The CIREQ-CIRANO Workshop on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics is organized in collaboration with CIRANO. It is a joint event with the economics departments of Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, McGill University and HEC Montréal.
This event is aimed at researchers and doctoral students interested in the economics of natural resources and the environment.
→ This event took place online.
- Arnaud Dragicevic (Economics, Chulalongkorn University)
Assessing the Impact of Payments for Environmental Services on a Bioeconomic Supply Chain Equilibrium
This study explores the effectiveness of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) in addressing both climate change and biodiversity loss within the framework of bioeconomic supply chain management. Leveraging variational inequality methods within a multi-criteria decision-making framework, we substantiate our theoretical claims through numerical simulations executed via an optimized machine learning algorithm. Our findings indicate that reductions exceeding 50% in both greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss are achievable. While PES are integral to this success, they are insufficient on their own. A synergistic approach that combines a moderate decrease in production levels due to the economic decoupling effect, heightened environmental awareness among stakeholders, and targeted monetary incentives is essential to realize such substantial reductions. Thus, PES are necessary but not sufficient to achieve a meaningful reduction in ecological footprint. The adoption of sustainable practices and the improvement of resource efficiency are equally crucial.
- Mohamed Charhbili (Université Savoie Mont-Blanc)
Assessing the Impact of Telework Adoption on GHG Emissions: A Study Using a Job Search Model with a Spatial Mismatch
This paper analyzes the impact of telework adoption and carbon tax on carbon emissions. The reduction in transport costs due to the adoption of teleworking increases access to the labor market for unemployed workers living far from the central business district (CBD) and increase carbon emissions. Implementing a carbon tax tend to moderate these increases and induces a change in mobility technology. Thus, we propose a search model with a spatial mismatch to study the impact of teleworking on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through its effect on distance from the CBD and the transition to a decarbonized mobility technology of. Using French data, we show that telework has an antagonistic effect on GHG emissions. On one hand, we observe a direct positive effect through the reduction of individual home-work commutes and overall kilometers traveled. On the other hand, we observe two negatifs indirect effects of teleworking. The first negatif effect, is that telework enhances access to employment for workers residing far from the CBD. This results in an increase in the number of kilometers travelled. The second negatif effect is the impact of teleworking on electric vehicle (EV) adoption. It is observed that the adoption rate of EV decreases with the number of teleworking days and the share of firms teleworking, since the EV is characterized by higher fixed cost and lower variable cost. We also assess the potential of a carbon tax to mitigate GHG emissions, yet it must be high to be efficient in the case where telework is adopted by proposing strategies for public policy recommendations.
Key words: Teleworking, mobility, GHG emissions, carbon tax, electric vehicle, equilibrium job search model
