Income risk of EU coal-fired power plants after Kyoto

Coal-fired power plants may enjoy a significant advantage relative to gas plants in terms of cheaper fuel cost. Still, this advantage may erode or even turn into disadvantage depending on CO2 emission allowance price. This price will presumably rise in both the Kyoto Protocol commitment period (2008-2012) and the first post-Kyoto years. Thus, in a carbon-constrained environment, coal plants face financial risks arising in their profit margins, which in turn hinge on their so-called "clean dark spread". These risks are further reinforced when the price of the output electricity is determined by natural gas-fired plants' marginal costs, which differ from coal plants' costs. We aim to assess the risks in coal plants' margins. We adopt parameter values estimated from empirical data. These in turn are derived from natural gas and electricity markets alongside the EU ETS market where emission allowances are traded. Monte Carlo simulation allows to compute the expected value and risk profile of coal-based electricity generation. We focus on the clean dark spread in both time periods under different future scenarios in the allowance market. Specifically, bottom 5% and 10% percentiles are derived. According to our results, certain future paths of the allowance price may impose significant risks on the clean dark spread obtained by coal plants.

Does Immigration Raise Natives’ Income? National and Regional Evidence from Spain

How immigration affects the labor market of the host country is a topic of major concern for many immigrant-receiving nations. Spain is no exception following the rapid increase in immigrant flows experienced over the past decade. We assess the impact of immigration on Spanish natives’ income by estimating the net immigration surplus accruing at the national level and at high immigrant-receiving regions while taking into account the imperfect substitutability of immigrant and native labor. Specifically, using information on the occupational densities of immigrants and natives of different skill levels, we develop a mapping of immigrant-to-native self-reported skills that reveals the combination of natives across skills that would be equivalent to an immigrant of a given self-reported skill level, which we use to account for any differences between immigrant self-reported skill levels and their effective skills according to the Spanish labor market. We find that the immigrant surplus amounts to 0.04 percent of GDP at the national level and it is even higher for some of the main immigrant-receiving regions, such as Cataluña, Valencia, Madrid, and Murcia.

Second-best tax policy in a growing economy with externalities

This paper investigates the exploitation of environmental resources in a growing economy within a second-best scal policy framework. Agents derive utility from two types of consumption goods one which relies on an environmental input and one which does not as well as from leisure and from environmental amenity values. Property rights for the environmental resource are potentially incomplete. We connect second best policy to essential components of utility by considering the elasticity of substitution among each of the four utility arguments. The results illustrate potentially important relationships between environmental amentity values and leisure. When amenity values are complementary with leisure, for instance when environmental amenities are used for recreation, taxes on extractive goods generally increase over time. On the other hand, optimal taxes on extractive goods generally decrease over time when leisure and environmental amenity values are substitutes. Unders some parameterizations, complex dynamics leading to nonmonotonic time paths for the state variables can emerge.

Explosive Hyperinflation, Inflation Tax Laffer Curve and Modelling the use of Money

This paper analyzes the existence of an inflation tax Laffer curve (ITLC) in the context of two standard optimizing monetary models: a cash-in-advance model and a money in the utility function model. Agents’ preferences are characterized in the two models by a constant relative risk aversion utility function. Explosive hyperinflation rules out the presence of an ITLC. In the context of a cash-in-advance economy, this paper shows that explosive hyperinflation is feasible and thus an ITLC is ruled out whenever the relative risk aversion parameter is greater than one. In the context of an optimizing model with money in the utility function, this paper firstly shows that an ITLC is ruled out. Moreover, it is shown that explosive hyperinflations are more likely when the transactions role of money is more important. However, hyperinflationary paths are not feasible in this context unless certain restrictions are imposed.

Tax-Based Fisheries Management: The Case Study Of The Cantabrian Anchovy Fishery

A dynamic optimisation framework is adopted to show how tax-based management systems theoretically correct the inefficient allocation of fishing resources derived from the stock externality. Optimal Pigouvian taxes on output (τ) and on inputs (γ) are calculated, compared and considered as potential alternatives to the current regulation of VIII division Cantabrian anchovy fishery. The sensibility analysis of optimal taxes illustrates an asymmetry between (τ) and (γ) when cost price ratio varies. The distributional effects also differ. Special attention will be paid to the real implementation of the tax-based systems in fisheries.

The economic importance of marine angler expenditures in the United States.

In 1998, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) began a series of marine angler expenditure surveys in the coastal regions of the United States (U.S.) to evaluate marine recreational fishing expenditures and the financial impacts of these expenditures in each region and the U.S. as a whole. In this report, we use the previously estimated expenditure estimates to assess the total financial impact of anglers’ saltwater expenditures. Estimates are provided for sales, income, employment, and tax impacts for each coastal state in the U.S. Aggregate estimates are also provided for the entire U.S., excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and Texas. Direct, indirect, and induced effects associated with resident and non-resident angler expenditures were estimated using a regional input-output modeling system called IMPLAN Pro. Nationwide, recreational saltwater fishing generated over $30.5 billion in sales in 2000, nearly $12.0 billion in income, and supported nearly 350,000 jobs. Approximately 89 cents of every dollar spent by saltwater anglers was estimated to remain within the U.S. economy. At the state level, many of the goods anglers purchased were imports, and, as such, as little as 44 cents of every dollar stayed in Rhode Island and as much as 80 cents of every dollar stayed in Georgia. In the Northeast, the highest impacts were generated in New Jersey, even though recreational fishing expenditures in Massachusetts and Maryland were considerably higher. In the Southeast, the highest impacts were generated in Florida, and on the Pacific Coast, the highest impacts were generated in California. Expenditures on boat maintenance/expenses generated more impacts than any other expenditure category in the U.S. Expenditures on rods and reels was the single most important expense category in terms of generating impacts in most of the Northeast states. Expenditures on boat expenses generated the highest in most Southeast states, and expenditures for boat accessories produced the highest impacts in most Pacific Coast states.(PDF file contains 184 pages.)

Identification of non fishing income opportunities around Kainji Lake

The findings are presented of a study carried out in the Kainji Lake region of Nigeria in order to identify alternative income opportunities for the fisherfolk, so as to increase their acceptance of fishery management measures and also to reduce the harmful short-term economic effects that such management options can have. A description is given of the main non-fishing income earning activities in the Kainji Lake area and an assessment is made of the economic viability and expected acceptance of the identified income earning opportunities. (PDF contains 84 pages)

Alternative income in Kainji Lake area: introduction of improved cocks to fisherfolk

Details are given of a study conducted in the framework of the Kainji Lake Fisheries Promotion Project to boost income from alternative sources. The project identified 'improved poultry keeping' as suitable for introduction around the Kainji Lake area. In the long term, the programme will assist increasing especially the income of female members of fishing families, since poultry is kept in the villages mainly by women. (PDF contains 35 pages)

Income, inequality, and criteria air pollutants in the CAMA counties

Socioeconomic factors have long been incorporated into environmental research to examine the effects of human dimensions on coastal natural resources. Boyce (1994) proposed that inequality is a cause of environmental degradation and the Environmental Kuznets Curve is a proposed relationship that income or GDP per capita is related with initial increases in pollution followed by subsequent decreases (Torras and Boyce, 1998). To further examine this relationship within the CAMA counties, the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as measured by the EPA in terms of tons emitted, the Gini Coefficient, and income per capita were examined for the year of 1999. A quadratic regression was utilized and the results did not indicate that inequality, as measured by the Gini Coefficient, was significantly related to the level of criteria air pollutants within each county. Additionally, the results did not indicate the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Further analysis of spatial autocorrelation using ArcMap 9.2, found a high level of spatial autocorrelation among pollution emissions indicating that relation to other counties may be more important to the level of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions than income per capita and inequality. Lastly, the paper concludes that further Environmental Kuznets Curve and income inequality analyses in regards to air pollutant levels incorporate spatial patterns as well as other explanatory variables. (PDF contains 4 pages)

An assessment of the implementation of alternative income sources for fishermen's wives as a strategy for poverty alleviation under the Kainji Lake Fisheries Promotion Project

Kainji Lake Basin is the first man-made Lake in Nigeria with a surface area of 1270km super(2). Since its creation in 1968 research activities were carried out on biological, socio-economic, hydrological and limnological characteristics of the water body. Extension activities concentrated on the dissemination of proven technologies developed by the Research scientists. Most of the socio-economic and extension activities focused on fishermen as women were regarded as homemakers and their activities concentrated in the home. The situation is even compounded by the Islamic injunction of seclusion. The intervention of NGKLFPP in 1993 has introduced many changes into the research and extension activities directed at the beneficiaries of the project because women were considered as a major stakeholder around the Lake area. The intervention of the project in Kainji Lake in the introduction of alternative income generating activities to women is enumerated in this paper. The intervention has improved the living standard of women and to a certain level reduced poverty among women in the area

Additional income generating activities for fishermen wives in Kainji Lake basin

The quest for food security and poverty alleviation among rural fisherfolks is imperative in the context of rural development. Rural fishermen and women do not only partake in fishing and related activities in order to make ends meet but also seek more sustainable ways of absorbing shocks and reducing their vulnerability to unforeseen economics conditions. These they do through diversification of their efforts to such activities that enables them have good leverage over poverty and food scarcity. It is in this context that Nigerian-German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) sought to assist the fisherfolks to help themselves by training the fishermen wives on knowledge and skill acquisition in Soya bean processing and utilization as a means of generating additional income for the household in Kainji Lake basin. This work was therefore carried out in order to make an objective investigation into the impact of this training on the economy of the fisherfolks. Sixty respondents, who constitute fishermen wives, were randomly selected from twelve fishing villages in the basin. 76.7% of those interviewed affirmed that the project has increased their income while others agreed that it has actually reduced their expenditure on food while increasing food supply and variety for the household