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The Role of Economic Policy in Climate Change Adaptation

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  • Kai A. Konrad
  • Marcel Thum

Abstract

This paper assesses the role of the public sector in adaptation to climate change. We first offer a definition and categorisation of climate change adaptation. We then consider the primary economic principles that can guide the assignment of adaptation tasks to either the private or the public sector, as well as those guiding assignment within the public sector itself. We find that the role of the state in adaptation policy is limited. We identify information policy, the provision of a suitable regulatory framework in some markets, the formation of human capital and policies that foster economic growth and technological and medical knowledge as the main areas in which the public sector has a role in climate change adaptation.

Suggested Citation

  • Kai A. Konrad & Marcel Thum, 2012. "The Role of Economic Policy in Climate Change Adaptation," CESifo Working Paper Series 3959, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3959
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    3. Zemel, Amos, 2015. "Adaptation, mitigation and risk: An analytic approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 133-147.
    4. Chloe H. Lucas & Kate I. Booth, 2020. "Privatizing climate adaptation: How insurance weakens solidaristic and collective disaster recovery," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(6), November.
    5. Kahn, Matthew E. & Kok, Nils & Quigley, John M., 2014. "Carbon emissions from the commercial building sector: The role of climate, quality, and incentives," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-12.
    6. Müller-Fürstenberger, Georg & Schumacher, Ingmar, 2015. "Insurance and climate-driven extreme events," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 59-73.
    7. Väinö Nurmi & Karoliina Pilli-Sihvola & Hilppa Gregow & Adriaan Perrels, 2019. "Overadaptation to Climate Change? The Case of the 2013 Finnish Electricity Market Act," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 161-190, July.
    8. Oberlack, Christoph & Neumärker, Bernhard, 2013. "A diagnostic approach to the institutional analysis of climate adaptation," The Constitutional Economics Network Working Papers 01-2013, University of Freiburg, Department of Economic Policy and Constitutional Economic Theory.
    9. Mark C. Freeman & Ben Groom & Richard Zeckhauser, 2015. "Better Predictions, Better Allocations: Scientific Advances and Adaptation to Climate Change," NBER Working Papers 21463, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Bongole, Abiud J., 2022. "Welfare Effects of Farming Household' Usage of Combination of Climate Smart Agriculture Practises in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 10(2), March.
    11. Johannes Klein & Sirkku Juhola & Mia Landauer, 2017. "Local authorities and the engagement of private actors in climate change adaptation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(6), pages 1055-1074, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; adaptation; Schelling conjecture; subsidiarity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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