Production subsidies for renewable energy, such as solar or wind power, are rationalized due to their perceived environmental benefits. Subsidizing these projects allows clean, renewable technologies to produce electricity that would otherwise have been produced by dirtier, fossil-fuel power plants. Wind energy, in particular, has taken advantage of subsidies over the past decade to capture the largest share of all renewable power technologies. However, little empirical research has been conducted which would quantify the environmental benefits of wind power. In this paper, I quantify the emissions offset by wind power for a large electricity grid in Texas using observed production behavior. By exploiting the randomness inherent in wind, I can identify generator level patterns of substitution between wind-generated electricity and conventionally-generated electricity to measure offset emissions. For plausible social costs of pollution, I find that the value of emissions offset by wind power are greater than the renewable energy subsidies used to induce investment in wind farms.
This paper examines how carbon pricing would reduce emissions in the electricity sector. Both carbon prices and cheap natural gas reduce the historic cost advantage of coal plants. The shale revolution resulted in unprecedented variation in natural gas prices that we use to estimate the potential near-term effects of carbon prices. Estimates imply that a price of $20 ($70) per ton of CO2 would reduce emissions by 5 (10) percent. Carbon prices are most effective at reducing emissions when natural gas prices are low, but have negligible effects when gas prices are at levels seen prior to the shale revolution. (JEL L94, L98, Q35, Q38, Q54, Q58)
Studies of the development of local economies often point to large-scale Second World War military spending as a source of economic growth, even though spending declined sharply after demobilization. We examine the relationship between war spending per capita and the changes in economic activity in US counties between 1939 before the war and a period several years after the war. In the longer term counties receiving more war spending per capita during the war experienced greater population growth, but growth in per capita measures of economic activity showed little relationship with per capita war spending.
Studies of the development of local economies often point to large-scale World War II military spending as a source of long-term economic growth, even though the spending declined sharply after the demobilization. We examine the longer term impact of the temporary war spending on county economies using a variety of measures of socioeconomic activity: including per capita retail sales, the extent of manufacturing, population growth, the share of women in the work force, housing values and ownership, and per capita savings over the period 1940-1950. We find that in the longer term counties receiving more war spending per capita during the war experienced extensive growth due to increases in population but not intensive growth, as the war spending had very small impacts on per capita measures of economic activity.
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