Edwin van der Werf - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Edwin van der Werf

Sustainability

Accommodation providers such as hotels, campsites, and holiday villages can use ecolabels to show... more Accommodation providers such as hotels, campsites, and holiday villages can use ecolabels to show their green credentials to potential customers. Whereas there is extensive literature on ecolabel adoption in the Hotel and Bed and Breakfast (B & B) sector, no such research exists for other accommodation sectors. In this paper, we present the results of statistical analyses of survey data from firms in the Dutch accommodation sector (including hotels, campsites, and group accommodations) with and without the Green Key ecolabel, which is a third-party certified international label for the tourist and leisure sector. We obtain insights into the motivations for adopting (or not), analyze the characteristics of firms with and without the label, and get an indication of the perceived impact of ecolabel adoption on costs and profits. We find that previously found results for hotels and B & Bs do not always apply to other subsectors of the accommodation sector. We also find that obtaining th...

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

This paper uses agency theory to analyse the incentives that a donor (principal) and recipient (a... more This paper uses agency theory to analyse the incentives that a donor (principal) and recipient (agent) face as actors in an accountability regime for the financing of international climate change projects in developing countries. We address the following question: What accountability measures serve to align the incentives of the donor with those of the recipient in climate change financing? We focus on the relationship between the Green Climate Fund as a donor and one of its Accredited Entities as a recipient. We examine the consequences of misaligned incentives and asymmetric information, looking at a specific set of accountability measures, including performance indicators, penalties for poor performance, as well as the role of pressure exerted by civil society organisations (CSOs). We find that the use of imperfect performance indicators can reduce the risk of project failure if they are strongly correlated with adaptation and mitigation impacts. Penalties can have a positive impact on project outcomes, but impose risks upon the agent, which could lead him to refuse the contract for the implementation of the climate change project. The pressure of CSOs was found to have the potential to motivate donors and recipients to become more efficient and effective in their delivery of projects but could also lead to the donor choosing to finance lower-risk projects with fewer climate change benefits. We suggest that accountability requirements need to be carefully balanced with other objectives, including having a diverse set of entities willing to bid for the delivery of projects.

Natural Resource Modeling

Environmental and Resource Economics, 2016

In the presence of implementation lags, announced Pigouvian taxation leads to fossil fuel prices ... more In the presence of implementation lags, announced Pigouvian taxation leads to fossil fuel prices that are too low from society's perspective. This results in excessive emissions and reduced incentives for green innovation. Such effects are compounded by the presence of pre-existing subsidies to fossil fuel use. We show that the intertemporal resource tax path may need to be modified to optimally take into account the perverse incentives from policy lags and pre-existing policies. We find that it might be optimal to subsidize, rather than tax resource extraction at the instant of implementation. Keywords Climate policy • Second-best • Carbon tax • Non-renewable resources • Resource taxation • Implementation lag • Green Paradox JEL Classification Q31 • Q41 • Q54 • Q58 We would like to thank Julien Daubanes, Reyer Gerlagh, Michael Hoel, Larry Karp, Cees Withagen and two referees for their helpful comments. All authors are also affiliated with CESifo. Corrado Di Maria is a CESifo Research Network Affiliate, Sjak Smulders and Edwin van der Werf are CESifo Research Network Fellows.

Energy Policy, 2016

Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch ge... more Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

We study the potential of tropical multi-age multi-species forests for sequestering carbon in res... more We study the potential of tropical multi-age multi-species forests for sequestering carbon in response to financial incentives from REDD+. The use of reduced impact logging techniques (RIL) allows a forest owner to apply for carbon credits whereas the use of conventional logging techniques (CL) does not. This paper is the first to develop a Hartman model with selective cutting in this setting that takes additionality of carbon sequestration explicitly into account. We apply the model using data for Kalimantan, Indonesia. RIL leads to less damages on the residual stand than CL and has lower variable but higher fixed costs. We find that a system of carbon credits through REDD+ has a large potential for carbon storage. Interestingly, awarding carbon credits to carbon stored in end-use wood products does not increase the amount of carbon stored and reduces Land Expectation Value. We also observe that the level of the carbon price at which it becomes optimal not to harvest depends on the interpretation of the steady state model.

CESifo Working Paper Series No. …, 2011

Well-intended policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions may have unintended undesirable... more Well-intended policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions may have unintended undesirable consequences. Recently, a large literature has emerged showing under what conditions this so-called 'Green Paradox' may occur. We review this literature and identify the key mechanisms behind these paradoxical policy outcomes and highlight avenues for future research.

uni-graz.at

We study the optimal paths of resource extraction and carbon dioxide emissions when the economy f... more We study the optimal paths of resource extraction and carbon dioxide emissions when the economy faces an announced constraint on emissions. We show that along the optimal trajectory emissions increase at the instant of announcement, which goes directly against the spirit ...

Forests

As large-scale forest plantations expand in developing countries, concerns are rising about their... more As large-scale forest plantations expand in developing countries, concerns are rising about their relation to and integration with adjacent local communities. In developing countries with weak enforcement of property rights, private plantations are more likely than state-owned plantations to involve villagers in plantation’s activities in order to secure and guarantee their access to land and labor resources. Certification standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and adherence to responsible investment guidelines further strengthen this likelihood by requiring plantations to consult and engage local communities. Using household data from Tanzania, we assess households’ experiences with their participation in plantation activities by comparing the experiences of households in villages adjacent to private, FSC-certified plantations with those of households in villages adjacent to a non-certified, state-owned plantation. Our quantitative analyses show that households in the vi...

We study the effectiveness of climate change policy in a model with multiple non-renewable resour... more We study the effectiveness of climate change policy in a model with multiple non-renewable resources that differ in their carbon content. We find that, when allowing some time between announcement and implementation of a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, emissions from non-renewable energy sources increase at the time of announcement. There are two channels behind this effect. First, since a binding constraint on emissions restricts energy use during some period of time, more must be extracted during other periods. Second, since low carbon energy sources are relatively more valuable when the policy is implemented, it is optimal to conserve them ahead of enforcement. This might induce a switch to high-carbon resources before the policy is implemented. * We would like to thank Michael Caputo, Emiliya Lazarova, Charles Mason, Nicolas Querou, Heinz Welsch and Cees Withagen for useful comments and discussions.

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2005

A common critique to the Kyoto Protocol is that the reduction in emissions of CO 2 by countries w... more A common critique to the Kyoto Protocol is that the reduction in emissions of CO 2 by countries who comply with it will be (partly) offset by the increase in emissions on the part of other countries (carbon leakage). This paper analyzes the effect of technical change on carbon leakage in a two-country model where only one of the countries enforces an exogenous cap on emissions. Climate policy induces changes in relative prices, which cause carbon leakage through a terms-of-trade effect. However, these changes in relative prices in addition affect the incentives to innovate in different sectors. We allow entrepreneurs to choose the sector for which they innovate (directed technical change). This leads to a counterbalancing induced-technology effect, which always reduces carbon leakage. We therefore conclude that the leakage rates reported in the literature so far may be too high, as these estimates neglect the effect of relative price changes on the incentives to innovate.

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2005

A common critique to the Kyoto Protocol is that the reduction in emissions of CO 2 by countries w... more A common critique to the Kyoto Protocol is that the reduction in emissions of CO 2 by countries who comply with it will be (partly) offset by the increase in emissions on the part of other countries (carbon leakage). This paper analyzes the effect of technical change on carbon leakage in a two-country model where only one of the countries enforces an exogenous cap on emissions. Climate policy induces changes in relative prices, which cause carbon leakage through a terms-of-trade effect. However, these changes in relative prices in addition affect the incentives to innovate in different sectors. We allow entrepreneurs to choose the sector for which they innovate (directed technical change). This leads to a counterbalancing induced-technology effect, which always reduces carbon leakage. We therefore conclude that the leakage rates reported in the literature so far may be too high, as these estimates neglect the effect of relative price changes on the incentives to innovate.

We study the effectiveness of climate change policy in a model with multiple non-renewable resour... more We study the effectiveness of climate change policy in a model with multiple non-renewable resources that differ in their carbon content. We find that, when allowing some time between announcement and implementation of a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, emissions from non-renewable energy sources increase at the time of announcement. There are two channels behind this effect. First, since a binding constraint on emissions restricts energy use during some period of time, more must be extracted during other periods. Second, since low carbon energy sources are relatively more valuable when the policy is implemented, it is optimal to conserve them ahead of enforcement. This might induce a switch to high-carbon resources before the policy is implemented. * We would like to thank Michael Caputo, Emiliya Lazarova, Charles Mason, Nicolas Querou, Heinz Welsch and Cees Withagen for useful comments and discussions.

The Green Paradox and Beyond, 2014

Sustainability

Accommodation providers such as hotels, campsites, and holiday villages can use ecolabels to show... more Accommodation providers such as hotels, campsites, and holiday villages can use ecolabels to show their green credentials to potential customers. Whereas there is extensive literature on ecolabel adoption in the Hotel and Bed and Breakfast (B & B) sector, no such research exists for other accommodation sectors. In this paper, we present the results of statistical analyses of survey data from firms in the Dutch accommodation sector (including hotels, campsites, and group accommodations) with and without the Green Key ecolabel, which is a third-party certified international label for the tourist and leisure sector. We obtain insights into the motivations for adopting (or not), analyze the characteristics of firms with and without the label, and get an indication of the perceived impact of ecolabel adoption on costs and profits. We find that previously found results for hotels and B & Bs do not always apply to other subsectors of the accommodation sector. We also find that obtaining th...

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

This paper uses agency theory to analyse the incentives that a donor (principal) and recipient (a... more This paper uses agency theory to analyse the incentives that a donor (principal) and recipient (agent) face as actors in an accountability regime for the financing of international climate change projects in developing countries. We address the following question: What accountability measures serve to align the incentives of the donor with those of the recipient in climate change financing? We focus on the relationship between the Green Climate Fund as a donor and one of its Accredited Entities as a recipient. We examine the consequences of misaligned incentives and asymmetric information, looking at a specific set of accountability measures, including performance indicators, penalties for poor performance, as well as the role of pressure exerted by civil society organisations (CSOs). We find that the use of imperfect performance indicators can reduce the risk of project failure if they are strongly correlated with adaptation and mitigation impacts. Penalties can have a positive impact on project outcomes, but impose risks upon the agent, which could lead him to refuse the contract for the implementation of the climate change project. The pressure of CSOs was found to have the potential to motivate donors and recipients to become more efficient and effective in their delivery of projects but could also lead to the donor choosing to finance lower-risk projects with fewer climate change benefits. We suggest that accountability requirements need to be carefully balanced with other objectives, including having a diverse set of entities willing to bid for the delivery of projects.

Natural Resource Modeling

Environmental and Resource Economics, 2016

In the presence of implementation lags, announced Pigouvian taxation leads to fossil fuel prices ... more In the presence of implementation lags, announced Pigouvian taxation leads to fossil fuel prices that are too low from society's perspective. This results in excessive emissions and reduced incentives for green innovation. Such effects are compounded by the presence of pre-existing subsidies to fossil fuel use. We show that the intertemporal resource tax path may need to be modified to optimally take into account the perverse incentives from policy lags and pre-existing policies. We find that it might be optimal to subsidize, rather than tax resource extraction at the instant of implementation. Keywords Climate policy • Second-best • Carbon tax • Non-renewable resources • Resource taxation • Implementation lag • Green Paradox JEL Classification Q31 • Q41 • Q54 • Q58 We would like to thank Julien Daubanes, Reyer Gerlagh, Michael Hoel, Larry Karp, Cees Withagen and two referees for their helpful comments. All authors are also affiliated with CESifo. Corrado Di Maria is a CESifo Research Network Affiliate, Sjak Smulders and Edwin van der Werf are CESifo Research Network Fellows.

Energy Policy, 2016

Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch ge... more Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

We study the potential of tropical multi-age multi-species forests for sequestering carbon in res... more We study the potential of tropical multi-age multi-species forests for sequestering carbon in response to financial incentives from REDD+. The use of reduced impact logging techniques (RIL) allows a forest owner to apply for carbon credits whereas the use of conventional logging techniques (CL) does not. This paper is the first to develop a Hartman model with selective cutting in this setting that takes additionality of carbon sequestration explicitly into account. We apply the model using data for Kalimantan, Indonesia. RIL leads to less damages on the residual stand than CL and has lower variable but higher fixed costs. We find that a system of carbon credits through REDD+ has a large potential for carbon storage. Interestingly, awarding carbon credits to carbon stored in end-use wood products does not increase the amount of carbon stored and reduces Land Expectation Value. We also observe that the level of the carbon price at which it becomes optimal not to harvest depends on the interpretation of the steady state model.

CESifo Working Paper Series No. …, 2011

Well-intended policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions may have unintended undesirable... more Well-intended policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions may have unintended undesirable consequences. Recently, a large literature has emerged showing under what conditions this so-called 'Green Paradox' may occur. We review this literature and identify the key mechanisms behind these paradoxical policy outcomes and highlight avenues for future research.

uni-graz.at

We study the optimal paths of resource extraction and carbon dioxide emissions when the economy f... more We study the optimal paths of resource extraction and carbon dioxide emissions when the economy faces an announced constraint on emissions. We show that along the optimal trajectory emissions increase at the instant of announcement, which goes directly against the spirit ...

Forests

As large-scale forest plantations expand in developing countries, concerns are rising about their... more As large-scale forest plantations expand in developing countries, concerns are rising about their relation to and integration with adjacent local communities. In developing countries with weak enforcement of property rights, private plantations are more likely than state-owned plantations to involve villagers in plantation’s activities in order to secure and guarantee their access to land and labor resources. Certification standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and adherence to responsible investment guidelines further strengthen this likelihood by requiring plantations to consult and engage local communities. Using household data from Tanzania, we assess households’ experiences with their participation in plantation activities by comparing the experiences of households in villages adjacent to private, FSC-certified plantations with those of households in villages adjacent to a non-certified, state-owned plantation. Our quantitative analyses show that households in the vi...

We study the effectiveness of climate change policy in a model with multiple non-renewable resour... more We study the effectiveness of climate change policy in a model with multiple non-renewable resources that differ in their carbon content. We find that, when allowing some time between announcement and implementation of a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, emissions from non-renewable energy sources increase at the time of announcement. There are two channels behind this effect. First, since a binding constraint on emissions restricts energy use during some period of time, more must be extracted during other periods. Second, since low carbon energy sources are relatively more valuable when the policy is implemented, it is optimal to conserve them ahead of enforcement. This might induce a switch to high-carbon resources before the policy is implemented. * We would like to thank Michael Caputo, Emiliya Lazarova, Charles Mason, Nicolas Querou, Heinz Welsch and Cees Withagen for useful comments and discussions.

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2005

A common critique to the Kyoto Protocol is that the reduction in emissions of CO 2 by countries w... more A common critique to the Kyoto Protocol is that the reduction in emissions of CO 2 by countries who comply with it will be (partly) offset by the increase in emissions on the part of other countries (carbon leakage). This paper analyzes the effect of technical change on carbon leakage in a two-country model where only one of the countries enforces an exogenous cap on emissions. Climate policy induces changes in relative prices, which cause carbon leakage through a terms-of-trade effect. However, these changes in relative prices in addition affect the incentives to innovate in different sectors. We allow entrepreneurs to choose the sector for which they innovate (directed technical change). This leads to a counterbalancing induced-technology effect, which always reduces carbon leakage. We therefore conclude that the leakage rates reported in the literature so far may be too high, as these estimates neglect the effect of relative price changes on the incentives to innovate.

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2005

A common critique to the Kyoto Protocol is that the reduction in emissions of CO 2 by countries w... more A common critique to the Kyoto Protocol is that the reduction in emissions of CO 2 by countries who comply with it will be (partly) offset by the increase in emissions on the part of other countries (carbon leakage). This paper analyzes the effect of technical change on carbon leakage in a two-country model where only one of the countries enforces an exogenous cap on emissions. Climate policy induces changes in relative prices, which cause carbon leakage through a terms-of-trade effect. However, these changes in relative prices in addition affect the incentives to innovate in different sectors. We allow entrepreneurs to choose the sector for which they innovate (directed technical change). This leads to a counterbalancing induced-technology effect, which always reduces carbon leakage. We therefore conclude that the leakage rates reported in the literature so far may be too high, as these estimates neglect the effect of relative price changes on the incentives to innovate.

We study the effectiveness of climate change policy in a model with multiple non-renewable resour... more We study the effectiveness of climate change policy in a model with multiple non-renewable resources that differ in their carbon content. We find that, when allowing some time between announcement and implementation of a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, emissions from non-renewable energy sources increase at the time of announcement. There are two channels behind this effect. First, since a binding constraint on emissions restricts energy use during some period of time, more must be extracted during other periods. Second, since low carbon energy sources are relatively more valuable when the policy is implemented, it is optimal to conserve them ahead of enforcement. This might induce a switch to high-carbon resources before the policy is implemented. * We would like to thank Michael Caputo, Emiliya Lazarova, Charles Mason, Nicolas Querou, Heinz Welsch and Cees Withagen for useful comments and discussions.

The Green Paradox and Beyond, 2014