WP 2024.04 Urban Foodprint and Mititgation Strategies: A Theoretical Analysis
Anne Fournier
Abstract
Feeding the expanding global population while reducing the environmental impact of farming and food supply is among the main challenges of the century. Cities, which host the large majority of the past decade demographic growth, are at the forefront. They are increasingly considering the relevance of developing policies to explicitly support less-intensive production and/or rebuild their foodshed so as to reduce their reliance on long-distance food transport. In this paper, we develop a spatial theoretical model to describe and discuss both economic and environmental implications of farming practices change and relocation strategies. We highlight that, compared to the market outcome, promoting less-intensive and local farming may improve the welfare provided that the marginal opportunity cost of urban land remains low enough. However, we also show that the conversion from conventional to alternative farming does not necessarily reduce GHG emissions and may, as a consequence, offset the positive effect on welfare. We finally conduct numerical simulations so as to illustrate the ambiguous impacts of food relocation.
WP 2024.03 Managing Municipal Solid Waste with low citizen involvement: the case of Hong Kongteurs ?
Julie Metta – Coline Metta-Versmessen – Valeria Alvarado
Abstract
While the waste sector has significant decarbonization potential, deploying this potential is difficult in the absence of citizen participation and involvement. In this paper the political management of the waste sector is studied for the case of Hong Kong. Using Weitzman’s theorem and extensions, both marginal abatement and damage curves are built to analyse which policy would be the most suitable. From our analysis, we first show that involving citizens in waste reduction and sorting is the main issue for waste management in Hong Kong. Second, we derive that the first best scenario to regulate waste in this context would be through a quantity-based control system. We then detail how this Waste Permit Trading System should be developed to regulate the waste amount in this region. We characterize a system consisting of both landfill permits and recycling credits. We determine the optimal number of permits and credits for the different agents as well as a potential market design that allows for a future linking with the Chinese National Emission Trading System.
WP 2024.02 Tax-subsidy schemes for recycling when quantity and quality of waste matter
Karima Afif – Bocar Samba BA – Eugénie Joltreau
Abstract
This paper seeks to theoretically understand the impact of a tax-subsidy system (as implemented in Extended Producer Responsibility) on packaging source reduction, waste generation, and recycling in the presence of economies of scale and quality concerns in the recycling industry. We use a static equilibrium and a non-homothetic technology function to study asymmetric substitution between the virgin and the recycled material. The model displays a trade-off between recycled content and material productivity, and between waste generation and the recycling industry’s profitability. A tax-subsidy scheme in the form of an excise charge and a dual subsidy restores the social optimum, providing that the recycler reaches a positive profit. We find that the excise tax favors virgin material and packaging refinement, all else equal. At the same time, it decreases the use of recycled material, sales, and total waste generation. The subsidy granted to the producer has the opposite effect. The subsidy granted to the recycler increases its profit and the recycling rate.
WP 2024.01 Local label and sustainable labels: a source of consumer confusion? An applied study on the sud region
Charles Bee-Leroux – Dorothée Brécard – Frédéric Aprahamian
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of introducing a local label on consumers’ preferences for sustainable labels. The recent literature shows the interest of firms and consumers for labeling schemes. This success is a proof of the increasing sensitivity of consumers to the sustainable market. The other side of the coin is the proliferation of labels which generates confusion in consumers’ choices and leads to mistrust, reducing the visibility of the quality that labels have to guarantee. Labeling has to be like a milestone that guide consumers’ in their choices, but the multiplication of labels erases this role. Nevertheless, labeling remains one of the main policy tools for sustainable development, especially in the agri-food sector, so it is necessary to remain cautious with new labeling project. Using data from a survey of more than 900 seafood consumers in the Region Sud, we analyze their preferences between a local label, a health label, an eco-label, and a fair-trade label, using a ranking method. The aim is to understand how the new regional seafood certificate created by the Region Sud might exacerbate consumers’ difficulties in correctly distinguishing between the different labels. Using a rank-ordered model, we show that the “health” label, which remains the preferred label for a large proportion of consumers, is clearly distinguishable from the other three labels. On the other hand, the presence of a local label creates some confusion among consumers with respect to the eco-label and the fair trade label, which it tends to replace. We conclude that the introduction of this new label promoting regional fishing will create more confusion.
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