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"Environmental effects"
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Determinants of life expectancy in most polluted countries: Exploring the effect of environmental degradation
Better understanding of the determinants of national life expectancy is crucial for economic development, as a healthy nation is a prerequisite for a wealthy nation. Many socioeconomic, nutritional, lifestyle, genetic and environmental factors can influence a nation's health and longevity. Environmental degradation is one of the critical determinants of life expectancy, which is still under-researched, as the literature suggests.
This study aims to investigate the determinants of life expectancy in 31 world's most polluted countries with particular attention on environmental degradation using the World Bank annual data and British Petroleum data over the period of 18 years (2000-2017).
The empirical investigation is based on the model of Preston Curve, where panel corrected standard errors (PCSE) and feasible general least square (FGLS) estimates are employed to explore the long-run effects. Pairwise Granger causality test is also used to have short-run causality among the variables of interest, taking into account the cross-sectional dependence test and other essential diagnostic tests.
The results confirm the existence of the Preston Curve, implying the positive effect of economic growth on life expectancy. Environmental degradation is found as a threat while health expenditure, clean water and improved sanitation affect the life expectancy positively in the sample countries. The causality test results reveal one-way causality from carbon emissions to life expectancy and bidirectional causalities between drinking water and life expectancy and sanitation and life expectancy.
Our results reveal that environmental degradation is a threat to having improved life expectancy in our sample countries. Based on the results of this study, we recommend that: (1) policy marker of these countries should adopt policies that will reduce carbon emissions and thus will improve public health and productivity; (2) environment-friendly technologies and resources, such as renewable energy, should be used in the production process; (3) healthcare expenditure on a national budget should be increased; and (4) clean drinking water and basic sanitation facilities must be ensured for all people.
Journal Article
The Cost of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Most countries, including the United States, have an array of greenhouse gas mitigation policies, which provide subsidies or restrictions typically aimed at specific technologies or sectors. Such climate policies range from automobile fuel economy standards, to gasoline taxes, to mandating that a certain amount of electricity in a state comes from renewables, to subsidizing solar and wind electrical generation, to mandates requiring the blending of biofuels into the surface transportation fuel supply, to supply-side restrictions on fossil fuel extraction. This paper reviews the costs of various technologies and actions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our aim is twofold. First, we seek to provide an up-to-date summary of costs of actions that can be taken now using currently available technology. These costs focus on expenditures and emissions reductions over the life of a project compared to some business-as-usual benchmark—for example, replacing coal-fired electricity generation with wind, or weatherizing a home. We refer to these costs as static because they are costs over the life of a specific project undertaken now, and they ignore spillovers. Our second aim is to distinguish between dynamic and static costs and to argue that some actions taken today with seemingly high static costs can have low dynamic costs, and vice versa. We make this argument at a general level and through two case studies, of solar panels and of electric vehicles, technologies whose costs have fallen sharply. Under the right circumstances, dynamic effects will offer a justification for policies that have high costs according to a myopic calculation.
Journal Article
Assessing Short-Term and Long-Term Economic and Environmental Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis in France
In response to the COVID-19 health crisis, the French government has imposed drastic lockdown measures for a period of 55 days. This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the economic and environmental impacts of these measures in the short and long term. We use a Computable General Equilibrium model designed to assess environmental and energy policies impacts at the macroeconomic and sectoral levels. We find that the lockdown has led to a significant decrease in economic output of 5% of GDP, but a positive environmental impact with a 6.6% reduction in CO2 emissions in 2020. Both decreases are temporary: economic and environmental indicators return to their baseline trajectory after a few years. CO2 emissions even end up significantly higher after the COVID-19 crisis when we account for persistently low oil prices. We then investigate whether implementing carbon pricing can still yield positive macroeconomic dividends in the post-COVID recovery. We find that implementing ambitious carbon pricing speeds up economic recovery while significantly reducing CO2 emissions. By maintaining high fossil fuel prices, carbon taxation reduces the imports of fossil energy and stimulates energy efficiency investments while the full redistribution of tax proceeds does not hamper the recovery.
Journal Article
A Review of Quantitative Evaluation of Electromagnetic Environmental Effects: Research Progress and Trend Analysis
With the increasing complexity of the electromagnetic environment, existing electronic systems and various equipment are greatly threatened. The study of the assessment of the effects of the electromagnetic environment has attracted more and more attention in the academic field and industry. In this review, the definition of the electromagnetic environmental effects assessment could be classified into two categories: objective and subjective equipment electromagnetic environmental effect assessments. Studies on both are comprehensively reviewed. The electromagnetic environmental effect assessment models are described and analyzed. The effects evaluation models mainly calculate the electromagnetic environmental effect index by various weighting, probability, and normalized interference level methods. However, each proposed model has certain limitations, so it cannot deal with all the electromagnetic interference effects. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation model for complex electromagnetic environmental effects has not yet been established. Recent studies have shown that neural networks can be used to improve the adaptability of evaluation models in electromagnetic environments. The evaluation result of the normalized interference level method is more consistent with the actual work efficiency. The combination of the two can unify the objective and subjective assessments, which is of great significance to the improvement of the consistency and accuracy of the results of the effects evaluation of the electromagnetic environment. Accordingly, challenges for future research are revealed, which plays a vital role in the development of electromagnetic environmental effects research and provides a reference for researchers.
Journal Article
The Effect of Within-Sector, Upstream and Downstream Environmental Taxes on Innovation and Productivity
The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of environmental regulatory stringency on innovation and productivity using a panel of 8 European countries for 13 manufacturing sectors over the years 2001–2007. This research topic falls under the heading of the Porter hypothesis (PH) of which different versions have been tested. We consider both the strong and the weak versions of the PH, while also adding some peculiar features to the analysis. Firstly, we assess the role played by environmental taxes, that is an instrument rarely tested as a factor which can support the PH. Secondly, we analyse not only the effect of environmental taxes within a given sector (within-sector), but also the role played by environmental taxes in upstream and downstream sectors in terms of input–output relationships. Thirdly, we test these relationships also ‘indirectly’ by verifying whether innovation is one of the channels through which higher sectoral productivity can be achieved by imposing tighter environmental regulations. Our main findings suggest that downstream stringency is the most relevant driver of innovation and productivity while within-sector regulations only affect productivity but not innovation. Moreover, the effect of regulations on productivity is mostly direct, while the part of the effect mediated by induced innovations, as measured by patents, is relevant only for what concerns downstream regulations.
Journal Article