Welfare measurement under threats of environmental catastrophes

Yacov Tsur, Amos Zemel*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Welfare measures under threats of environmental catastrophes are studied using the "parable" apparatus of Weitzman and Löfgren [On the welfare significance of green accounting as taught by parable, J. Environ. Econ. Manage. 32 (1997) 139-153]. The occurrence probability of the catastrophic events is driven (at least partly) by anthropogenic activities such as natural resource exploitation. Without external effects, the green NNP is a genuine welfare measure vis-à-vis a particular parable economy. Often, however, the occurrence hazard constitutes a public bad, treated as an externality by agents who ignore their own contribution to its accumulation. In such cases the green NNP, although accounting for the event hazard rate per se, fails to properly internalize future effects on the hazard rate of current economic activities and as a result overestimates welfare. The bias term associated with the green NNP is derived and expressed in a simple and interpretable form.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)421-429
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Environmental Economics and Management
Volume52
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2006

Keywords

  • Environmental catastrophes
  • Green NNP
  • Hazard rate
  • Uncertainty

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