Dissertation
ESSAYS ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111803
Abstract
This dissertation is a collection of three chapters related by their common themes of energy and environmental economics. The first part of the dissertation investigates how the production of renewable energy by non-OPEC producers may affect OPEC’s strategic behavior. We focus on two of OPEC’s strategies: (i) set low oil prices (squeeze) or (ii) allow high-cost competitors to remain in the market (accommodate). The results indicate that when efficient non-OPEC producers are price takers the squeeze strategy becomes more attractive for OPEC, especially when they are inefficient in producing renewables and consumers perceive both goods as homogeneous products. However, if non-OPEC producers can influence price and are also efficient in producing renewable energy, a price war becomes more likely. The second part applies difference-in-difference method to investigate the effectiveness of a stricter vehicle emission standard known as “Advanced Clean Cars” program adopted by California Air Resource Board in 2012 to control smog-causing pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. We observe that carbon emissions have decreased by 4 percent in 2012 and 13 percent in 2015 in California due to the adoption of a more stringent policy. On the other hand, ozone emissions have increased by 3 percent in California compared to Texas. This study shows that policy response is effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions but ozone being smog forming component behave differently since low nitrogen oxide (another greenhouse gas) lead to higher ozone emission through reduced titration (chemical process). The third part of the dissertation is intended to unfold results of the effectiveness of the “Keep Oregon Moving Act” introduced in 2017.Regression Discontinuity method with time is applied to estimate the effects. Our results indicate 11 percent reduction in traffic and 75 percent reduction in PM2.5 emissions due to the implementation of the “Keep Oregon Moving Act”.
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Details
- Title
- ESSAYS ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS
- Creators
- Anika L Islam
- Contributors
- Ana Espinola-Arredondo (Advisor)Felix Munoz-Garcia (Committee Member)Eric Jessup (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Economic Sciences, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 130
- Identifiers
- 99900581409701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation