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International Side-payments to Improve Global Public Good Provision when Transfers are Refinanced through a Tax on Local and Global Externalities
Martin Altemeyer-Bartscher, A. Markandya, Dirk T. G. Rübbelke
International Economic Journal,
No. 1,
2014
Abstract
This paper discusses a tax-transfer scheme that aims to address the under-provision problem associated with the private supply of international public goods and to bring about Pareto optimal allocations internationally. In particular, we consider the example of the global public good ‘climate stabilization’, both in an analytical and a numerical simulation model. The proposed scheme levies Pigouvian taxes globally, while international side-payments are employed in order to provide incentives to individual countries for not taking a free-ride from the international Pigouvian tax scheme. The side-payments, in turn, are financed via environmental taxes. As a distinctive feature, we take into account ancillary benefits that may be associated with local public characteristics of climate policy. We determine the positive impact that ancillary effects may exert on the scope for financing side-payments via environmental taxation. A particular attractive feature of ancillary benefits is that they arise shortly after the implementation of climate policies and therefore yield an almost immediate payback of investments in abatement efforts. Especially in times of high public debt levels, long periods of amortization would tend to reduce political support for investments in climate policy.
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Climate Change and Corporate Innovation Processes
Wilfried Ehrenfeld
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 13,
2012
Abstract
This discussion paper provides the contextual framework of the cumulative disser-tation on “Climate Change and Corporate Innovation Processes” at the Technical University of Dresden. It consists of six already published papers and articles. Because of the present public discussion on climate change, European industrial companies face new requirements. This mainly includes new claims, which are imposed on them by the enterprises’ operational environment. One way to respond to these new claims is adaptation through innovation. The overall objective of this thesis is to investigate how the perception of climate change on the part of stakeholders affects corporate innovation processes. In this context, these issues are examined both theoretically and empirically. The thesis thus contributes to various literary strands in the area of “entrepreneurial strategies for adapting to climate change.”
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Climate Innovation - The Case of the Central German Chemical Industry
Wilfried Ehrenfeld
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 2,
2012
Abstract
In this article, we describe the results of a multiple case study on the indirect
corporate innovation impact of climate change in the Central German chemical
industry. We investigate the demands imposed on enterprises in this context as well as the sources, outcomes and determining factors in the innovative process at the corporate level. We argue that climate change drives corporate innovations through various channels. A main finding is that rising energy prices were a key driver for incremental energy efficiency innovations in the enterprises’ production processes. For product innovation, customer requests were a main driver, though often these requests are not directly related to climate issues. The introduction or extension of environmental and energy management systems as well as the certification of these are the most common forms of organizational innovations. For marketing purposes, the topic of climate change was hardly utilized so far. As the most important determinants for corporate climate innovations, corporate structure and flexibility of the product portfolio, political asymmetry regarding environmental regulation and governmental funding were identified.
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