Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Resource Use Under Climate Stabilization: Can Nuclear Power Provide Clean Energy?, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Bertrand Magne, Michel Moreaux
Resource Use Under Climate Stabilization: Can Nuclear Power Provide Clean Energy?, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Bertrand Magne, Michel Moreaux
Ujjayant Chakravorty
The long-term goal of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the stabilization of carbon concentration in the atmosphere. In this paper, we impose a carbon target concentration on a partial equilibrium model of the global energy sector. Specifically, we ask whether nuclear power can provide carbon-free energy as fossil fuel resources become costly due to scarcity and externality costs. We find that nuclear power can reduce the cost of generating clean energy significantly and relatively quickly. However, beyond a few decades the role of nuclear power may be considerably reduced as uranium becomes scarce and renewables become economical. …
Cycles In Nonrenewable Resource Prices With Pollution And Learning-By-Doing, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Andrew Leach, Michel Moreaux
Cycles In Nonrenewable Resource Prices With Pollution And Learning-By-Doing, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Andrew Leach, Michel Moreaux
Ujjayant Chakravorty
We study how environmental regulation in the form of a cap on aggregate emissions from a fossil fuel (e.g., coal) interacts with the arrival of a clean substitute (e.g., solar energy). The cost of the substitute is assumed to decrease with cumulative use because of learning-by-doing. We show that optimal energy prices may initially increase because of pollution regulation, but fall due to learning, and rise again because of scarcity of the resource, finally falling after transition to the clean substitute. Thus nonrenewable resource prices may exhibit cyclical behavior even in a purely deterministic setting.
Would Hotelling Kill The Electric Car?, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Andrew Leach, Michel Moreaux
Would Hotelling Kill The Electric Car?, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Andrew Leach, Michel Moreaux
Ujjayant Chakravorty
In this paper, we show that the potential for endogenous technological change in alternative energy sources may alter the behavior of resource-owning firms. When technological progress in an alternative energy source can occur through learning-by-doing, resource owners face competing incentives to extract rents from the resource and to prevent expansion of the new technology. We show that in such a context, it is not necessarily the case that scarcity-driven higher traditional energy prices over time will induce alternative energy supply as resources are exhausted. Rather, we show that as we increase the learning potential in the substitute technology, lower equilibrium …