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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Water Allocation Under Distribution Losses: Comparing Alternative Institutions, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Eithan Hochman, Chieko Umetsu, David Zilberman
Water Allocation Under Distribution Losses: Comparing Alternative Institutions, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Eithan Hochman, Chieko Umetsu, David Zilberman
Ujjayant Chakravorty
The distribution of water resources is characterized by increasing returns to scale. Distribution links water generation to its end-use. Standard economic analysis overlooks the interaction among these micro-markets - generation, distribution and end-use. We compare water allocation when there is market power in each micro-market. These outcomes are compared with benchmark cases - social planning and a competitive business-as-usual regime. Simulations suggest that institutions with market power in generation and end-use generate significantly higher welfare than the distribution monopoly and the competitive regime. However, if the policy goal is to maximize the size of the grid, a distribution monopoly is …
Fuel Versus Food, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Marie-Helene Hubert, Linda Nostbakken
Fuel Versus Food, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Marie-Helene Hubert, Linda Nostbakken
Ujjayant Chakravorty
Many countries have actively encouraged the production of biofuels as a low-carbon alternative to the use of fossil fuels in transportation. To what extent do these trends imply a reallocation of scarce land away from food to fuel production? This paper critically reviews the small but growing literature in this area. We find that an increase in biofuel production may have a significant effect on food prices and, in certain parts of the world, in speeding up deforestation through land conversion. However, more research needs to be done to examine the effect of newer generation biofuel technologies that are less …