KCG Journal Articles

Low-carbon Power Technologies and the Stability of International Climate Cooperation

7th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Vicki Duscha, Jan Kersting, Sonja Peterson, Joachim Schleich, Matthias Weitzel (Climate Change Economics, 2021,12(4): 2150013)

This paper explores the effects of the technological development of key low-carbon power technologies (photovoltaic (PV), wind, and carbon capture and storage (CCS)) on the stability of global climate cooperation under several assumptions about climate-related damage[...]

Climate policies after Paris: Pledge, Trade and Recycle: Insights from the 36th Energy Modeling Forum Study (EMF36)

7th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Christoph Böhringer, Sonja Peterson, Thomas F. Rutherford, Jan Schneider, Malte Winkler (Energy Economics, 2021, 103: 105471)

This article summarizes insights from the 36th Energy Modeling Forum study (EMF36) on the magnitude and distribution of economic adjustment costs of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have committed to emission reduction targets – so-called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – in order to combat global warming[...]

The Blue Carbon Wealth of Nations

7th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Christine Bertram, Martin Quaas, Thorsten B. H. Reusch, Athanasios T. Vafeidis, Claudia Wolff, Wilfried Rickels (Nature Climate Change, 2021, 11: 704–709)

Carbon sequestration and storage in mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows is an essential coastal ‘blue carbon’ ecosystem service for climate change mitigation. Here we offer a comprehensive, global and spatially explicit economic assessment of carbon sequestration and storage in three coastal ecosystem types at the global and national levels[...]

Social Science Research to Inform Solar Geoengineering

7th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Joseph E. Aldy, Tyler Felgenhauer, William A. Pizer, Massimo Tavoni, Mariia Belaia, Mark E. Borsuk, Arunabha Ghosh, Garth Heutel, Daniel Heyen, Joshua Horton, David Keith, Christine Merk, Juan Moreno-Cruz, Jesse L. Reynolds, Katharine Ricke, Wilfried Rickels, Soheil Shayegh, Wake Smith, Simone Tilmes, Gernot Wagner, Jonathan B. Wiener (Science, 2021, 374(6569): 815–818)

As the prospect of average global warming exceeding 1.5°C becomes increasingly likely, interest in supplementing mitigation and adaptation with solar geoengineering (SG) responses will almost certainly rise. For example stratospheric aerosol injection to cool the planet could offset some of the warming for a given accumulation of atmospheric greenhouse gases (1)[...]

Does the Belt and Road Initiative stimulate Chinese Exports? Evidence from Micro Data

25th February 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Holger Görg, Haiou Mao (The World Economy, forthcoming)

This paper evaluates firms’ exporting responses to BRI and considers their heterogeneity in ownership types, product types, regional origin and trade mode. This is done by analyzing firm-product-destination level customs data from 2008 to 2016. Our empirical results show that aggregate export behavior increased significantly after BRI[...]

China’s Investments in Germany and the Role of COVID-19 Pandemic

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Xinming Xia, Wan-Hsin Liu (Intereconomics, 2021, 56(2): 113–119)

This paper analyses how China’s investments in Germany have developed over time and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in this regard, based on four different datasets, including our own survey in mid-2020. Our analysis shows that Germany is currently one of the most attractive investment destinations for Chinese investors.

The trade effects of antidumping duties: Evidence from the 2004 EU enlargement

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Author: Alexander Sandkamp (Journal of International Economics, 2020, Vol. 123, Article: 103307)

This paper exploits the 2004 EU enlargement as a natural experiment to estimate the effects of antidumping (AD) duties on import prices and quantities. The automatic extension of EU AD policy to new member states following their accession is exogenous to new members' trade shocks. Using this source of variation, the paper shows that, on average, AD duties raise producer prices of targeted exporters[...]

The Social Cost of Contacts: Theory and Evidence for the first wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Martin F. Quaas, Jasper N. Meya, Hanna Schenk, Björn Bos, Moritz A. Drupp, Till Requate (PLoS ONE, 2021, 16(3): e0248288)

Building on the epidemiological SIR model, we present an economic model with heterogeneous individuals deriving utility from social contacts creating infection risks. Focusing on social distancing of individuals susceptible to an infection we theoretically characterize the gap between private and social cost of contacts[...]

Short-windedness Would Weaken Effective Climate Policy

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Wilfried Rickels, Sonja Peterson (Environmental and Resource Economics, 2020, 76: 447–517)

Committing to rigid shutdown measures to contain the spreading of the corona virus has been undertaken on the tacit assumption that these measures will be temporary and can be loosened when the COVID-19 infection rates decrease and discontinued altogether once vaccines are available. Mitigating climate change and achieving ambitious temperature targets as set out in the Paris Agreement require a long-term structural change taking us away from our current carbon-intensive economy to a zero-carbon and then net-negative carbon economy[...]

(Mis)conceptions about Modelling Negative Emission Technologies

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Wilfried Rickels, Christine Merk, Fabian Reith, David P. Keller, Andreas Oschlies (Environmental Research Letters, 2019, 14(10), Article: 104004)

Intentionally removing carbon from the atmosphere with negative emission technologies (NETs) will be important to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century and to limit global warming to 2 °C or even 1.5 °C (IPCC 2018). Model scenarios that consider NETs as part of mitigation pathways are still largely restricted to afforestation and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), while the '[f]easibility and sustainability of [NETs] use could be enhanced by a portfolio of options deployed at substantial, but lesser scales, rather than a single option at very large scale' (IPCC 2018, p 19)[...]