Second Quarter Journal Review

 1. The Economic Impacts of Climate Change: Richard S J Tol, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Volume 12, Issue 1, 1 February 2018, Pages 4–25, https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/rex027:

This article focuses on aggregate indicators of the effects of climate change on total economic welfare and on the distribution of those welfare impacts. The author argues that while climate change may, initially, have “net positive” benefits in the aggregate, the impacts turn globally negative after a certain degree of warming is met. Moreover, the negative effects of climate change will fall disproportionately on developing nations: first, because of their exposure (less developed countries typically have a larger share of their economic activities directly related to environmental resources); second, because less developed countries tend, on the whole, to be located in hotter areas; and finally because less developed countries often lack access to medicines and technologies that could help temper the negative impacts. 

The latest issue of Environment and Development Economics is devoted to investigating the links between poverty and climate change.

2. The economics of urban afforestation: Insights from an integrated bioeconomic-health model: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 89 (2018) 116e135

Switching gears slightly from the impacts of climate change to ways of potentially mitigating it, a recent article in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management looked at “urban afforestation,” the idea of planting trees in urban areas. Urban afforestation, the authors claim, generate co-benefits in terms of public health and well-being. Using a tree planting program in New York City, the authors use an integrated bio-economic and health model to demonstrate that annual net benefits range from $10.24 to $12.10 per tree planted, even after accounting for costs and any ill health effects from pollen.  These benefits arise from carbon sequestration, air pollution reduction, storm water reduction, and aesthetic effects.  

 

3. Genuine Economic Progress in the United States: A Fifty State Study and Comparative Assessment: Mairi-Jane V. Foxa , Jon D. Ericksonb,C,  Ecological Economics 147 (2018) 29–35

How do we measure economic success?  GDP, the conventional measure of the success of an economy, doesn’t do a very good job of measuring economic welfare. To give just a few examples, GDP doesn’t include volunteer or household labor, doesn’t account for pollution, and is not adjusted for what might be called the “depreciation of natural capital.” The Genuine Progress Indicator, or GPI, was developed to address those short-comings.  A recent article in the journal Ecological Economics presents the first 50-state estimate of the GPI in the United States. Interestingly, over 90% of the variation between the states can be explained by the depletion of non-renewable energy resources, personal consumption expenditure, and motor vehicle crashes.  The article makes for very interesting reading.