An institutional theory of hydraulic fracturing policy

The use of high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has increased substantially over the past five years in the United States. Use of this drilling technology to extract natural gas from hitherto impermeable shale is expected to increase even more in coming decades. Two institutions, integration contracts and well spacing requirements, evolved to mitigate the common-pool economic wastes associated with conventional oil and gas drilling. U.S. regulators have applied these institutions to fracking. However, shale plays differ geologically from conventional plays and are subject to different extractive technologies. We theorize that the point-source pollution characteristics of conventional drilling allowed integration contracts and well space requirements to minimize local negative environmental externalities as an unintended byproduct of minimizing common-pool economic wastes. The non-point source pollution characteristics of fracking, however, make these institutions insufficient to minimize negative environmental externalities associated with drilling in shale plays, because the economic waste problem is different. If policymakers understand the crucial differences between conventional oil and gas plays and shale plays and the drilling technologies applied to them, they should be better equipped to craft fracking regulatory policies that internalize problematic externalities.     

Trade liberalization,consumption shifting and pollution: Evidence from Mexico's used vehicle imports

This paper develops a model of used vehicle trade between the United States and Mexico, countries with different environmental regulations regarding vehicle emissions. We demonstrate that the United States, with its strict environmental regulations, has a motive to export used vehicles to Mexico, which impacts air pollution emissions from vehicle driving in Mexico. Using unique data on the import and registration of vehicles in Mexico after NAFTA, we find that Mexico's used vehicle imports reduce pollution emissions generated from vehicle driving mainly because of the technique effect, that is, model–age‐comparable vehicles imported from the United States emit less than those originally operated in Mexico.     

美国大规模页岩气开发的若干问题

美国大规模页岩气开发取得了显著成效,能源安全得到有力保障,为经济复苏提供了坚实保障,增加了就业及政府收入,并有助于减少温室气体的排放。美国大规模开发页岩气,除源于能源供应紧张外,还有政府鼓励开发非常规能源以及页岩气开发技术日臻完善。水力压裂技术是页岩气开发的关键技术,但存在水资源被过度使用、地下水及环境被污染及人工诱发地震等潜在风险。美国页岩气持续稳定发展也面临气田产量衰减和公司盈利能力等问题。目前,为缓解天然气紧缺,欧洲也在考虑开发页岩气,但美国页岩油气爆发式发展的成功有许多是美国自身的因素,其他国家要照搬并不可取。     

Impact of oil booms and busts on human capital investment in the USA

This paper uses Census IPUMS data from 1970 to 2000 and ACS data from 2010 to estimate the impact of oil booms and busts on wages and human capital formation in the USA. The paper finds that the oil boom between 1970 and 1980 was associated with a slower growth in the relative demand for skills in the oil and gas sector and regions where the sector had a large presence. The oil boom led to a sharp rise in real wages and a modest decline in college wage premium in oil-rich regions in the USA. Using a synthetic cohort approach, the paper finds that relative to cohorts who went to high school in the pre-oil boom period, the cohort reaching high school age during the oil boom was about 1–2% points less likely to have a college degree by 2000 and 2010.     

经济增长背景下浙江省城乡工业污染转移特征及动因

利用2012年7月我国环境保护部公布的重点环境整治行业信息数据及2001—2010年《浙江统计数据》,对浙江省城乡工业污染转移存在的问题及动因进行系统考察。研究结果表明:浙江绝大部分重点污染企业都分布在乡村,且呈分散独立经营状态,这增加了工业污染源整治的难度;政府对乡村地区的环保投入较少,导致城乡工业污染转移态势加剧、农村生态环境持续恶化;以污染密集产业为主导的经济增长模式与城乡二元结构下的污染天堂效应是浙江城乡工业污染转移的最根本原因。     

Who benefits from an oil boom? Evidence from a unique Alaskan data set

Oil booms have been shown to increase local employment and wages. But these effects reflect the aggregated experience of residents, commuters, and recent migrants alike. This paper takes advantage of a unique data set that identifies a rich set of labor market outcomes by place of residence, rather than by place of work. Exploiting this feature of the data, we examine the effect of a major oil boom on employment and wage outcomes in the North Slope Borough of Alaska. This analysis is juxtaposed with a more conventional one that uses place-of-work data collected from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Using the Synthetic Control Method, we find that the oil boom of the late 2000s significantly increased non-residential employment. While the boom caused residential employment to shift from the public to the private sector, total residential employment was unaffected. There is weak evidence that residential wages increased in response to the boom. These results are important as drilling decisions are often negotiated locally by interest groups that might be less concerned with general equilibrium effects.     

The economic impact of shale gas extraction: A review of existing studies

Recent advances in drilling technology have allowed for the profitable extraction of natural gas from deep underground shale rock formations. Several reports sponsored by the gas industry have estimated the economic effects of the shale gas extraction on incomes, employment, and tax revenues. None of these reports has been published in an economics journal and therefore have not been subjected to the peer review process. Yet these reports may be influential to the formation of public policy. This commentary provides written reviews of several studies purporting to estimate the economic impact of gas extraction from shale beds. Due to questionable assumptions, the economic impacts estimated in these reports are very likely overstated.     

我国光污染立法现状及其防治措施

光污染是继废气、废水、废渣和噪声等污染之后的一种新的环境污染源，主要包括白亮污染、人工白昼污染和彩光污染。光污染正在威胁着人们的健康，并且危害程度有逐渐加剧的趋势。本文在分析光污染的内涵及其危害的基础上，阐述了我国光污染立法现状及其防治措施。     

The cost of unconventional gas extraction: A hedonic analysis

We focus on identification and estimation of potentially negative environmental impacts of unconventional natural gas extraction on property values in the United States and advance previous research by contributing new data and new identification strategies for isolating these potential impacts. Our study area consists of two counties in Pennsylvania that are home to large amounts of unconventional natural gas extraction but are otherwise isolated from other resource extraction industries or large urban areas. We deploy parametric, semi-parametric, and matching hedonic regression models that include recent quasi-experimental methods and, in contrast to previous research and much popular intuition, we fail to find robust significance that negative environmental externalities of natural gas extraction are manifested in nearby property values. While there may be plausible risks associated with unconventional natural gas extraction, we do not find consistent evidence to suggest that these risks significantly affect nearby property values.     

Pollution Offshoring and Emission Reductions in EU and US Manufacturing

Between 1995 and 2008, the European Union and the United States raised environmental standards and concurrently experienced important reductions in emissions from manufacturing despite a rise in output. Levinson (Am Econ Rev 99(5):2177–2192, 2009) finds that the offshoring of polluting industries to countries with lower environmental standards played only small role in the cleanup of US manufacturing, which was largely due to improvements in production technique. But there is no evidence of whether US patterns hold in other developed economies. I provide the first analysis of the pollution intensity of EU production and imports to examine which forces drove the EU cleanup. I find that concerns about the effect of pollution offshoring were unfounded in the European Union, not because the effect was small like in the United States, but because the patterns of specialization of EU production and imports were exactly opposite to what pollution offshoring would predict. Starting in the early 2000s, EU manufacturing increasingly produced more pollution-intensive goods while imports became progressively less pollution-intensive, especially from low-income countries. There are two notable exceptions: primary aluminum and electrometallurgical products, except steel, which do provide evidence of offshoring from the EU to lower income countries. The “brown” specialization of EU production is difficult to explain, but about a quarter can be matched by increased demand for EU exports of polluting goods. However, similar to the US cleanup, changes in production and imports were overwhelmed by improvements in production technique, which were the main drivers of the cleanup of manufacturing.     

房地产市场的过度繁荣:日本与美国的比较

从上世纪80年代末日本和美国的次贷危机比较来看,至少可以得出两个结论:一是房地产市场的过度繁荣,往往是一国经济增长动力减弱之际,而又过度利用金融资源之故;二是次贷市场的发展和扭曲不是次贷危机爆发的根本原因。金融体系有内在的扩张和不稳定性,在现代金融体系下,房地产市场放任自由的发展,其后果往往是投机盛行和被过度金融化,从而导致经济主体过度负债和实质意义上的"次贷",并危及实体经济的平稳运行。     

Beyond fuelwood savings: Valuing the economic benefits of introducing improved biomass cookstoves in the Purépecha region of Mexico

Half of the world population relies on biomass for cooking, with very significant health as well as climate change impacts. Improved cookstoves have been disseminated as an alternative to reduce these impacts. However, few detailed studies about the economic benefits of improved cookstoves (ICS) interventions, including environmental and health co-benefits, exist to date. In this paper we perform a comprehensive economic evaluation of a dissemination program of ICS in rural Mexico. The resulting cost–benefit analysis (CBA) of the Patsari improved cookstove is presented, utilizing estimation of direct costs and benefits, including fuelwood savings, income generation, health impacts, environmental conservation, and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis is based on comprehensive data obtained through monitoring studies carried out in the Study Area from 2003 to the present. Results show that Patsari cookstoves represent a viable economic option for improving living conditions of the poorest inhabitants of rural Mexico, with benefit/cost ratios estimated between 11.4:1 and 9:1. The largest contributors to economic benefits stemmed from fuelwood savings and reductions in health impacts, which constituted 53% and 28% of the overall benefit, respectively.     

Technological and Institutional Interaction in the Shale Oil Revolution

A decade ago, peak oil was widely discussed. By early 2015, U.S. oil production reached 9.7 million barrels per day, a figure not seen since the nation’s previous peak production in 1971. The dramatic increase in U.S. production is commonly referred to as the shale oil revolution. It is often alleged that the shale oil revolution was the result of technological change, particularly horizontal drilling and fracking. Technological change contributed to the increase in production, but such change involved much more than horizontal drilling and fracking. Institutional changes also contributed to the shale oil revolution. Besides market changes, new mechanisms of financing exploration and production were facilitated by low interest rates and quantitative easing. The political and regulatory environments changed as well. We investigate the peculiar interaction of institutions and technology in the shale oil industry between 2010 and 2015.     

农村经济发展与水污染问题的防治研究

改革开放以来,我国农村经济获得了长足发展,乡镇企业的规模不断扩大,随之而来的环境污染问题日趋严重,特别是农村水污染问题是我国目前最为突出的环境问题。从农村水污染的形成、危害入手调查、分析农村水污染问题,进而提出解决的方法,也是贯彻党的十七大会议精神,落实科学发展观,建设社会主义新农村的重要举措。     

地区工业废气排放负担的差异及对策研究

工业废气的排放是造成大气污染和环境污染的重要原因,对各地区的气体污染物排放负担、工业生产贡献进行比较和模型分析,可以更加清晰地看出各地区气体污染物的负担差异,这种差异主要是由于各地区工业发展水平、产业结构及环境政策的差异造成的,据此,从提升清洁技术、调整产业结构、污染治理和污染源管理等方面,提出更为有效的环境保护政策与措施,更好地促进经济与环境和谐发展。     

安徽省农村留守儿童健康状况的调查与分析

本文在对安徽省农村留守儿童的健康现状及可能影响其体质健康的因素进行实地调查的基础上,通过建立Ordered Logistic计量模型,定量分析了各因素对儿童体质健康的影响。研究结果表明:父亲外出务工会对留守儿童的体质健康产生不利影响,且其外出这一行为本身对儿童营养状况的负面影响显著;家庭特征层面上,父亲的体质状况会对儿童营养健康产生正面影响,且影响显著;食肉频率、锻炼频率及营养知识得分等变量对子女的体质都会产生影响,且在模型中显著;由于地区间存在差异,地区变量对儿童的体质状况也会产生影响。最后,依据分析结果,从家庭、学校和国家3个层面提出了改善我国农村留守儿童体质状况的有效途径。     

医疗卫生基本公共服务的城乡差距及均等化路径

当前,我国城乡之间的医疗卫生服务不均等已成为一个重要的社会问题。本文通过医疗卫生费用和医疗卫生资源的城乡数据分析得出城乡之间的医疗卫生公共服务差距巨大,并通过2000—2008年城乡医疗保健费用的泰尔指数分析,发现城乡组间对城乡医疗卫生公共服务差距的贡献基本上在80%以上,几乎是组内差距贡献的4倍,而从两组的内部差距来看,农村内部的不均等程度要稍高于城市内部的不均等程度,根据分析结果并从财政向农村医疗卫生的投入倾斜、城乡医疗保险制度的整合、医疗体制的深化改革等方面就如何促进医疗卫生公共服务城乡均等化进行探讨。     

Impacts from restoration strategies: Assessment through valuation workshops

Recent decades have seen a wide range of pollutant spills affecting natural, industrial, urban and rural areas (Exxon Valdez, Amoco Cadiz, Erika, Prestige, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and the Aznalcóllar mines in Spain, to name a few). The extent of damage covers both time and space. Therefore, in order to mitigate the effects of pollution, it is necessary to adopt integrated management of both productive and natural areas. However, to be effective it is necessary to consider not only the health or biophysical effects of the countermeasures, but also the response of individuals to these changes. The purpose of this study is to assess the potential social and environmental impacts derived from the implementation of restoration strategies resulting from spills. Our approach is based on a choice experiment applied within the context of a citizens' valuation workshop or market stall in Cumbria (UK) and Zaragoza (Spain). The results highlight the advantages of this participatory technique versus traditional surveys.     

基于公共物品理论的农村水环境治理机制研究

在广大农村地区,落后的水环境治理与日益膨胀的污染负荷之间的矛盾使水环境污染问题日益严峻,并且呈现出迅速恶化的趋势。从我国农村水环境污染的现状出发,基于公共物品理论深入分析当前农村水环境治理中存在的治理主体缺失、治理资金投入不足、环保意识薄弱、二元化的环境治理政策等一系列问题,指出市场失灵和政府缺陷是导致农村水环境治理不足的最重要原因,并依此来构建我国农村水环境治理的机制。     

Do shale gas and oil productions move in convergence? An investigation using unit root tests with structural breaks

This paper investigates the long-run trends of shale gas and shale oil productions by applying univariate and panel Lagrange Multiplier (LM), GARCH-based, and PANICCA unit root tests to discover the mean-reverting behaviors. We employ monthly data from January 2007 to December 2016 of shale gas withdrawals and shale oil productions in the U.S. The empirical results both on specific state/oil well and panel data show that most structural breaks emerge around 2007–2011, during which shale energy was massively produced in the U.S. and the global financial crisis and energy shock occurred. Our results also indicate that most external shocks are transitory and the trends soon converge, and that cross-state/well factors have greater potential as temporary shocks than the state-specific/well-particular components. For robust analysis, we conduct additional LM tests of natural gas and crude oil productions for a comparison with the unconventional shale energy. The unit root test of Narayan and Popp (2010) on shale gas and shale oil productions help us to find more stationary evidence. Overall, we present powerful findings of the mean-reversion property and propose critical implications for authorities and market participants.