves are linear, and if pollution taxes are not optimised, Pareto-improving green tax reforms exist that move the pollution tax closer to the Pigouvian tax. Simulations demonstrate that optimal corrective taxes should be Pigouvian if the demand for polluting goods is derived from a LES demand system, but deviate from the Pigouvian taxes if demand for polluting goods demand is derived from a PIGLOG demand system.     

Market equilibrium and welfare effects of a fuel tax in China: The impact of consumers' response through driving patterns

We investigate the market equilibrium and welfare effects of a fuel tax in China relative to an alternative policy instrument that rations the number of new automobile sales through auctioned quotas. Unlike those of previous studies, our modeling approach incorporates both household car purchase and utilization decisions, the latter of which have been ignored in previous studies on China's fuel tax. Ignoring this margin of choice will underestimate the fuel tax's ability to mitigate externalities. Using detailed household-level panel data and a fixed effects econometric specification, we estimate the fuel price elasticity of vehicle miles traveled is −0.59 on average. The results of the counterfactual analysis suggest that a 51% increase in tax-inclusive gasoline prices will reduce car sales by 24.9% but increase social welfare to a degree that depends on vehicles' lifetime. We find that compared to auctioned quotas, the fuel tax results in greater car sales but higher social welfare.     

Multinational corporations and the EU Emissions Trading System: The specter of asset erosion and creeping deindustrialization

This study seeks to investigate the causal effect of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on firms' holdings of fixed assets as an early indicator of industrial relocation, exploiting installation level inclusion criteria of the regulation. To single out companies with particularly low relocation costs, global multinational enterprises (MNEs), we identify ownership structures for the full sample of EU ETS-firms. Matched Difference-in-Differences estimates provide robust evidence that contradicts the specter of an erosion of European asset bases. Baseline results for the manufacturing sector indicate that the EU ETS led to an on average increase of treated firms' asset bases of 12,1%. However, for a particular subgroup of MNEs, this increase is a mere 2.1%. For these companies, the EU ETS may have induced a shift in investment priorities.     

Disentangling the effects of policy and payment consequentiality and risk attitudes on stated preferences

Incentivizing respondents to truthfully reveal their preferences in stated preference surveys requires that they believe their survey responses can influence decisions related to the outcome in question (policy consequentiality) and that they will have to bear their share of the coercive cost if the outcome is implemented (payment consequentiality). We investigate the effects of these two aspects of perceived consequentiality on stated preferences in a field survey concerning renewable energy development in Poland. We find that beliefs in policy and payment consequentiality strengthen the respondents’ interest in having the project implemented. However, policy consequentiality decreases and payment consequentiality increases their sensitivity to the project cost, which, respectively, increases and decreases their willingness-to-pay for the project. We conclude that the two aspects of consequentiality should be addressed separately. Additionally, we inquire the theoretically speculated links between the respondents’ perceptions of policy and payment consequentiality and their risk attitudes, and we find no significant relationship.     

A behavioral rebound effect

Pro-environmental behaviors are an important avenue for mitigating environmental impacts. Technological improvements are also a vital tool for reducing environmental damage from consumption. However, their benefits are partially offset by the direct rebound effect, whereby a consumer rationally responds to an increase in resource use efficiency by consuming more. This paper investigates whether technological improvement might also reduce behaviorally motivated mitigation of environmental damage. A behavioral rebound effect operates through two channels. First, pro-environmental effort is reduced after a decrease in marginal environmental damage. Second, moral licensing reduces pro-environmental effort further when technological change is endogenous. I develop a novel real effort laboratory experiment to identify these behaviors. I find a positive behavioral rebound effect. I also find evidence consistent with moral licensing, which is strongest among subjects with a higher degree of pro-environmental attitudes and beliefs. Subjects’ baseline level of pro-environmental effort is driven by beliefs about social norms.     

The Antiquities Act,national monuments,and the regional economy

Large, landscape-scale national monuments have long been controversial. It has been claimed that large monuments harm local economies by restricting growth of the grazing, timber, mining, and energy industries. Others have asserted that large monuments aid economic growth by reducing reliance on volatile commodity markets and fostering tourism growth. In this study, we use a synthetic control approach to measure the average causal effect of nine national monument designations on county-level per capita income. We find no evidence that monument designation affected per capita income in any of 20 counties hosting nine large (>50,000 acres) national monuments established under the Antiquities Act (six monuments) or by legislative action (three monuments). The broad economic claims of both advocates and critics of large national monuments have little empirical support. The absence of a designation effect for large national monuments is likely due to the attributes of federal land and the legal constraints under which it is managed.