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Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Environmental Crises: Past, Present Ad Future, M. Scott Taylor
Environmental Crises: Past, Present Ad Future, M. Scott Taylor
M. Scott Taylor
Environmental crises are distinguished by rapid and largely unexpected changes in environmental quality that are difficult if not impossible to reverse. Examples would be major extinctions and signi…cant degradations of an ecosystem. I argue there are three preconditions for crisis: failures in governance, an ecological system exhibiting a tipping point, and an economy/environment interaction with positive feedbacks. I develop a simple model to illustrate how a crisis may arise, and draw on our knowledge of past and present crises to highlight the mechanisms involved. I then speculate as to whether climate change is indeed a crisis in the making.
The Green Solow Model, M. Scott Taylor, William A. Brock
The Green Solow Model, M. Scott Taylor, William A. Brock
M. Scott Taylor
We demonstrate that a key empirical finding in environmental economics - The Environmental Kuznets Curve - and the core model of modern macroeconomics - the Solow model - are intimately related. Once we amend the Solow model to incorporate technological progress in abatement, the EKC is a necessary by product of convergence to a sustainable growth path. Our amended model, which we dub the "Green Solow", generates an EKC relationship between both the flow of pollution emissions and income per capita, and the stock of environmental quality and income per capita. The resulting EKC may be humped shaped or strictly …
'Once-Off' And Continuing Gains From Trade, M. Scott Taylor
'Once-Off' And Continuing Gains From Trade, M. Scott Taylor
M. Scott Taylor
Most Economists are familiar with the static or once-off welfare gains created by opening an economy to trade. Much less is known about how the resource reallocations necessitated by this move affect long-run growth, and hence whether they provide dynamic or continuing welfare gains in future periods. This paper employs a dynamic Ricardian trade model to provide a decomposition of the gains from trade into "once-off" and continuing categories. In one version of the model, trade is always welfare enhancing; in the other, "once-off" losses may occur alongside dynamic gains. In both versions the magnitude of the once-off and continuing …
'Quality Ladders' And Ricardian Trade, M. Scott Taylor
'Quality Ladders' And Ricardian Trade, M. Scott Taylor
M. Scott Taylor
A Model of endogenous growth and trade is developed that extends the continuum Ricardian model of Dornbusch et al. (1977) to a dynamic framework, generalizes the 'Quality ladders' approach of Grossman and Helpman (1991a,b), and complements the work of Krugman (1987) on dynamic Ricardian economies. In contrast to earlier work the model incorporates heterogeneity across industries in research and production technologies, and in the technological opportunity for innovation. The importance of heterogeneity is demonstrated through a comparative steady-state analysis. Several applications for the model are discussed and many others appear possible given its relatively simple structure.