IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lsg/lsgwps/wp250.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Asset accounting, fiscal policy and the UK’s oil and gas resources, past and future

Author

Listed:
  • Giles Atkinson
  • Kirk Hamilton

Abstract

The UK has been an exception to the trend of channelling revenues arising from the depletion of subsoil assets into a resource fund. In this paper, we construct an asset account for the UK’s oil and gas resources to evaluate the cost of this exceptionalism and, looking forward, the implications of establishing a fund now. We show that had a decision been made to establish a resource fund in 1975, this fund could now be substantial in size (about GBP 280 billion in 2010). A significant contributor to this result is the historical efficiency of the UK fiscal regime in capturing oil and gas rents, as we demonstrate. A further benefit of the resource fund would have been a reduction in volatility of resource revenues flowing to the Treasury. An ex post cost-benefit analysis of the simulated fund suggests it could have been a sound public investment. However, our simulation of a future resource fund based on (possible) shale gas and oil revenues shows that it could reach a size similar to the 1975-2010 fund only under optimistic assumptions about prices, revenues and economic reserves.

Suggested Citation

  • Giles Atkinson & Kirk Hamilton, 2016. "Asset accounting, fiscal policy and the UK’s oil and gas resources, past and future," GRI Working Papers 250, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    • Handle: RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Working-Paper-250-Atkinson-and-Hamilton.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charles F. Mason & Lucija A. Muehlenbachs & Sheila M. Olmstead, 2015. "The Economics of Shale Gas Development," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 269-289, October.
    2. Kirk Hamilton & John Hartwick, 2014. "Wealth and sustainability," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(1), pages 170-187.
    3. John Hartwick, 1977. "Intergenerational Equity and the Investment of Rents from Exhaustible Resources in a Two Sector Model," Working Paper 281, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    4. Hartwick, John M, 1977. "Intergenerational Equity and the Investing of Rents from Exhaustible Resources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 972-974, December.
    5. Carl Obst & Michael Vardon, 2014. "Recording environmental assets in the national accounts," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(1), pages 126-144.
    6. Kirk Hamilton & Esther Naikal, 2014. "Comprehensive wealth accounting and sustainable development," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 2, pages 25-40, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Wang, Zhongmin & Krupnick, Alan, 2013. "A Retrospective Review of Shale Gas Development in the United States: What Led to the Boom?," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-12, Resources for the Future.
    8. Howard Rogers, 2011. "Shale gas--the unfolding story," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 27(1), pages 117-143, Spring.
    9. Gordon Hughes, 2014. "The energy sector in Scotland’s future," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(2), pages 374-391.
    10. Mr. Mauricio Villafuerte & Mr. Rolando Ossowski & Mr. Theo Thomas & Mr. Paulo A Medas, 2008. "Managing the Oil Revenue Boom: The Role of Fiscal Institutions," IMF Occasional Papers 2008/003, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Gordon L. Clark & Adam D. Dixon & Ashby H. B. Monk, 2013. "Sovereign Wealth Funds: Legitimacy, Governance, and Global Power," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 10003.
    12. Pearce, David W. & Atkinson, Giles D., 1993. "Capital theory and the measurement of sustainable development: an indicator of "weak" sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 103-108, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Atkinson, Giles & Hamilton, Kirk, 2020. "Sustaining wealth: simulating a sovereign wealth fund for the UK’s oil and gas resources, past and future," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103564, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Atkinson, Giles & Hamilton, Kirk, 2020. "Sustaining wealth: Simulating a sovereign wealth fund for the UK's oil and gas resources, past and future," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    3. Ben Groom & Zachary Turk, 2021. "Reflections on the Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 79(1), pages 1-23, May.
    4. van Krevel, Charan, 2021. "Does natural capital depletion hamper sustainable development? Panel data evidence," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Partha Sen, 2020. "Macroeconomics and the Environment: A Selective Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 8159, CESifo.
    6. van Krevel, Charan & Peters, Marlou, 2024. "How natural resource rents, exports, and government resource revenues determine Genuine Savings: Causal evidence from oil, gas, and coal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    7. Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, 1999. "Materials, Capital, Direct/Indirect Substitution, and Mass Balance Production Functions," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 75(4), pages 547-561.
    8. Toman, Michael & Pezzey, John C., 2002. "The Economics of Sustainability: A Review of Journal Articles," RFF Working Paper Series dp-02-03, Resources for the Future.
    9. Purnamita Dasgupta, 2008. "Measuring Sustainability with Macroeconomic Data for India," Working Papers id:1574, eSocialSciences.
    10. Rubio, M. del Mar, 2004. "The capital gains from trade are not enough: evidence from the environmental accounts of Venezuela and Mexico," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 1175-1191, November.
    11. Koji Tokimatsu & Louis Dupuy & Nick Hanley, 2019. "Using Genuine Savings for Climate Policy Evaluation with an Integrated Assessment Model," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(1), pages 281-307, January.
    12. Eugenio Figueroa B. & Enrique Calfucura T., 2002. "Depreciación del Capital Natural, Ingreso y Crecimiento Sostenible: Lecciones de la Experiencia Chilena," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 138, Central Bank of Chile.
    13. Matthias Blum & Eoin McLaughlin & Nick Hanley, 2019. "Accounting for Sustainable Development over the Long‐Run: Lessons from Germany," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 410-446, November.
    14. Vincent, Jeffrey R. & Panayotou, Theodore & Hartwick, John M., 1997. "Resource Depletion and Sustainability in Small Open Economies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 274-286, July.
    15. Yu, Yun & Lei, Yalin, 2017. "China's provincial exhaustible resources rent and produced capital stock—Based on Hartwick's rule," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 114-121.
    16. Figge, Frank & Hahn, Tobias, 2004. "Sustainable Value Added--measuring corporate contributions to sustainability beyond eco-efficiency," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 173-187, February.
    17. Nick Hanley & Louis Dupuy & Eoin McLaughlin, 2015. "Genuine Savings And Sustainability," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 779-806, September.
    18. Rabah Arezki & Mustapha K. Nabli, 2012. "Natural Resources, Volatility, and Inclusive Growth: Perspectives from the Middle East and North Africa," OxCarre Working Papers 086, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    19. Linda Kleemann & Awudu Abdulai, 2013. "The Impact Of Trade And Economic Growth On The Environment: Revisiting The Cross‐Country Evidence," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 180-205, March.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp250. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The GRI Administration (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/grlseuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.