IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dnb/dnbwpp/719.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What’s the damage? Monetizing the environmental externalities of the Dutch economy and its supply chain

Author

Listed:
  • Bas Smeets
  • Guan Schellekens
  • Thomas Bauwens
  • Harry Wilting

Abstract

The environmental externalities of economic activities, such as anthropogenic climate change and pollution, have major social, environmental and economic consequences. Monetary valuation of these externalities is a widely acclaimed approach to better account for them in economic decisions, as it provides an appropriate price level for charging a Pigouvian tax. Yet, little research exists on the monetary valuation of the environmental externalities associated with Dutch economic activities and the impact of pricing them on the profitability of different sectors. To address this gap, this paper estimates the monetary value of 30 environmental externalities associated with the activities of 13 sectors and 163 subsectors for the year 2015, based on a global environmentally extended input-output model. It then compares these environmental costs with the financial performance of the sectors to provide an appraisal of potential profit at risk. The findings show that total environmental damage costs associated with the Dutch economy amount to EUR 50 Bn or 7.3% of Dutch GDP in 2015. They also demonstrate that some sectors (energy production, waste and sewage treatment, manufacturing, transport and agriculture) do not generate sufficient profit to cover their natural resource use and pollution costs. These sectors are particularly exposed to the transition risks associated with the internalization of these costs through, for instance, taxation or stricter regulation. It is especially important for financial institutions to be aware of the presence of these risks. The analysis within this research could help to introduce and improve standards and systems, including relevant regulations aimed at internalizing the external costs of production, extraction and consumption. Moreover, these tools can also support financial institutions to inform their heat mapping exercises, the assessment of materiality and/or measurement of environmental transition risks more broadly.

Suggested Citation

  • Bas Smeets & Guan Schellekens & Thomas Bauwens & Harry Wilting, 2021. "What’s the damage? Monetizing the environmental externalities of the Dutch economy and its supply chain," Working Papers 719, DNB.
    • Handle: RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:719
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.dnb.nl/media/50rj2svt/working_paper_no-_719.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian W.H. Parry & John Norregaard & Dirk Heine, 2012. "Environmental Tax Reform: Principles from Theory and Practice," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 101-125, August.
    2. Gerbert Hebbink & Laurien Berkvens & Maurice Bun & Henk van Kerkhoff & Juho Koistinen & Guido Schotten & Ad Stokman, 2018. "The price of transition: an analysis of the economic implications of carbon taxing," DNB Occasional Studies 1608, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    3. Nicholas Z. Muller & Robert Mendelsohn & William Nordhaus, 2011. "Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the United States Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1649-1675, August.
    4. van der Werf, Edwin, 2008. "Production functions for climate policy modeling: An empirical analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 2964-2979, November.
    5. Alex Anas & Robin Lindsey, 2011. "Reducing Urban Road Transportation Externalities: Road Pricing in Theory and in Practice," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 5(1), pages 66-88, Winter.
    6. Georgakellos, Dimitrios A., 2010. "Impact of a possible environmental externalities internalisation on energy prices: The case of the greenhouse gases from the Greek electricity sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 202-209, January.
    7. Michael Fraser, 2012. "“Fleshing out” an engagement with a social accounting technology," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 25(3), pages 508-534, March.
    8. Ian W.H. Parry & Mr. John Norregaard & Mr. Dirk Heine, 2012. "Environmental Tax Reform: Principles from Theory and Practice to Date," IMF Working Papers 2012/180, International Monetary Fund.
    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. Milan Ščasný & Emanuele Massetti & Jan Melichar & Samuel Carrara, 2015. "Quantifying the Ancillary Benefits of the Representative Concentration Pathways on Air Quality in Europe," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(2), pages 383-415, October.
    2. Alberto Gago & Xavier Labandeira & Xiral López Otero, 2014. "A Panorama on Energy Taxes and Green Tax Reforms," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 208(1), pages 145-190, March.
    3. Sen, Suphi & Vollebergh, Herman, 2018. "The effectiveness of taxing the carbon content of energy consumption," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 74-99.
    4. Oueslati, Walid, 2013. "Short and Long-term Effects of Environmental Tax Reform," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 146354, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    5. Ivan Faiella & Federico Cingano, 2015. "La tassazione verde in Italia: l?analisi di una carbon tax sui trasporti," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(2), pages 45-90.
    6. Paul J. Burke, 2014. "Green Pricing in the Asia Pacific: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(3), pages 561-575, September.
    7. de Mello Luiz & Martinez-Vazquez Jorge, 2022. "Climate Change Implications for the Public Finances and Fiscal Policy: An Agenda for Future Research and Filling the Gaps in Scholarly Work," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 194-198, January.
    8. Cathrine Hagem & Michael Hoel & Thomas Sterner, 2020. "Refunding Emission Payments: Output-Based Versus Expenditure-Based Refunding," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 77(3), pages 641-667, November.
    9. D. Rajagopal, 2017. "A synthesis of unilateral approaches to mitigating emissions leakage under incomplete policies," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 573-590, July.
    10. Ioana-Laura Țibulcă, 2021. "Debt Sustainability: Can EU Member States Use Environmental Taxes to Regain Fiscal Space?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, May.
    11. World Bank, 2014. "Restructuring Corporate Income Tax and Value Added Tax in Vietnam : An Analysis of Current Changes and Agenda for the Future," World Bank Publications - Reports 17832, The World Bank Group.
    12. Jelić, Ozana Nadoveza, 2020. "Implications of Initial Assumptions in Agri-Environmental Nitrogen Pollution Reduction Policy Design: Quasi-Empirical Evidence from Croatia," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 69(4), December.
    13. Oueslati, Walid, 2014. "Environmental tax reform: Short-term versus long-term macroeconomic effects," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 190-201.
    14. Brita Bye & Marit E. Klemetsen, 2018. "The Impacts of Alternative Policy Instruments on Environmental Performance: A Firm Level Study of Temporary and Persistent Effects," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 69(2), pages 317-341, February.
    15. Hagem, Cathrine & Hoel, Michael & Holtsmark, Bjart & Sterner, Thomas, 2015. "Refunding Emissions Payments," RFF Working Paper Series dp-15-05, Resources for the Future.
    16. Miria A. Pigato, 2019. "Fiscal Policies for Development and Climate Action," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 31051, December.
    17. Petr David, 2019. "Can the Czech Road Tax be considered a Tax on Externalities?," European Financial and Accounting Journal, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2019(1), pages 47-63.
    18. Brita Bye & Marit E. Klemetsen, 2014. "The impacts of alternative policy instruments on environmental performance. A firm level study of temporary and persistent effects," Discussion Papers 788, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    19. Schleiniger, Reto, 2016. "Implicit CO2 prices of fossil fuel use in Switzerland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 411-420.
    20. Chakraborty, Lekha, 2020. "Macroeconomic Policy Coherence for SDG 2030: Evidence from Asia Pacific," Working Papers 20/292, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Externalities; Environment; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies; Valuation of Environmental Effects; Environmental Accounts and Accounting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • F64 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Environment
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    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:dnb:dnbwpp:719. 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: DNB (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dnbgvnl.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.