Environmental and population externalities

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: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. www.econstor.eu Abstract. In this paper, we investigate the external effects of the parent's decisions on the number of newly born children and the firm's decisions on the amount of polluting emissions that occur in industrial production. We employ an optimal control model which comprises three stock variables representing population, the economic capital stock and the pollutant immissions in the natural environment. We distinguish two different types of households, in which the decision on the number of births takes place. These two types may be regarded as two extremes: dynastic households, in which the family sticks together forever * Corresponding author: Department of Economics, University of Heidelberg, Grabengasse 14, and micro-households, in which children leave their parent's household immediately after birth. We conclude that in both cases the decentralized outcome is not optimal due to two externalities: one occurs in the individual decision on polluting emissions, the other one in the individual decision on the number of births. Terms of use: Documents inIt turns out that whereas the environmental externality is of the same form in both cases, the type of external effect from the household's decision on fertility is qualitatively different. The different types of population externalities require different policy instruments in order to internalize them. We discuss a Pigouvian tax on emissions as well as taxes on population: if an appropriate tax on the household size is applied in the case of dynastic households and an appropriate tax on children is applied in the case of small households a first best development of the economy is obtained.JEL-Classification: J18, O13, Q25

A simple endogenous growth model with endogenous fertility and environmental concern

“…Indeed, the main emphasis in theoretical works has traditionally been placed on the extra stress generated by population growth on the limited availability of land and natural resources (see, among others, Solow, ; Cigno, ; Nerlove, ; Dasgupta, ; Peretto and Valente, ), while most of the empirical works have focused on the impacts of population changes on environmental quality or pollution (Kaya, ; Rosa and Dietz, ). An important conclusion of such an empirical literature is related to the fact that environmental deterioration depends not only on economic activities (eventually net of green technological progress) but also on human population; however, among the few theoretical works that relate population growth to environmental quality (Harford, ; Schou, ; Jöst and Quaas, ), none addresses the specific role of population as a separate (from economic activities) driver of pollutant emissions, as suggested by the empirical evidence on the IPAT equation (Rosa and Dietz, ). We thus contribute also to this limited branch of the literature by developing a more comprehensive approach to the role of population growth as a source of environmental degradation per se.…”

The Effects of a Revenue-Neutral Child Subsidy Tax Mechanism on Growth and GHG Emissions

“…However, Harford's proposal [66][67][68] raises some controversies in terms of how to operationalize such a tax in countries with high poverty rates and where parents have to pay for education at all levels [71]. A similar proposal was put forward by Jost and Quaas [72], who propose to tax the family size in the case of dynastic families with altruism, and to levy a tax on births in the case of microhouseholds. to reach optimality.…”

Waste Generation Flows and Tourism Growth: A STIRPAT Model for Mallorca

“…Empirical research that used the IPAT model was usually related to greenhouse gas emissions (Alcott ; Chertow ; Dietz and Rosa ; Gans and Jöst ; Jöst and Quaas ; Myers ; Shi ), affluence by per capita gross domestic product (GDP) (Y/P), and the state of technology was approximated by the amount of pollutants per unit of GDP. If we take the logarithm of equation and the derivatives with respect to time to get the mean relative change of the environmental impact, we would find that it is equal to the sum of the average change of pollutant per unit of GDP, average change of per capita GDP, and average change in population size, respectively (equation ).…”