December 13th, 2018
A Less Simplistic Approach to Landscape Complexity
Anouch Missirian
Abstract:
La tendance à la consolidation des terres et à l’homogénisation du paysage agricole peut être individuellement rationnelle, par exemple du fait de l’existence d’économies d’échelle, ou pour ne produire que la culture la mieux adaptée aux conditions locales. A l’échelle d’un paysage, en revanche, l’on pourrait prévoir que la généralisation de ce comportement, i.e. une simplification radicale du paysage agricole, pourrait conduire, en théorie, conduire à la présence accrue d’insectes ravageurs, en favorisant leur développement et en nuisant à leurs prédateurs. Cette pression accrue engendrerait des coûts privés pour les agriculteurs (pertes de rendements, pesticides). Cette étude vise à évaluer et quantifier cette relation putative entre complexité du paysage agricole et pression des ravageurs dans le cas des Etats-Unis.
December 11th, 2018
Fertile Ground for Conflict
Raphael Soubeyran (CEE-M), co-authors Nicolas Berman and Mathieu Couttenier
December 4th, 2018
With or Without the European Union: the Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution
Corina Haita-Falah, Université de Kassel, co-author Basak Bayramoglu
Abstract:
The Black Sea is an enclosed sea surrounded by six coastal countries, two of which (Romania and Bulgaria) are EU Member States. The Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution, also called the Bucharest Convention, was ratified in 1992 by all coastal countries. The Bucharest Convention is the only European regional sea convention to which the EU is not a Party. While Romania and Bulgaria are in favor of the EU accession to the Convention, Turkey, Russia and the Ukraine have thus far blocked this accession. In this paper, we develop a compliance game with negative externalities to analyze different positions of the coastal countries relative to the EU’s accession to the Convention. Our model also helps defining the proposal that the EU could make to the three opposing states such that they accept the EU as a Party to the Convention. In the context of the EU being a Party, we also investigate whether Romania and Bulgaria may be better off delegating their power of decision to the EU, rather than keeping their individual voting rights.
November 27th, 2018
The cycle of ‘more’: consume more, pollute more and be more efficient under heterogeneous polluting-input-based technologies: The case of dairy farms in France
Hervé Dakpo, Economie Publique; co-authors Laure Latruffe, Yann Desjeux, Philippe Jeanneaux
November 20th, 2018
Biofuels, land use and climate: where do we stand at the science-policy interface?
Hugo Vallin - IIASA
Abstract:
According to the recent IPCC 1.5°C special report, bioenergy is expected to play an important role to support the decarbonization of the economy. A number of countries have already set up policies to promote the use of biofuels, however the effective reduction of GHG emissions associated to these have been much debated. In particular, the role played by indirect emission leakage in the land use sector has been identified as a concern. In this presentation, we will review how contribution from agricultural economic modelling has played a role in the current policy design, following different approaches, and what are the main drivers behind the results. The presentation will build in particular on the results from the GLOBIOM model for the EU and related works. We will stress what the current sources of uncertainty are and the areas where further research is needed. The lessons and implications from current research development will be compared with on-going policy evolutions and the way research outcomes have been used so far.
October 16th, 2018
MYCLIMATE: Methodologies Yielding Climate Impact Assessment Through Economics
Simone Pieralli, Economie publique, bourse Marie Curie
October 2nd, 2018
The effects of migration and pollution externality on cognitive skills in Caribbean economies: a Theoretical analysis
Lesly Cassin (Paris Nanterre)
September 18th, 2018
Trade Shocks, Spatial Sorting and Urban Sprawl
Clément Nedoncelle, co-author El-Mehdi Aboulkacem
Abstract:
We study the impact of international trade shocks on spatial allocation of workers. We provide a theoretical framework emphasizing the role of trade shock on residential choices. We find empirical support for the micro mechanism using employer-employee data for the French Ile-de-France region (surrounding Paris). We estimate that increases in wages coming from exogenous trade activities increase commuting distance for these workers. At the aggregate level and at the French national level, we estimate that trade shocks are positively associated to urban sprawling. Our results cast novel insights upon the consequences of trade activities on spatial allocation of workers.
June 19th, 2018
Preferences for biodiversity offset contracts on arable land: a choice experiment study with farmers
Anne-Charlotte Vaissière (Univ Paris Sud), co-authors Léa Tardieu (BETA, Université Lorraine, INRA, AgroParisTech), Fabien Quétier (Biotope, France) and Sébastien Roussel (CEE-M, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, SupAgro, Univ. Paul Valéry Montpellier 3)
Abstract:
Biodiversity offsetting (BO) is aimed at achieving no net loss of biodiversity in the context of economic development. Through a choice experiment in Northern France, we show that farmers have a clear preference for not signing up BO contracts. The contracts they accept may only be suitable for offsetting temporary impacts on already degraded areas of natural habitat but not for permanent impacts on high-quality habitat. We find that the introduction of a conditional monetary bonus can improve the organisational and ecological efficiency of BO because it increases the enrolled acreage in a BO contract per farmer albeit at an increased cost for developers.
May 15th, 2018
Pollution permits and spatial competition
Jean Philippe Nicolai (ETH Zurich)
April 12th, 2018
The Heterogeneous Impact of Coal Prices on the Location of Dirty and Clean Steel Plants
François Cohen
Abstract:
Climate policy will predominantly affect industries that primarily rely on fossil fuels, such as steelmaking. Within these industries, exposure may be different by country according to theenergy-intensity of national plants. We estimate the effect of coal prices on steel plant location worldwide and production preferences for BOF, a polluting technology, and EAF, a greener one. A 1% increase in national coal prices reduces BOF and EAF installed capacity by around 0.51% and 0.34% respectively. We simulate the implementation of a stringent European carbon market with no border adjustment and find a non-negligible shift in steel production outside Europe, with limited impact on the technologies employed to produce steel. If applied worldwide, the same policy would primarily affect production in Asia, which relies on BOF and currently benefits from lower coal prices.
March 27th, 2018
Water quantity management in a heterogeneous landscape with strategic farmers
Anne-Sarah Chiambretto, co-author Elsa Martin (CESAER, AgroSup Dijon, INRA).
Abstract:
Agricultural production contributes to many environmental problems. In semi-arid areas, agricultural irrigation causes the so-called waterlogging phenomena. This phenomena is both spatial and dynamic since percolations depends on soil quality summed up in landscape heterogeneity and evolves along time. Furthermore, farmers can develop strategies with respect to their contribution to percolation. We study regulation schemes to be implemented to restore the socially optimal spatial and temporal production plan of farmers in such a context. We show that the error made when implementing a fiscal scheme designed for myopic farmers whereas they are strategic does not always increase with the degree of heterogeneity of the landscape.
March 6th, 2018
Efficiency and volatility of spot and futures agricultural markets: The impact of trade’s frequency
David Soares
Abstract:
Dans des marchés efficients, le prix d’un actif correspond à ses fondamentaux ; Cette approche est applicable aux prix spot (ex : le vrai blé) et à terme (ex : un engagement à acheter où vendre du vrai blé à un prix fixé à l'avance à une date fixée à l'avance) des matières premières. La fragmentation des ordres (division d'un ordre d'achat où de vente en plusieurs ordres) affecte la dynamique des prix entraînant une modification de la fréquence des échanges sur les marchés, de la fréquence relative des échanges et des quantités échangées.
Nous montrons tout d'abord que les fréquences des transactions ont une influence sur l'efficience des prix mais aussi sur leur volatilité intrinsèque. Cela nous amènera à étudier quels sont les impacts de la fragmentation observée sur les marchés aujourd'hui. Puis, nous étudierons l'existence d'un couple de fréquences optimales des transactions sur les marchés spot et à terme, qui permettraient d'obtenir des prix non biaisés et une volatilité intrinsèque minimale.
February 6th, 2018
Climate variable choice in Ricardian studies on European agriculture
Jauné Vaitkeviciute, co-authors Raja Chakir and Steven van Passe
