We apply standardized numerical techniques of stochastic optimization (Judd [1998]) to the climate change issue. The model captures the feature that the effects of uncertainty are different with different levels of agent's risk aversion. A major finding is that the effects of stochasticity...

Degradation of ecosystem services may be a major component of climate change damage, and incorporation of this factor could significantly alter the significance of uncertainty in climate-economy modeling. However, this aspect has been little investigated by economic analyses of climate change...

We investigate the socially optimal anthropogenic intervention into the global carbon cycle. The limiting factor for this intervention is the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere, which causes global warming. We apply a simplified two-box model to incorporate aspects of the global carbon...

We study the North-South diffusion of technologies embodied in internationally mobile capital in a framework of intertemporal global welfare maximization. Convergence of the growth rates of technical change in the North and South always occurs in the long-run. However, the degree to which the...

In the past years biofuels have received increased attention since they were believed to contribute to rural development, energy security and to fight global warming. It became also clear, though, that bioenergy cannot be evaluated independently of the rest of the economy and that national and...

In the presence of rising carbon concentrations more attention should be given to the role of the oceans as a sink for atmospheric carbon. We do so by setting up a simple dynamic global carbon cycle model with two reservoirs containing atmosphere and two ocean layers. The net flux between these...

We use a large household panel for Japan (Keio Household Panel Survey) to estimate household-size economies in energy consumption. The household-size economies we obtain are significant and sizable: the per-capita energy-related spending of a two-adult household is only about two-thirds of the...

Following a major earthquake off the Pacific coast of Japan, a tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three reactors in Fukushima, causing a major nuclear accident on 11 March 2011. Based on a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences approach we use panel data for 5,979 individuals...

Being of crucial importance for agricultural production and also having experienced significant price volatility, phosphate and its future availability have drawn growing at-tention from both academics and the public over the last years. This paper overviews the recent literature and data on the...

As growing attention is paid to climate change adaptation as an actual policy issue, the significant meaning of climate variability in adaptation decisions is beginning to be recognized. By using a real option framework, we shed light on how climate change and climate variability affect...