Suchergebnisse

Zur Verbesserung der Umweltbilanz der Verkehrsträger oder auch zur Finanzierung von Straßeninfrastruktur werden verschiedene preispolitische Maßnahmen wie zum Beispiel die CO2-Steuer oder die Pkw-Maut diskutiert. Um ex-ante-Bewertung von Maßnahmen durchführen zu können, sind geeignete Instrumente der Wirkungsanalyse erforderlich. Gegenstand dieses Artikels ist die Beschreibung eines allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodells, das eigens für Deutschland zur Analyse preispolitischer Maßnahmen im Verkehr entwickelt wurde. Eine Besonderheit des Modells ist die integrierte Personenverkehrsnachfrage, differenziert nach Haushaltstypen in Abhängigkeit vom äquivalenzgewichteten Haushaltseinkommen sowie siedlungsstruktureller Wohnlage. Eine derartige Modellerweiterung erlaubt neben der Berechnung von makroökonomischen Folgen der Einführung preislicher Maßnahmen auch die Abschätzung von verteilungspolitischen Effekten der Allokation der im Rahmen der Maßnahme generierten Einnahmen, die zum Beispiel im Sinne einer Kompensation den privaten Haushalten zugeführt werden könnten. ; Different pricing policy measures exist to improve the environmental accounting of motorised transport modes as well as to finance road infrastructure investment. A CO2 related tax or road pricing are two examples of such measures. This article describes a computable general equilibrium model for Germany that has been developed specially to assess the impact of pricing policy measures introduced within the transportation sector. One outstanding characteristics of the model is the integrated demand for passenger travel differentiated by household types of equivalence-weighted income quartiles and land use characteristics of the residential location. The setup of the model allows the assessment of macroeconomic effects as well as welfare distributional impacts from the introduction of policy measures (e.g. car user road charges) and the subsequent use of the revenues.

The spatial dimension of international trade theory has been neglected during most of its history. Trade barriers such as tariffs have been deemed more important. However, in an increasingly integrated world economy seeking to abolish tariffs, spatial considerations have gained in stature. On the way to fostering a spatial trade theory this book supplies a comprehensive analysis of all the different impacts of the inclusion of space and transport costs, covering orthodox trade theory, new trade theories, and economic geography. Karl Steininger also expands spatial analysis to cover spatial preferences and spatial discounting and catalogues the result of spatial production structure and environmental quality in a global economy. Finally, an empirical account is given of the trade and macro-implications of full cost pricing in transport

While Germany has led the market in photovoltaic (PV) implementation throughout the last decade, there has been increasing criticism of PV support policies due to their high cost. Although declining, the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from PV is still above the German wholesale electricity price. However, using LCOE as an evaluation yardstick falls short in at least 2 respects: It neither takes into account integration costs rising with PV penetration (ie, undervaluing its actual cost) nor avoided externalities of replacing conventional for renewable generation (social cost overvaluation). We thus calculate the social profitability of PV in Germany by including not only private costs and benefits but also integration costs to the electricity system and avoided environmental externalities, using the internal rate of return and the profitability index as indicators. Our results show that when these factors are considered, the social profitability of PV in Germany is higher than 10% at the lower bound of the social cost of carbon (150€/tCO2) up to a penetration level of at least 15% and positive up to a penetration level of at least 25%. Results also show the level of private profitability if all externalities were internalized and assert that subsidies are justified to align private and social profitability. The proposed method could be used as a complementary indicator to private profitability by public institutions, development banks, and companies with social responsibility values.

Having achieved grid parity, photovoltaic (PV) self-consumption will play a key role in the transition to a low-carbon energy system. Spain, whilst among the EU countries with highest solar irradiation, has recently passed one of the most restrictive self-consumption regulations. We study the implications of this regulation in comparison with alternatives (net metering, net billing) on the profitability (internal rate of return) of potential residential, commercial and industrial investors, as well as the impact of PV self-consumption on government revenues and the electricity system. We find that this regulation hinders the diffusion of PV self-consumption applications by making them economically infeasible. It also creates inefficient disincentives for demand-side adjustment and by fostering disconnection from the grid. Under the current conditions, the direct economic impact of PV self-consumption on both aggregate government and electricity system revenues is positive for investments in the residential segment, negligible for those of the commercial segment and negative for those of the industrial segment. In order to raise compliance with the relevant European Commission guidelines and to promote the diffusion of PV systems at minimum cost to the electricity system, a dynamic net billing scheme is recommended. ; (VLID)6126096 ; Version of record

Options to significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in line with long-term political targets include switches in production technologies to those free of industrial process emissions. Exemplifying this transition, we analyse such a switch of the European iron and steel industry and its sectoral, macroeconomic and social implications. We employ a recursive-dynamic multi-region multi-sector computable general equilibrium approach in order to cover feedback effects originating from the integration of European sectors in a globally embedded context. Against the backdrop of a globally implemented CO2 price trajectory, we investigate how the range of macroeconomic implications depends on (i) the timing of the switch (either starting early in 2020 or late in 2035) and (ii) the investment and operating cost of two promising low-carbon technologies. We distinguish between high-cost and low-cost technological specifications, though both face cost disadvantages relative to conventional iron and steel production for current intermediate inputs and primary factors. An early implementation of a `high-cost' technological alternative further reduces long-term GDP in 2050 among EU regions (-2.3% to -0.5% as compared to -1.4% to -0.3% for a late implementation starting in 2035). By contrast, GDP implications in 2050 seem to be unconstrained by early or late implementation of a `low-cost' technology (regional range of -0.3% to 0.9% for both). However, welfare is reduced, particularly during the initial implementation phase since additional investment to build up new facilities reduces output available for other consumption needs. This `build-up' might represent a barrier to such transitions, as the generation to decide on implementation and potentially bearing (macro)economic costs might not be the generation benefitting from it. ; (VLID)2344815

Mountain regions represent about one fourth of the earth's surface area and provide a significant share of goods and services to humanity. In this book, the authors demonstrate how alpine environments throughout the world are particularly vulnerable to global environmental change. Alpine populations will often be affected earliest and most significantly, for example through extreme weather systems, and their scope for adaptation is relatively limited. Drawing on the natural and social sciences, particularly economics, this book supplies a broad picture of the diverse issues involved. The authors show that observed changes in natural phenomena, such as acidity and fish toxicity in high altitude lakes, clearly support the thesis on ongoing global change induced by humans. They then analyse the manifold socio-economic impacts of global environmental change which are likely to be felt in various sectors and industries including tourism, insurance and water cycle management. It is shown that adaptation options though limited can be improved, such as in natural hazard management. Finally the authors evaluate the various mitigation options available for policymakers in agriculture, energy production, transport and land use planning. Global Environmental Change in Alpine Regions demonstrates that although environmental change is a global phenomenon, the impacts are distributed unevenly and vary in severity. This book will be required reading for all students and scholars of environmental and resource economics, public management and policy