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The role of research in common pool problems

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  • Kuusela, Olli-Pekka
  • Laiho, Tuomas

Abstract

Significant amounts of public spending are allocated towards research on climate change, but considerable uncertainties remain. We analyze the strategic role of information acquisition and the determinants of investments in information in a common pool game. In the first stage, countries can acquire a signal about their own environmental damages caused by total emissions. Because signals are public, there are information spillovers between countries. In the second stage, the countries decide how much pollution to emit. We show that there can be an inefficiently high amount of investments in information in the non-cooperative equilibrium compared to the cooperative solution if the countries are risk averse and the expected emissions are sufficiently large. In addition, we analyze what happens if the countries cooperate in one of the stages but not in the other. We show numerically that if the emissions are decided non-cooperatively, countries might agree not to acquire any information at all. But if the emissions levels are decided cooperatively, investments in the non-cooperative equilibrium are always too low.

Suggested Citation

  • Kuusela, Olli-Pekka & Laiho, Tuomas, 2020. "The role of research in common pool problems," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:100:y:2020:i:c:s0095069619300579
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2019.102287
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Morath, Florian, 2010. "Strategic information acquisition and the mitigation of global warming," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 206-217, March.
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    7. Gollier, Christian & Jullien, Bruno & Treich, Nicolas, 2000. "Scientific progress and irreversibility: an economic interpretation of the 'Precautionary Principle'," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 229-253, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anwesha Banerjee & Stefano Barbieri & Kai A. Konrad, 2022. "Climate Policy, Irreversibilities and Global Economic Shocks," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2022-11, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information acquisition; Common pool; Bayesian learning; Climate change; Investments in research;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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