Seminars at the Department of Economics

23 Mars 13:00-14:00  Zoom

Shon Ferguson (SLU)

“Import Demand Elasticities Based on Quantity Data: Theory and Evidence” (with Aaron Smith)

Abstract

Correct estimates of import demand elasticities are essential for measuring the gains from trade and predicting the impact of trade policies. We show that estimates of import demand elasticities hinge critically on whether they are derived using trade quantities or trade values, and this difference is due to properties of the esti­mators. Using partial identification methods, we show theoretical­ly that the upper bound on the set of plausible estimates is lower when using traded quantities, compared to the standard approach using trade values. Our theoretical predictions are confirmed us­ing detailed product-level data on U.S. imports for the years 1993-2006. Our proposed method using traded quantities leads to smaller point estimates of the import demand elasticities for many goods and imply larger gains from trade compared to estimates based on trade values.

7 April 13:00-14:00  Zoom

Marie Lassalas (Agrocampus Ouest) 

"Environmental certification, yield and product quality: an application to French wheat production"

Environmental certification can be viewed as a complementary instru-ment to traditional agri-environmental policies to reduce environmental impacts of farming systems. However, these changes in agricultural prac-tices that are required when adopting an environmental certification might lead to an increase in financial risks and a decrease in perfor-mance. These perceived risks can thus prevent producers to adopt envi-ronmentally friendly practices. It is therefore crucial to quantify the level of performance change upon adoption of environmental certification. This article contributes to this issue, and aims at estimating the effects of environmental certification adoption on yield and product quality, two criteria that have an impact on farm revenue, through an empirical appli-cation on wheat production in France. The environmental certification considered here is defined at the plot level, and implies binding require-ments on pesticides use and the plot distance to main roads. We use an endogenous switching regression by full information maximum likeli-hood to control for potential endogeneity of the adoption of the environ-mental certification. The results show that there exists a significant selec-tion bias on the adoption of the environmental certification on plots when the outcome considered is wheat quality, but not when it is yield. In addi-tion, we find that the adoption of the environmental certification has a positive effect on both wheat yield and quality.
(with Sabine Duvaleix and Laure Latruffe)

14 April 16:00-17:00  Zoom

Stephie Fried (Arizona State University) 

“Understanding Climate Damages: Consumption versus Investment ” (with Gregory Casey and Matthew Gibson )

We study the impact of climate change on the US economy, focus­ing on the relative productivity of the investment and consump­tion sectors. A long macroeconomic literature demonstrates that improvements in investment-specific productivity are a major driver of economic growth in the US and other developed econo­mies. The investment sector is also highly vulnerable to climate change, in part due to the construction sub-sector. We develop a multi-sector model of structural change to study the effects of cli­mate change on investment-productivity and the associated wel­fare implications. We find that accounting for investment-specific climate damages substantially increases the welfare cost of climate change.

21 April 13:00-14:00  

28 April 13:00-14:00  

5 Maj 13:00-14:00  

12 Maj 13:00-14:00  

19 Maj13:00-14:00  

26 Maj 13:00-14:00  

2 Juni 13:00-14:00  

9 Juni 13:00-14:00