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Economic Growth, Income Distribution, and Climate Change

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  • Rezai, Armon
  • Taylor, Lance
  • Foley, Duncan

Abstract

We present a model based on Keynesian aggregate demand and labor productivity growth to study how climate damage affects the long-run evolution of the economy. Climate change induced by greenhouse gas lowers profitability, reducing investment and cutting output in the short and long runs. Short-run employment falls due to deficient demand. In the long run productivity growth is slower, lowering potential income levels. Climate policy can increase incomes and employment in the short and long runs while a continuation of business-as-usual leads to a dystopian income distribution with affluence for few and high levels of unemployment for the rest.

Suggested Citation

  • Rezai, Armon & Taylor, Lance & Foley, Duncan, 2018. "Economic Growth, Income Distribution, and Climate Change," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 164-172.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:146:y:2018:i:c:p:164-172
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.10.020
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    Cited by:

    1. Yongyang Cai & William Brock & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2023. "Climate Change Impact on Economic Growth: Regional Climate Policy under Cooperation and Noncooperation," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(3), pages 569-605.
    2. Nicholas Ngepah & Charles Raoul Tchuinkam Djemo & Charles Shaaba Saba, 2022. "Forecasting the Economic Growth Impacts of Climate Change in South Africa in the 2030 and 2050 Horizons," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.
    3. Ar'anzazu de Juan & Pilar Poncela & Vladimir Rodr'iguez-Caballero & Esther Ruiz, 2022. "Economic activity and climate change," Papers 2206.03187, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2022.
    4. de Oliveira, Guilherme & Lima, Gilberto Tadeu, 2022. "Economic growth as a double-edged sword: The pollution-adjusted Kaldor-Verdoorn effect," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    5. Omer, Ozlem & Capaldo, Jeronim, 2023. "The risks of the wrong climate policy for developing countries: Scenarios for South Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    6. Sébastien Charles & Thomas Dallery & Jonathan Marie, 2020. "Teaching the effect of COVID-19 with a manageable model," CEPN Working Papers hal-02610519, HAL.
    7. Eric Kemp-Benedict & Jonathan Lamontagne & Timothy Laing & Crystal Drakes, 2019. "Climate Impacts on Capital Accumulation in the Small Island State of Barbados," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-23, June.
    8. Franziska Piontek & Matthias Kalkuhl & Elmar Kriegler & Anselm Schultes & Marian Leimbach & Ottmar Edenhofer & Nico Bauer, 2019. "Economic Growth Effects of Alternative Climate Change Impact Channels in Economic Modeling," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 1357-1385, August.
    9. Naqvi, Asjad & Stockhammer, Engelbert, 2018. "Directed Technological Change in a Post-Keynesian Ecological Macromodel," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 168-188.
    10. Larch, Mario & Löning, Markus & Wanner, Joschka, 2018. "Can degrowth overcome the leakage problem of unilateral climate policy?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 118-130.
    11. Zaheer Allam & David Jones, 2019. "Climate Change and Economic Resilience through Urban and Cultural Heritage: The Case of Emerging Small Island Developing States Economies," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, June.
    12. Bovari, Emmanuel & Giraud, Gaël & Mc Isaac, Florent, 2018. "Coping With Collapse: A Stock-Flow Consistent Monetary Macrodynamics of Global Warming," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 383-398.
    13. Lance Taylor, 2019. "Synthetic MMT: Old Line Keynesianism with an Expansionary Twist," Working Papers Series 103, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    14. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Wang, Chih-Wei & Thinh, Bui Tien, 2023. "Green development, climate risks, and cash flow: International evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    15. Wang, Chih-Wei & Wu, Yu-Ching & Hsieh, Hsin-Yi & Huang, Po-Hsiang & Lin, Meng-Chieh, 2022. "Does green bond issuance have an impact on climate risk concerns?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    16. Dávila-Fernández, Marwil J. & Sordi, Serena, 2020. "Attitudes towards climate policies in a macrodynamic model of the economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    17. Wen, Jun & Zhang, Sen & Chang, Chun-Ping & Anugrah, Donni Fajar & Affandi, Yoga, 2023. "Does climate vulnerability promote green investment under energy supply restriction?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    18. Saleh, Layla & Zaabi, Mohamed al & Mezher, Toufic, 2019. "Estimating the social carbon costs from power and desalination productions in UAE," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Abid, Nabila & Ahmad, Fayyaz & Aftab, Junaid & Razzaq, Asif, 2023. "A blessing or a burden? Assessing the impact of Climate Change Mitigation efforts in Europe using Quantile Regression Models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    20. Zhuohang Li & Tao Shen & Yifen Yin & Hsing Hung Chen, 2022. "Innovation Input, Climate Change, and Energy-Environment-Growth Nexus: Evidence from OECD and Non-OECD Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-19, November.
    21. Etienne Espagne, 2018. "Money, Finance and Climate: The Elusive Quest for a Truly Integrated Assessment Model," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 60(1), pages 131-143, March.
    22. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Wang, Chih-Wei & Thinh, Bui Tien & Xu, Zhi-Ting, 2022. "Climate risk and bank liquidity creation: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    23. Leonidas Paroussos & Kostas Fragkiadakis & Panagiotis Fragkos, 2020. "Macro-economic analysis of green growth policies: the role of finance and technical progress in Italian green growth," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 591-608, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate change; Economic growth; Integrated assessment; Demand and distribution; Energy productivity; Unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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