Pub Date : 2025-07-21DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103211
Sayahnika Basu , Jonathan D. Ketcham , Nicolai V. Kuminoff
We investigate how environmental regulation under the U.S. Superfund program and Clean Air Act affected exposures to fine particulate air pollution and hazardous waste for Americans over age 65 during the 2000s. Our research design uses quasi-random features of how the two programs enforce regulations and provide information to estimate their causal effects on migration and pollution exposure. We show that senior Americans’ average pollution exposures declined substantially. We also show that spatially heterogeneous improvements in environmental quality had little-to-no effect on residential sorting. This led to relatively large reductions in pollution exposure for seniors living in the dirtiest areas.
{"title":"Environmental regulation, residential sorting, and pollution exposure among senior Americans","authors":"Sayahnika Basu , Jonathan D. Ketcham , Nicolai V. Kuminoff","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103211","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103211","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate how environmental regulation under the U.S. Superfund program and Clean Air Act affected exposures to fine particulate air pollution and hazardous waste for Americans over age 65 during the 2000s. Our research design uses quasi-random features of how the two programs enforce regulations and provide information to estimate their causal effects on migration and pollution exposure. We show that senior Americans’ average pollution exposures declined substantially. We also show that spatially heterogeneous improvements in environmental quality had little-to-no effect on residential sorting. This led to relatively large reductions in pollution exposure for seniors living in the dirtiest areas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103211"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144829121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-17DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103208
Piero Basaglia , Elisabeth T. Isaksen , Misato Sato
Carbon pricing is often paired with compensation to carbon-intensive firms to mitigate the risk of carbon leakage. This paper empirically examines the effects of indirect carbon cost compensation on UK manufacturing firms. Using administrative microdata, we combine difference-in-differences and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs to exploit firm-level eligibility criteria and identify the causal impact of compensation. We find that compensation reduces output contraction but also increases electricity consumption and emissions. These findings highlight a key policy trade-off – while compensation can help protect firms’ competitiveness and reduce leakage risks, it may also delay industrial decarbonization and increase the overall cost of achieving national emission targets.
{"title":"Carbon pricing, compensation, and competitiveness: Lessons from UK manufacturing","authors":"Piero Basaglia , Elisabeth T. Isaksen , Misato Sato","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103208","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103208","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Carbon pricing is often paired with compensation to carbon-intensive firms to mitigate the risk of carbon leakage. This paper empirically examines the effects of indirect carbon cost compensation on UK manufacturing firms. Using administrative microdata, we combine difference-in-differences and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs to exploit firm-level eligibility criteria and identify the causal impact of compensation. We find that compensation reduces output contraction but also increases electricity consumption and emissions. These findings highlight a key policy trade-off – while compensation can help protect firms’ competitiveness and reduce leakage risks, it may also delay industrial decarbonization and increase the overall cost of achieving national emission targets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103208"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144704125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-14DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103209
Lucas Bretschger
The paper develops an endogenous growth framework to show that poor input substitution and population growth are compatible with sustainable development, once labor and knowledge are adequately taken into account. A sustainable economy with poor input substitution relies on the combination of a favorable demand effect, providing a “safe haven" for capital and knowledge, and a supply effect that is supported by the “waterbed function" of labor. Population growth promotes sustainability through innovation, but has a negative impact if it implies increased pressure on ecosystem services. Induced innovation cannot avert an economic catastrophe when the ecology is tipping. Degrowth policies protect the environment but harm welfare level and development. Knowledge is the most important economic indicator of sustainability, but measurements at sectoral and country levels must be interpreted with great care.
{"title":"Nature and the ultimate resource: Sustainability with poor input substitution","authors":"Lucas Bretschger","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103209","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103209","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The paper develops an endogenous growth framework to show that poor input substitution and population growth are compatible with sustainable development, once labor and knowledge are adequately taken into account. A sustainable economy with poor input substitution relies on the combination of a favorable demand effect, providing a “safe haven\" for capital and knowledge, and a supply effect that is supported by the “waterbed function\" of labor. Population growth promotes sustainability through innovation, but has a negative impact if it implies increased pressure on ecosystem services. Induced innovation cannot avert an economic catastrophe when the ecology is tipping. Degrowth policies protect the environment but harm welfare level and development. Knowledge is the most important economic indicator of sustainability, but measurements at sectoral and country levels must be interpreted with great care.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103209"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144653088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-14DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103213
Valeria Fanghella , Joachim Schleich
We examine the causal effect of comparative feedback (information on how an individual's carbon footprint compares to others') on costly mitigation efforts, considering beliefs in one's relative carbon footprint as a source of heterogeneity. Using a nationally representative survey experiment, we calculate respondents' carbon footprints and elicit their beliefs about their relative carbon footprint via an incentivized task. A randomly selected subset of respondents then receives comparative feedback. We measure mitigation efforts using an incentivized modified dictator game. Our results show that two-thirds of the respondents are subject to optimistic bias, i.e., underestimate their relative carbon footprints. While we find no effect of comparative feedback on average, its effect varies by respondents' relative carbon footprints and the direction of the bias. Respondents for whom comparative feedback conveys a positive signal of their prosociality—because they learn that their relative carbon footprints are small, smaller than they believed, or both—reinforce their mitigation efforts. Respondents for whom comparative feedback conveys a negative signal of their prosociality reduce or do not change their mitigation efforts. These contrasting responses result in a “divergence from the mean”, deviating from the “regression towards the mean” typically observed in studies of social norms and pro-environmental behavior.
{"title":"Effect of the interplay between comparative feedback and beliefs on climate change mitigation efforts","authors":"Valeria Fanghella , Joachim Schleich","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103213","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103213","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine the causal effect of comparative feedback (information on how an individual's carbon footprint compares to others') on costly mitigation efforts, considering beliefs in one's relative carbon footprint as a source of heterogeneity. Using a nationally representative survey experiment, we calculate respondents' carbon footprints and elicit their beliefs about their relative carbon footprint via an incentivized task. A randomly selected subset of respondents then receives comparative feedback. We measure mitigation efforts using an incentivized modified dictator game. Our results show that two-thirds of the respondents are subject to optimistic bias, i.e., underestimate their relative carbon footprints. While we find no effect of comparative feedback on average, its effect varies by respondents' relative carbon footprints and the direction of the bias. Respondents for whom comparative feedback conveys a positive signal of their prosociality—because they learn that their relative carbon footprints are small, smaller than they believed, or both—reinforce their mitigation efforts. Respondents for whom comparative feedback conveys a negative signal of their prosociality reduce or do not change their mitigation efforts. These contrasting responses result in a “divergence from the mean”, deviating from the “regression towards the mean” typically observed in studies of social norms and pro-environmental behavior.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103213"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144680485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-12DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103210
Till Baldenius , Hannah Klauber , Nicolas Koch
Racial segregation remains a persistent social challenge in cities worldwide. While public spaces promote diverse encounters, recent research suggests that extreme temperatures influence how much time individuals spend in these places. We evaluate whether such behavioral responses affect racial segregation, highlighting a previously unexplored channel between global warming and social welfare. Using mobile phone data on movement patterns to millions of locations in 315 US cities between 2018 and 2020, we estimate an index of experienced segregation in visits to different destinations between whites and other ethnic groups. We then exploit week-to-week variation in temperatures and the segregation index within cities to show that heat increases segregation, especially among individuals from lower-income areas and at places for leisure activities. A week with average maximum temperatures of 33 C in a city with moderate baseline segregation like Los Angeles moves the experienced segregation about 14 % closer to the level prevailing in the more segregated city of Atlanta. Climate projections demonstrate that mitigation policies can have significant co-benefits in cushioning future increases in racial segregation.
{"title":"Heat and experienced racial segregation","authors":"Till Baldenius , Hannah Klauber , Nicolas Koch","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103210","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103210","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Racial segregation remains a persistent social challenge in cities worldwide. While public spaces promote diverse encounters, recent research suggests that extreme temperatures influence how much time individuals spend in these places. We evaluate whether such behavioral responses affect racial segregation, highlighting a previously unexplored channel between global warming and social welfare. Using mobile phone data on movement patterns to millions of locations in 315 US cities between 2018 and 2020, we estimate an index of experienced segregation in visits to different destinations between whites and other ethnic groups. We then exploit week-to-week variation in temperatures and the segregation index within cities to show that heat increases segregation, especially among individuals from lower-income areas and at places for leisure activities. A week with average maximum temperatures of 33 <span><math><msup><mspace></mspace><mrow><mo>∘</mo></mrow></msup></math></span>C in a city with moderate baseline segregation like Los Angeles moves the experienced segregation about 14 % closer to the level prevailing in the more segregated city of Atlanta. Climate projections demonstrate that mitigation policies can have significant co-benefits in cushioning future increases in racial segregation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103210"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144662078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-12DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103204
Christoph Böhringer, Carsten Helm, Laura Schürer
The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement fall short of the emissions reductions needed to reach the 2 C target. Emissions trading could be a “costless" means to reduce this gap if countries used their cost savings for additional emissions abatement. However, this requires cooperative behavior. We show that with emissions trading countries’ non-cooperative choices of emissions reduction contributions can lead to even more abatement, provided that these contributions may not be lower than their initial NDCs. Intuitively, countries with high climate damages raise their contributions if they can fulfill them partly through emissions reductions in countries with low abatement costs.
{"title":"How to boost countries’ climate ambitions: Turning gains from emissions trading into gains for climate","authors":"Christoph Böhringer, Carsten Helm, Laura Schürer","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103204","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103204","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement fall short of the emissions reductions needed to reach the 2 <span><math><msup><mspace></mspace><mrow><mo>∘</mo></mrow></msup></math></span>C target. Emissions trading could be a “costless\" means to reduce this gap if countries used their cost savings for additional emissions abatement. However, this requires cooperative behavior. We show that with emissions trading countries’ non-cooperative choices of emissions reduction contributions can lead to even more abatement, provided that these contributions may not be lower than their initial NDCs. Intuitively, countries with high climate damages raise their contributions if they can fulfill them partly through emissions reductions in countries with low abatement costs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103204"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144653086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-05DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103206
Edward B. Barbier , Angela Cindy Emefa Mensah
A seemingly overlooked impact on economic well-being is rising health risks attributed to the environment, which are impacting welfare worldwide. We modify the consumption-equivalent macroeconomic welfare measure developed by Jones and Klenow (2016) to include the impacts of these risks on life expectancy and the utility flow of the average individual. Employing the Global Burden of Disease dataset of environmentally related mortality and morbidity across 163 countries over 1990–2019, we compare welfare with and without environmental health risks to GDP per capita for each country relative to the United States. In addition, we examine the extent to which welfare in rich and poor countries converge. Across all 163 countries over 1990–2019, adjusting welfare for environmental health risks is significant when compared to income (GDP) per capita or to welfare that excludes these risks. This divergence in welfare is especially prominent among low and lower middle-income countries.
{"title":"Environmental health risks, welfare and GDP","authors":"Edward B. Barbier , Angela Cindy Emefa Mensah","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103206","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103206","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A seemingly overlooked impact on economic well-being is rising health risks attributed to the environment, which are impacting welfare worldwide. We modify the consumption-equivalent macroeconomic welfare measure developed by Jones and Klenow (2016) to include the impacts of these risks on life expectancy and the utility flow of the average individual. Employing the Global Burden of Disease dataset of environmentally related mortality and morbidity across 163 countries over 1990–2019, we compare welfare with and without environmental health risks to GDP per capita for each country relative to the United States. In addition, we examine the extent to which welfare in rich and poor countries converge. Across all 163 countries over 1990–2019, adjusting welfare for environmental health risks is significant when compared to income (GDP) per capita or to welfare that excludes these risks. This divergence in welfare is especially prominent among low and lower middle-income countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103206"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144597127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-30DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103205
Wentao Jia , Chunbo Ma , Xiao Wang , Rui Xie
This paper examines the intra-firm pollution leakage and its distributional consequences on ambient PM2.5 induced by the Top 1000 energy conservation program on industrial plants in China. Using a combined data on plant-level pollution emissions, ambient PM2.5 concentration, and business ownership networks from 2001 to 2010, we identify the causal effects of the program on air pollution emissions by the plants and PM2.5 concentration in local neighborhoods affected by the emissions using a difference-in-differences strategy. The paper has two main findings. First, regulation-induced production transfer results in a leakage of 27 % in sulfur dioxide and coarse dust emissions from program-regulated plants to their affiliate plants. Second, the leakage shifts up PM2.5 near affiliate plants and results in a re-distribution of PM2.5 exposure towards socially disadvantaged rural neighborhoods where the affiliates are located in. These neighborhoods exhibit greater vulnerability due to less developed medical services and low health insurance coverage. Back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that the leakage in pollution leads to a disproportionately higher leakage in health costs.
{"title":"Intra-firm pollution leakage and redistribution of pollution exposure: Evidence from coal-regulated plants in China","authors":"Wentao Jia , Chunbo Ma , Xiao Wang , Rui Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103205","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103205","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the intra-firm pollution leakage and its distributional consequences on ambient PM2.5 induced by the Top 1000 energy conservation program on industrial plants in China. Using a combined data on plant-level pollution emissions, ambient PM2.5 concentration, and business ownership networks from 2001 to 2010, we identify the causal effects of the program on air pollution emissions by the plants and PM2.5 concentration in local neighborhoods affected by the emissions using a difference-in-differences strategy. The paper has two main findings. First, regulation-induced production transfer results in a leakage of 27 % in sulfur dioxide and coarse dust emissions from program-regulated plants to their affiliate plants. Second, the leakage shifts up PM2.5 near affiliate plants and results in a re-distribution of PM2.5 exposure towards socially disadvantaged rural neighborhoods where the affiliates are located in. These neighborhoods exhibit greater vulnerability due to less developed medical services and low health insurance coverage. Back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that the leakage in pollution leads to a disproportionately higher leakage in health costs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103205"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144556922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-30DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103207
Rong Nie , Juliana Carneiro , Jinbo Song , Yueming Qiu
This paper examines the effect of real-time corporate emissions data disclosure on housing markets, leveraging China’s 2017 “Installing, Erecting, and Networking” (IEN) policy as a quasi-natural experiment. Using a difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) analysis on over 35,000 housing transactions near 13 Waste-to-Energy (WtE) incineration plants, we find that the real-time emissions data disclosure significantly attenuates the housing price gradient by approximately 34.7%. This attenuation corresponds to an economic gain equivalent to around 39% of an urban resident’s annual disposable income, reflecting a substantial reduction in residents’ perceived environmental risks. Event study analysis demonstrates that the housing market response emerges rapidly after the introduction of real-time disclosure and remains persistent thereafter. Further heterogeneity analyses indicate that the positive effects of the disclosure are more pronounced in urban areas and are stronger near plants that operate in compliance with emission standards, employ advanced flue gas abatement technologies, and have smaller treatment capacities. Our findings underscore the novel role of real-time emissions data disclosure in mitigating environmental risk perceptions, offering key policy implications for enhancing public acceptance of potentially controversial environmental infrastructure.
{"title":"Real-time emissions data disclosure of Waste-to-Energy incineration plants and public risk perceptions: Evidence from the housing market","authors":"Rong Nie , Juliana Carneiro , Jinbo Song , Yueming Qiu","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103207","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103207","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the effect of real-time corporate emissions data disclosure on housing markets, leveraging China’s 2017 “Installing, Erecting, and Networking” (IEN) policy as a quasi-natural experiment. Using a difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) analysis on over 35,000 housing transactions near 13 Waste-to-Energy (WtE) incineration plants, we find that the real-time emissions data disclosure significantly attenuates the housing price gradient by approximately 34.7%. This attenuation corresponds to an economic gain equivalent to around 39% of an urban resident’s annual disposable income, reflecting a substantial reduction in residents’ perceived environmental risks. Event study analysis demonstrates that the housing market response emerges rapidly after the introduction of real-time disclosure and remains persistent thereafter. Further heterogeneity analyses indicate that the positive effects of the disclosure are more pronounced in urban areas and are stronger near plants that operate in compliance with emission standards, employ advanced flue gas abatement technologies, and have smaller treatment capacities. Our findings underscore the novel role of real-time emissions data disclosure in mitigating environmental risk perceptions, offering key policy implications for enhancing public acceptance of potentially controversial environmental infrastructure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103207"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144549443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-27DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103201
Lenis Saweda O Liverpool-Tasie , Andrew Dillon , Jeffrey R. Bloem , Guigonan Serge Adjognon
Private sector agricultural businesses are critical for scaling new and potentially environmentally-friendly technologies, though much attention has focused on public agricultural investment. Working with a private firm, we conduct an experiment testing the effectiveness of alternative marketing strategies for promoting the adoption of urea super granule fertilizer (USG) among rice farmers in Nigeria. We disentangle the effects of price discount vouchers and the firm’s standard marketing package. We find that the firm’s standard marketing increases the adoption of USG fertilizer by 24 percentage points while reducing prilled urea utilization by 17 percentage points. Discount vouchers increase adoption of USG by an additional eight percentage points, but are not profitable for the firm. Although the adoption of USG leads to substantial environmental benefits by reducing nitrogen loss, farmer rice yields did not increase. Thus, despite the potential public benefits, private incentives facing firms and farmers are insufficient to drive scaling after a one-year intervention.
{"title":"Private sector promotion of agricultural technologies: Experimental evidence from Nigeria","authors":"Lenis Saweda O Liverpool-Tasie , Andrew Dillon , Jeffrey R. Bloem , Guigonan Serge Adjognon","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103201","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103201","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Private sector agricultural businesses are critical for scaling new and potentially environmentally-friendly technologies, though much attention has focused on public agricultural investment. Working with a private firm, we conduct an experiment testing the effectiveness of alternative marketing strategies for promoting the adoption of urea super granule fertilizer (USG) among rice farmers in Nigeria. We disentangle the effects of price discount vouchers and the firm’s standard marketing package. We find that the firm’s standard marketing increases the adoption of USG fertilizer by 24 percentage points while reducing prilled urea utilization by 17 percentage points. Discount vouchers increase adoption of USG by an additional eight percentage points, but are not profitable for the firm. Although the adoption of USG leads to substantial environmental benefits by reducing nitrogen loss, farmer rice yields did not increase. Thus, despite the potential public benefits, private incentives facing firms and farmers are insufficient to drive scaling after a one-year intervention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103201"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144491978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号