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This paper reviews the impact of the literature in depletable resources and energy economics over the period 1973-98, particularly the period of publication of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 1974-98. A discussion of prominent policy issues in this arena is provided, along with an indication of what academic economics papers have contributed to that debate. This is followed by a citation analysis of contributions in the fields of energy and exhaustible resource economics. For each of these two fields, a list of the top papers in each five year period from 1974 to 1998 is presented, along with a list of the top journals in each decade, based on average citations per article. The top ten cited articles in the fields in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management are also presented.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2006.08.001 Byline: Charles D. Kolstad (a)(b) Keywords: Climate change; International environmental agreements; Voluntary provision of public goods; Treaties; Uncertainty; Learning Abstract: This paper addresses the subject of self-enforcing international environmental agreements (IEAs). The standard model of IEAs is adapted to include uncertainty in environmental costs and benefits, as well as learning about these costs and benefits. The paper investigates the extent to which the size of the coalition changes as a result of learning and systematic uncertainty (also known as model uncertainty). Results are that systematic uncertainty by itself decreases the size of an IEA. Learning has the further effect of either increasing or decreasing the size of an IEA, depending on parameters of the problem. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Economics and Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA (b) University Fellow, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, USA Article History: Received 15 September 2005 Article Note: (footnote) [star] This paper has benefited from comment from two anonymous referees, Brian Copeland, Ita Falk, Michael Finus, Don Fullerton, Andy King, Eric Orts, Rohini Somanathan, Eswaran Somanathan, Samudra Vijay, David Zilberman and from seminar participants at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, North Carolina State University, Yale University, the Delhi School of Economics, the Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta), the Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi), the Madras School of Economics, and the Universities of Central Florida, Connecticut, Wyoming, and Leuven (Belgium). I am particularly grateful to Alistair Ulph of the University of Manchester for many discussions early on and throughout the development of this paper. In fact, the model presented her is derived from a model in Ulph and that intellectual debt should be recognized. Furthermore, Prof. Ulph perceptively pointed out a flaw in a result which no longer appears in this paper.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2005.02.003 Byline: David L. Kelly (a), Charles D. Kolstad (b)(c), Glenn T. Mitchell (d) Abstract: The paper is concerned with the case whereby the distribution of a firm's productivity shocks changes without the knowledge of the firm. Over time the firm learns about the nature and extent of the change in the distribution of the shock and adjusts, incurring adjustment costs in the process. The long-run loss in profits ([+ or -]) due to the shift in the distribution we term the equilibrium response. The transitory loss in profits, incurred while the firm is learning about the distribution shift, is termed the adjustment cost. The theory is then applied to the problem of measuring adjustment costs in the face of imperfectly observed climate change in agriculture. The empirical part of the paper involves estimating a restricted profit function for agricultural land in a five-state region of the Midwest US as a function of prices, land characteristics, actual weather realizations and expected weather. We then simulate the effect of an unobserved climate shock, where learning about the climate shock is by observing the weather and updating prior knowledge using Bayes Rule. We find adjustment costs to climate change are 1.4% of annual land rents. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Economics, University of Miami, P.O. Box 248126, Coral Gables, FL 33134, USA (b) Department of Economics, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA (c) University Fellow, Resources for the Future, Washington DC, USA (d) LECG, Los Angeles, CA 90071, USA Article History: Received 5 June 2003

The controversy on whether the nature of greenhouse gas emissions and sunk control costs affect the decision-making process on the control of greenhouse gases is examined in a stochastic growth model. Factors considered in the model include the net present value of utility, consumption identity, production function, damage from climate change and sunk nature of abatement. It is concluded that there was no significant relationship between greenhouse gas accumulation and the stock effect and that there is a small stock effect related to sunk control capital.

Hotelling's model for resource rents of exhaustible resources becomes modified to explain the market's characteristics when two resources are present. Rents are dependent on costs, demand and stock of the both the resource and its resource which is not its perfect substitute. Monopolies do not contribute to the conservation of the substitute goods even if the main resource is conserved. Also, different grades of a resource are produced or used at the same time.

This paper examines the empirical validity of a model of homogenous input demand under price uncertainty in which firms trade off expected input cost against its variability (risk) in selecting the optimal input supplier mix. Using recent work in time-series econometrics, this model is applied to the Japanese steam-coal import market, where five suppliers compete: China, the Soviet Union, South Africa, the United States, and Australia. (JEL L10, L72)

Olsen Bjerkholt and Vislie Bjerkholt, Recent Modelling Approaches in Applied Energy Economics (New York, NY: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1990), 268 pages. It is refreshing to see an edited volume [...]

Research is presented concerning the influence of the decreasing rate of growth of global productivity and population on integrated assessment models of climate change. The abatement of greenhouse gases is discussed.

Issues concerning the effectiveness of papers published between 1973 and 1998 in the 'Journal of Environmental Economics and Management' on the subject of energy and depletable resources are presented.

The application of a spatial, stochastic model of emission regulation design to the southwestern 'Four Corners' states (Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico) examines the efficacy of command-and-control regulations versus economic incentives in minimizing air pollution. Moreover, the regional case study of air pollution regulations and alternatives addresses the issues of: (1) price controls versus quantity controls, within the area of economic incentives; and (2) the spatial resolution of economic incentives. The objective of this analysis is not to encourage air pollution regulation reform, but to provide insight as to air pollution regulatory alternatives. Efficiencies of various forms of pollution control regulation are appraised according to types of environmental damage ('linear damage,' 'kinked damage,' 'superlinear damage,' and 'slightly superlinear damage').

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A theoretical bidding model with costly information acquisition was created to explain the divergence between willingness to accept compensation to give up a good and willingness to pay to obtain a good. Compared with the two commonly invoked theoretical explanations, namely the endowment effect and the substitution effect, the theoretical bidding model developed performs better in explaining empirical and experimental data. The model shows that the divergence between the two increases when the information acquisition cost is greater.

Research exploring the possibilities of reaching a balance between irreversibility effects and risk aversions in the process of managing pollution control investments is presented. Particular attention is given to stock externalities.

Using county-level data from the United States Department of Agriculture's Census of Agriculture, this study evaluates the effect of weather and climate on agricultural profits in the State of California. The approach is to estimate revenue less variable production cost per acre as a function of land characteristics, weather realizations, and climate. This model is then used to evaluate the effect of two scenarios of climate change for the state of California over the coming century. The preferred estimates indicate that climate change is associated with a negative effect on aggregate agricultural profits by the end of the century. There are significant caveats to this result, including the lack of statistical precision, and keeping water supply and farm prices constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the problem of properly specifying the dynamic structure of models of industry costs and factor demands. The paper compares three common frame- works long-run costs with all factors assumed in equilibrium (Full Static Equilibrium), short-run costs with variable factors in short-run equilibrium (Partial Static Equilibrium) followed by computation of long-run costs, and short-run costs including internal capital adjustment costs (Partial Dynamic Equilibrium) The approach of the paper is to estimate a capital- labor-fuel-electricity model for six OECD countries (G7 less Italy) for the 1960-1989 period Using the three different "dynamic" specifications, we obtain substantially different results in terms of factor demand, cross-price effects and technical change The implication is that proper dynamic specification is critical The Partial Dynamic Equilibrium model appears to behave most consistently across the cross-section

The article discusses various articles discussed within the issue including one by Richard Carson on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), another by Jos Delbeke and co-authors on the use of economics in the crafting of environmental policy at the European Commission and one by Sheila Olmstead on the economics of water quality.

In this article the authors present an economic perspective on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing power plants to 30% lower than levels in 2005 by 2030. They discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the EPA's proposal on topic including issues related to plan's ratio-based standard, a mass-based approach, across-state flexibility, and across-state coordination.