American Journal of Economics and Sociology最新文献

Sequestration of carbon in forests is one method of reducing the accumulation of CO₂ in the atmosphere in order to delay climate change. But the ability of forests to perform this valuable ecological service may be hampered, particularly when private forestry dominates public policy. This article identifies several examples of lost opportunities for global society to benefit from carbon sequestration because markets for carbon credits are primarily designed to enable corporations to benefit from carbon capture schemes that are seldom adequately monitored. The recommended policy change is the ownership and management of all forests as common property, if not by legal title, then by collection of a tax on economic rent that could provide revenue to fund collective benefits.

According to the increasing marginal tendency towards tax avoidance, we develop a macro theoretical model and derive an optimal path of economic growth using only dimensionless parameters, which illustrates an inverted U-shaped effect of income inequality on economic growth in the long run. Specifically, economic growth initially moves upwards and subsequently downwards as the Gini coefficient increases. Moreover, this study presents empirical evidence via dynamic GMM estimates based on instrumental variables and PMG estimates relying on cointegration analyses, consistent with the implications of our theoretical model.

There is significant evidence of the positive effects of broadband expansion on various economic outcomes, including property values and business development, with a growing literature aimed at understanding the effect on health outcomes. We contribute to this later literature exploring the effect of broadband access on underexplored health using U.S. county data. After accounting for spatial dependency within the data we find that broadband availability positively affects health outcomes: as broadband access increase, we see declines in the share of the population with fair or poor health and the number of both physically and mentally unhealthy days. The investment of broadband availability not only impacts the overall economy but also community quality of life as measured by health outcomes.

Primary climate-change denialism rejects the idea that global warming is driven by human activity. This belief system now appeals to about one-third of Americans. Having been influenced by a 1990s Exxon campaign to sow doubt that fossil fuels are responsible for global warming, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be primary climate-change deniers. But polls show that many US climate-change accepters do not take it seriously enough to pay a nominal sum to prevent continued warming. This secondary denialism (accept the science, deny the urgency of action) may stem from the economic analysis of climate change. Discounting future damage and believing that economic growth will compensate for damage are two standard features of economic theory that justify treating climate issues with a degree of apathy—or at least as low priority. The work of Nobel-Prize-winning economist William Nordhaus provides almost as much cause for indifference among accepters as the climate denialists offer their followers. Scientists may view climate change with alarm, but policy-makers mostly take their cues from economists. Nordhaus stated in a popular book in 2008 that his model demonstrates that 3.45°C warming is economically optimal. Not just tolerable, but optimal. His work is highly influential. Even though some economists have objected to the methods of economic analysis that understate the perils of climate change, their voices have had little influence on policy. Thus, seeming partisan differences about climate change have converged around go-slow polices that manage climate issues as technical problems and that do not impose significant demands upon citizens or disrupt present economic arrangements.

Climate change may affect economies and the welfare of people around the world. To design appropriate policy responses, the economic effects of climate change should be known. One strand in the literature empirically estimates the growth effects of climatic variations. However, those studies often neglect economic variables that have proven to be robust in explaining economic growth. Further, often they fail to check for the robustness of their results. The main aim of this study is to detect whether there exists a statistically significant robust relation between climate change and economic growth by estimating different model specifications. To do so panel estimation techniques for 24 European economies for the period from 2002 to 2019 are applied whereby panel fixed effects estimations and dynamic Generalized Methods of Moments estimations are resorted to. No statistically significant robust relationship between the temperature change and economic growth is found just as for precipitation that does not exert a significant effect on growth. As regards the institutional and macroeconomic control variables the rule of law, the fiscal variable, and the output gap are statistically significant and robust. It is argued that far-reaching policy measures, such as the net zero goal of the European Union, should be given only based on robust results. Otherwise, economic policy may turn out to be inadequate and can lead to welfare losses. Hence, the conclusion is that the net zero goal of the European Green Deal is to be seen skeptical.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between income inequality and overconfidence. Using data from the FINRA Foundation's National Financial Capability Study, we measure respondents' self-perceived and actual investment knowledge and thus identify overconfident individuals. We also identify for each respondent their U.S. state of residence and the corresponding state-level income inequality. We then examine the relationship between state-level income inequality and overconfidence of the survey participants. Using a number of controls, several overconfidence measures, and two different datasets we find a positive and significant relationship between income inequality and overconfidence. We also find evidence that income inequality is positively related to financial satisfaction and financial risk taking. Indeed, we find that as inequality increases, poorer individuals increase their risk willingness.

This paper seeks to reconcile the divergent views on the role of proximity in knowledge spillovers through a comparative analysis of proximity's various dimensions and an examination of conditions under which proximity is effective. Our findings indicate that cognitive and social proximity not only mitigate the hindrance of geographical distance on knowledge diffusion but also play a dominant role in facilitating knowledge flows over long distances. Consequently, non-geographical proximity has a more profound impact on knowledge spillovers, although the effect of geographical proximity remains significant and should not be overlooked. Through mechanistic analysis, we find that geographical proximity is effective in facilitating the diffusion of tacit knowledge, learning by firms with poorer knowledge stock, and searching for unfixed knowledge sources. The impact of geographical proximity on knowledge spillovers depends on a range of conditions, and appreciating this complexity is vital for an accurate comprehension of its role. In contrast, non-geographical proximity exhibits greater robustness, as it faces fewer limiting conditions and possesses stronger explanatory power.