All natural
A Green Paradox: Validating Green Choices Has Ironic Effects on Behavior, Cognition, and Perception
Chiara Longoni, Peter Gollwitzer & Gabriele Oettingen
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, January 2014, Pages 158–165
Abstract:
Does validating the purchase of green products hamper subsequent green behaviors in people committed to the identity goal of being green? Positive feedback on purchasing green products led to less recycling compared to negative feedback, with no feedback participants lying in between (Study 1). Assuming that receiving positive feedback on buying green products results in a state of goal completeness, we hypothesized and observed that constructs (e.g., earth) related to being green were the least accessible in positive feedback participants as compared to no feedback and (even more so) to negative feedback participants (Study 2). This pattern of results also emerged with respect to the perception of the color green (i.e., a green patch was perceived the least green by positive feedback participants; Study 3). These findings suggest that being praised for buying green creates a state of goal completeness that hampers subsequent striving for the aspired-to identity goal.
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Unequal Trajectories: Racial and Class Differences in Residential Exposure to Industrial Hazard
Jeremy Pais, Kyle Crowder & Liam Downey
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
The unequal exposure to industrial hazards via differential residential attainment and/or differential sitings of toxic facilities is a long-standing environmental justice issue. This study examines individual trajectories of residential exposure to the risk of industrial hazard over nearly two decades. Using a latent class growth analysis on longitudinal geocoded data merged with the neighborhood-level pollution measures, we discover large racial differences in trajectories of pollution exposure. A majority of individuals are exposed to above-average pollution levels at some point during the study period, but blacks are more likely than whites to experience persistent exposure to high pollution. These differences are only partially explained by racial differences in suburban neighborhood attainment, socioeconomic status, and the frequency of inter-neighborhood moves. Immobile blacks also saw their exposure increase.
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Earth Orbit Debris: An Economic Model
Nodir Adilov, Peter Alexander & Brendan Michael Cunningham
FCC Working Paper, May 2013
Abstract:
Space debris, an externality generated by expended launch vehicles and damaged satellites, reduces the expected value of space activities by increasing the probability of damaging existing satellites or other space vehicles. Unlike terrestrial pollution, debris created in the production process interacts with firms' final products, and is, moreover, self-propagating. Collisions between debris or extant satellites creates additional debris. We construct an economic model to explore private incentives to launch satellites and to mitigate space debris. The model predicts that, relative to the social optimum, firms launch too many satellites and under-invest in debris mitigation technologies. We discuss remediation strategies and policies, and calculate a socially optimal Pigovian tax.
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Rich People, Poor People, and Environmental Concern: Evidence across Nations and Time
Malcolm Fairbrother
European Sociological Review, October 2013, Pages 910-922
Abstract:
What makes people concerned about environmental degradation and willing to pay for its prevention? Recent survey research argues that richer people are greener — that residents of more economically developed countries, as well as relatively wealthier people within countries, are more concerned about the state of the natural environment and more willing to pay to protect it. This article questions this view, using survey data on multiple distinct aspects of environmental concern, from a larger sample of countries, and, where possible, taking into account not just cross-sectional differences among nations but also change over time. The analyses reported in this article show that environmental concern is generally higher in poorer countries, and there is no relationship over time between economic development and people’s willingness to pay for environmental protection. Within countries, richer people are slightly more concerned about the environment, but only on some dimensions and not others.
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Rational Inattention and Energy Efficiency
James Sallee
NBER Working Paper, October 2013
Abstract:
If time and effort are required to accurately ascertain the lifetime value of energy efficiency for a durable good, consumers might rationally ignore energy efficiency. This paper argues that such inattention may be rational in the market for automobiles and home appliances. To do so, it develops a heuristic model of a consumer's decision problem when purchasing an energy consuming durable good in which uncertainty about each good's energy efficiency can be resolved via costly effort. The model indicates under what conditions the consumer will be less likely to undertake this effort. The empirical portion of the paper argues that energy efficiency is often not pivotal to choice. This, along with a simulation of the automobile market, suggests that returns to paying attention to energy may be modest, and analysis of the information readily available to consumers suggests that the costs of being fully informed may be substantial. The paper discusses the implications of rational inattention for public policy and for empirical research on the energy paradox.
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Components of air pollution and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults in Los Angeles
Nicole Gatto et al.
NeuroToxicology, forthcoming
Abstract:
While experiments in animals demonstrate neurotoxic effects of particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O3), epidemiologic evidence is sparse regarding the relationship between different constituencies of air pollution mixtures and cognitive function in adults. We examined cross-sectional associations between various ambient air pollutants [O3, PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)] and six measures of cognitive function and global cognition among healthy, cognitively intact individuals (n = 1496, mean age 60.5 years) residing in the Los Angeles Basin. Air pollution exposures were assigned to each residential address in 2000–06 using a geographic information system that included monitoring data. A neuropsychological battery was used to assess cognitive function; a principal components analysis defined six domain-specific functions and a measure of global cognitive function was created. Regression models estimated effects of air pollutants on cognitive function, adjusting for age, gender, race, education, income, study and mood. Increasing exposure to PM2.5 was associated with lower verbal learning (β = −0.32 per 10 μg/m3 PM2.5, 95% CI = −0.63, 0.00; p = 0.05). Ambient exposure to NO2 >20 ppb tended to be associated with lower logical memory. Compared to the lowest level of exposure to ambient O3, exposure above 49 ppb was associated with lower executive function. Including carotid artery intima-media thickness, a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis, in models as a possible mediator did not attenuate effect estimates. This study provides support for cross-sectional associations between increasing levels of ambient O3, PM2.5 and NO2 and measures of domain-specific cognitive abilities.
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Prenatal Exposure to Air Pollution, Maternal Psychological Distress, and Child Behavior
Frederica Perera et al.
Pediatrics, forthcoming
Background: Airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are pollutants generated by combustion of fossil fuel and other organic material. Both prenatal PAH exposure and maternal psychological distress during pregnancy have each been associated with neurodevelopmental problems in children. The goal was to evaluate potential interactions between prenatal exposure to airborne PAHs and maternal psychological distress during pregnancy on subsequent behavioral problems in children.
Methods: In a longitudinal birth cohort study, 248 children of nonsmoking white women in the coal-burning region of Krakow, Poland, were followed from in utero until age 9. Prenatal PAH exposure was measured by personal air monitoring during pregnancy, maternal demoralization during pregnancy by the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Instrument–Demoralization, and child behavior by the Child Behavior Checklist.
Results: Significant interactions between maternal demoralization and PAH exposure (high versus low) were identified for symptoms of anxious/depressed, withdrawn/depressed, social problems, aggressive behavior, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. The effects of demoralization on syndromes of anxious/depressed, withdrawn/depressed, rule-breaking, aggressive behavior, and the composite internalizing and externalizing scores were seen only in conjunction with high PAH exposure. Fewer significant effects with weaker effect sizes were observed in the low-PAH-exposure group.
Conclusions: Maternal demoralization during pregnancy appears to have a greater effect on child neurobehavioral development among children who experienced high prenatal PAH exposure. The results provide the first evidence of an interaction between prenatal exposure to maternal demoralization and air pollution on child neurobehavioral development, indicating the need for a multifaceted approach to the prevention of developmental problems in children.
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Ambient air pollution and hypertensive disorder of pregnancy
Xiaohui Xu et al.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, forthcoming
Background: Ambient air pollution has been implicated in the development of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP). However, evidence of the association between air pollution and HDP is still limited, and the effects of gaseous air pollutants on HDP and their time windows of exposure have not been well studied.
Methods: We used the Florida birth registry data to investigate the associations between air pollutants (NO2, SO2, PM2.5, O3 and CO) and the risks of HDP in 22 041 pregnant women in Jacksonville, Florida, USA from 2004 to 2005. Further, we examined whether air pollution exposure during different time windows defined by trimesters and the entire pregnancy had different effects on HDP.
Results: The single-pollutant logistic regression model showed that exposure to four pollutants during the full pregnancy period was significantly associated with prevalence of HDP after adjusting for covariates: NO2 (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.35), PM2.5 (OR=1.24, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.43), SO2 (OR=1.13, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.25) and CO (OR=1.12, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.22) per IQR increase. Similar effects were observed when first trimester exposure to NO2, SO2 and CO, and second trimester exposures to PM2.5 were examined. Consistent results were confirmed in multiple-pollutant models.
Conclusions: This study suggests that exposure to high levels of air pollution during early pregnancy and the full gestational period was associated with increased prevalence of HDP in Florida, USA.
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Robert Mitkus et al.
Risk Analysis, forthcoming
Abstract:
The use of thimerosal preservative in childhood vaccines has been largely eliminated over the past decade in the United States because vaccines have been reformulated in single-dose vials that do not require preservative. An exception is the inactivated influenza vaccines, which are formulated in both multidose vials requiring preservative and preservative-free single-dose vials. As part of an ongoing evaluation by USFDA of the safety of biologics throughout their lifecycle, the infant body burden of mercury following scheduled exposures to thimerosal preservative in inactivated influenza vaccines in the United States was estimated and compared to the infant body burden of mercury following daily exposures to dietary methylmercury at the reference dose established by the USEPA. Body burdens were estimated using kinetic parameters derived from experiments conducted in infant monkeys that were exposed episodically to thimerosal or MeHg at identical doses. We found that the body burden of mercury (AUC) in infants (including low birth weight) over the first 4.5 years of life following yearly exposures to thimerosal was two orders of magnitude lower than that estimated for exposures to the lowest regulatory threshold for MeHg over the same time period. In addition, peak body burdens of mercury following episodic exposures to thimerosal in this worst-case analysis did not exceed the corresponding safe body burden of mercury from methylmercury at any time, even for low-birth-weight infants. Our pharmacokinetic analysis supports the acknowledged safety of thimerosal when used as a preservative at current levels in certain multidose infant vaccines in the United States.
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Is the Shale Energy Boom a Bust for Nearby Residents? Evidence from Housing Values in Pennsylvania
Sathya Gopalakrishnan & Allen Klaiber
American Journal of Agricultural Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Profitable extraction of previously inaccessible shale energy reserves has led to the rapid expansion of shale exploration across the United States. We present one of the first empirical studies to measure the impact of early shale exploration on surrounding homeowners using data from Washington County, Pennsylvania, from 2008 to mid 2010. We find that property values are negatively impacted by shale gas exploration activity, but this impact depends on the proximity and intensity of shale activity and is largely transitory. The negative effects are larger for households located close to major highways and sourced with private well water.
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Waste of Effort? International Environmental Agreements
Derek Kellenberg & Arik Levinson
NBER Working Paper, October 2013
Abstract:
Many of the world's environmental problems cross international borders, and to address those problems approximately 1,000 different International Environmental Agreements (IEAs) are in operation today. Most evidence, however suggests that those IEAs are ineffectual, merely ratifying business-as-usual outcomes and doing little to improve the environment. But much of that empirical analysis faces two obstacles: (1) limited data from before the IEAs were enacted and thus an inability to make before-and-after comparisons; and (2) difficulty estimating the counterfactual outcomes – what would have happened absent the agreements. In this paper we test the effectiveness of one particular IEA – the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. In this special case we have data on international waste shipments from both before and after countries ratify the agreement, along with a unique approach to identifying the treaty's effect using annual bilateral waste shipments among countries before and after one of the trading partners signs the agreement. Despite the strengths of this approach, we find almost no evidence that the Convention has resulted in less waste being shipped among countries.
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Free Riding, Upsizing, and Energy Efficiency Incentives in Maryland Homes
Anna Alberini, Will Gans & Charles Towe
University of Maryland Working Paper, August 2013
Abstract:
We use a unique dataset that combines the responses from an original survey of households, information about the structural characteristics of their homes, utility-provided longitudinal electricity usage records, plus utility program participation information, to study the uptake of energy efficiency incentives and their effect on residential electricity consumption. Attention is restricted to homes where heating and cooling are provided exclusively by heat pumps, which are common in our study area — four counties in Maryland — and were covered by federal, state and utility incentives during our study period (2007-2012). We deploy a difference-in-difference study design. We find that replacing an existing heat pump with a new one does reduce electricity usage: the average treatment effect is an 8% reduction. However, the effect differs dramatically across households based upon whether they receive an incentive towards the purchase of a new heat pump. Among those that receive the purchase incentive, the effect is small or nil, and indeed, the larger the incentive, the smaller the reduction in electricity usage. Those that do not receive incentives reduce usage by about 16%. Our results appear to be driven by the numerous free riders in our sample and by persons who — inferred from their responses to survey questions — might be exploiting the subsidy to purchase a larger system and increase usage, with no emissions reductions benefits to society.
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The Hawthorne effect and energy awareness
Daniel Schwartz et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 September 2013, Pages 15242-15246
Abstract:
The feeling of being observed or merely participating in an experiment can affect individuals’ behavior. Referred to as the Hawthorne effect, this inconsistently observed phenomenon can both provide insight into individuals' behavior and confound the interpretation of experimental manipulations. Here, we pursue both topics in examining how the Hawthorne effect emerges in a large field experiment focused on residential consumers’ electricity use. These consumers received five postcards notifying, and then reminding, them of their participation in a study of household electricity use. We found evidence for a Hawthorne (study participation) effect, seen in a reduction of their electricity use — even though they received no information, instruction, or incentives to change. Responses to a follow-up survey suggested that the effect reflected heightened awareness of energy consumption. Consistent with that interpretation, the treatment effect vanished when the intervention ended.
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Randy Becker, Carl Pasurka & Ronald Shadbegian
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines whether the impact of environmental regulations differs by the size of the business. We consider the net effect of statutory, enforcement, and compliance asymmetries by estimating the relationship between plant size and pollution abatement expenditures, using establishment-level data on U.S. manufacturers from the Census Bureau's Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures (PACE) survey and from its Annual Survey of Manufactures and Census of Manufactures. We model establishments' pollution abatement operating costs (PAOC) per unit of economic activity as a function of establishment size, industry, state, and year. Our results show that PAOC intensity increases with establishment and firm size.
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Asymmetric Incentives in Subsidies: Evidence from a Large-Scale Electricity Rebate Program
Koichiro Ito
NBER Working Paper, September 2013
Abstract:
Many countries use substantial public funds to subsidize reductions in negative externalities. However, such subsidies create asymmetric incentives because increases in externalities remain unpriced. This paper examines implications of such asymmetric subsidy incentives by using a regression discontinuity design in California's electricity rebate program that provided a financial reward for energy conservation. Using household-level panel data from administrative records, I find precisely-estimated zero causal effects in coastal areas. In contrast, the incentive produced a 5% consumption reduction in inland areas. Income and climate conditions significantly drive the heterogeneity. Asymmetric subsidy structures weaken incentives because consumers far from the rebate target show little response. The overall program cost is 17.5 cents per kWh reduction and $390 per ton of carbon dioxide reduction, which is unlikely to be cost-effective for a reasonable range of the social marginal cost of electricity.
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Can Pollution Tax Rebates Protect Low-Wage Earners?
Don Fullerton & Holly Monti
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
Pollution taxes are believed to burden low-income households that spend a greater than average share of income on pollution-intensive goods. Some proposals offset that effect by returning revenue to low-income workers via reduced labor tax. We build analytical general equilibrium models with both high-skilled and low-skilled labor, and we solve for the change in real net wage of each group. A decomposition shows the separate effects of the tax rebate, higher product prices, and the changes in relative wage rates. We also include numerical examples. Even though the pollution tax injures both types of labor, in most cases we find that returning all of the revenue to low-skilled workers is still not enough to offset higher product prices. Changes in relative wage rates may further hurt low-skilled labor. Protecting low-income workers is possible in this model only if they are defined as those below a relatively low wage threshold, but we discuss many possible elaborations of this model that could affect those results.
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Perception and reality: Public knowledge of plug-in electric vehicles in 21 U.S. cities
Rachel Krause et al.
Energy Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines the extent of consumer knowledge about plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and the current policies in place to encourage their purchase and use. Data are collected via a survey administered to a sample of 2302 adult drivers in 21 of the largest cities in the United States. Almost two-thirds of the respondents provided incorrect answers to basic factual questions about PEVs and, of those, approximately 75% underestimated their private value or advantages. The vast majority (94.5%) of respondents were not aware of the current state and local incentives in place in their locale to encourage PEV purchase and use. Based on a review of consumer theory, multivariate models are developed and used to assess the factors associated with consumer interest in the two major types of PEV technologies, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV). Results show demographic and attitudinal characteristics having the largest influence on interest in either type of PEV. Misperceptions about purchase price and expected fuel and maintenance savings are likewise significant, although their impacts differ between BEVs and PHEVs. Better informing consumers about already available public incentives and advantageous aspects of existing PEV technologies offer promising steps toward their mass commercialization.
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Calvin Tribby et al.
Transport Policy, November 2013, Pages 173–185
Abstract:
Air quality alert programs are a form of “soft” or persuasion-based policy that is common in metropolitan areas that do not meet federal air quality standards in the United States. These programs disseminate daily air quality conditions, with ordinal ratings describing the health implications and suggesting reductions in automobile use and other actions that contribute to the poor air quality. Evidence regarding the effectiveness of air quality alert programs on driving is less encouraging than other soft policies to discourage driving, with many studies reporting small or no reductions in traffic. This study examines evidence for the effectiveness of air quality alert systems in reducing traffic over a 10-year period in Salt Lake and Davis counties, Utah, USA, a metropolitan area that often does not meet US federal air quality standards for both ground-level ozone in the summer and PM 2.5 pollution in the winter. We find that while air quality alerts have some effectiveness for reducing traffic in the center city, these small reductions are exceeded by larger increases in traffic near the edge of the metropolitan area. These effects are stronger during the PM 2.5 alert season than during the ozone alert season. These increases can be explained as discretionary trips by individuals escaping poor air quality by driving to the mountains. A policy implication is that soft policies alone may not be effective at reducing driving behavior when the public health implication of the message conflicts with its public responsibility implication.
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Effects of Aquatic Invasive Species on Home Prices
Marianne Johnson & Martin Meder
University of Wisconsin Working Paper, August 2013
Abstract:
Our purpose is to examine the extent to which lakefront property view the invasive species zebra mussels and water milfoil as a dis-amenities. While both the ecological and aesthetic impacts of milfoil are universally negative, it less clear how property owners might view zebra mussel infestations. An invasive species, zebra mussels negatively affect the local ecology, crowd out some native species, and deposit sharp shells on beaches. However, zebra mussels are also associated with increased water clarity, a reduction in suspended pollutants, and increased numbers of popular game fish, making this an empirical question.We use a hedonic model to estimate the impact of zebra mussel and water milfoil infestations on lakefront property prices in 17 counties in North Central Wisconsin (n=1072). We find a statistically significant, negative association between sales price and milfoil infestations that is consistent with previous studies. In contrast, zebra mussel infestations are associated with higher property sales prices. The results suggest that generating compliance with containment and mitigation strategies may be difficult as lake users do not perceive a cost to zebra mussel infestation.