IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v248y2016i2p715-724.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technical change and pollution abatement costs

Author

Listed:
  • Färe, Rolf
  • Grosskopf, Shawna
  • Pasurka, Carl

Abstract

There is continuing interest in the trend of costs associated with pollution abatement activities. We specify an environmental production technology to model the joint production of good and bad outputs. The joint production model calculates pollution abatement costs and identifies changes in these costs associated with: (1) technical change, (2) input changes, and (3) changes in bad output production. Estimates of the relative importance of each factor are estimated using data from 1995 to 2005 for a sample of coal-fired power plants in the United States. Finally, we discuss the potential usefulness of the decomposition model for identifying discrepancies between ex ante and ex post pollution abatement costs that are linked to the underlying joint production model.

Suggested Citation

  • Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Pasurka, Carl, 2016. "Technical change and pollution abatement costs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(2), pages 715-724.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:248:y:2016:i:2:p:715-724
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2015.07.040
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221715006748
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2015.07.040?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aparicio, Juan & Pastor, Jesus T. & Zofio, Jose L., 2013. "On the inconsistency of the Malmquist–Luenberger index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(3), pages 738-742.
    2. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Pasurka, Carl A., 2014. "Potential gains from trading bad outputs: The case of U.S. electric power plants," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 99-112.
    3. Winston Harrington & Richard D. Morgenstern & Peter Nelson, 2000. "On the accuracy of regulatory cost estimates," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 297-322.
    4. Curtis Carlson & Dallas Burtraw & Maureen Cropper & Karen L. Palmer, 2000. "Sulfur Dioxide Control by Electric Utilities: What Are the Gains from Trade?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(6), pages 1292-1326, December.
    5. Carl Pasurka, 2001. "Technical Change and Measuring Pollution Abatement Costs: An Activity Analysis Framework," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 18(1), pages 61-85, January.
    6. Murty, Sushama & Russell, R. Robert, 2010. "On modeling pollution-generating technologies," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 931, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    7. Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf & Carl A. Pasurka & William L. Weber, 2012. "Substitutability among undesirable outputs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 39-47, January.
    8. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Pasurka, Carl A., 2007. "Environmental production functions and environmental directional distance functions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1055-1066.
    9. Leleu, Hervé, 2013. "Shadow pricing of undesirable outputs in nonparametric analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 231(2), pages 474-480.
    10. Shawna Grosskopf, 2003. "Some Remarks on Productivity and its Decompositions," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 459-474, November.
    11. Sahoo, Biresh K. & Luptacik, Mikulas & Mahlberg, Bernhard, 2011. "Alternative measures of environmental technology structure in DEA: An application," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 215(3), pages 750-762, December.
    12. Yaisawarng, Suthathip & Klein, J Douglass, 1994. "The Effects of Sulfur Dioxide Controls on Productivity Change in the U.S. Electric Power Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(3), pages 447-460, August.
    13. W. Liu & W. Meng & X. Li & D. Zhang, 2010. "DEA models with undesirable inputs and outputs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 177-194, January.
    14. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 2004. "Modeling undesirable factors in efficiency evaluation: Comment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(1), pages 242-245, August.
    15. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 1983. "Measuring output efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 173-179, June.
    16. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Pasurka, Carl Jr., 2007. "Pollution abatement activities and traditional productivity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3-4), pages 673-682, May.
    17. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Zhu, Joe, 2002. "Modeling undesirable factors in efficiency evaluation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 16-20, October.
    18. Fare, R. & Grosskopf, S. & Pasurka, C., 1986. "Effects on relative efficiency in electric power generation due to environmental controls," Resources and Energy, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 167-184, June.
    19. Cropper, Maureen L & Oates, Wallace E, 1992. "Environmental Economics: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 675-740, June.
    20. Hwang, Shiuh-Nan & Chen, Chialin & Chen, Yao & Lee, Hsuan-Shih & Shen, Pei-Di, 2013. "Sustainable design performance evaluation with applications in the automobile industry: Focusing on inefficiency by undesirable factors," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 553-558.
    21. Baumgartner, Stefan & Dyckhoff, Harald & Faber, Malte & Proops, John & Schiller, Johannes, 2001. "The concept of joint production and ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 365-372, March.
    22. Forsund, Finn R., 2009. "Good Modelling of Bad Outputs: Pollution and Multiple-Output Production," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 3(1), pages 1-38, August.
    23. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Zhu, Joe, 2005. "A response to comments on modeling undesirable factors in efficiency evaluation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(2), pages 579-581, March.
    24. Ball, E. & Fare, R. & Grosskopf, S. & Zaim, O., 2005. "Accounting for externalities in the measurement of productivity growth: the Malmquist cost productivity measure," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 374-394, September.
    25. Murty, Sushama & Robert Russell, R. & Levkoff, Steven B., 2012. "On modeling pollution-generating technologies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 117-135.
    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. Jeanneaux, Philippe & Latruffe, Laure, 2016. "Modelling pollution-generating technologies in performance benchmarking: Recent developments, limits and future prospects in the nonparametric frameworkAuthor-Name: Dakpo, K. Hervé," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(2), pages 347-359.
    2. Ke Wang & Yi-Ming Wei & Zhimin Huang, 2017. "Environmental efficiency and abatement efficiency measurements of China¡¯s thermal power industry: A data envelopment analysis based materials balance approach," CEEP-BIT Working Papers 108, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology.
    3. Wang, Ke & Wei, Yi-Ming & Huang, Zhimin, 2018. "Environmental efficiency and abatement efficiency measurements of China's thermal power industry: A data envelopment analysis based materials balance approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(1), pages 35-50.
    4. Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf & Carl A. Pasurka & Ron Shadbegian, 2018. "Pollution abatement and employment," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 259-285, February.
    5. Liu, Haiying & Owens, Katharine A. & Yang, Ke & Zhang, Chunhong, 2020. "Pollution abatement costs and technical changes under different environmental regulations," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    6. Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf & Carl A. Pasurka, 2023. "Revealed pollution abatement costs revisited," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 25(4), pages 601-629, October.
    7. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Pasurka, Carl A., 2014. "Potential gains from trading bad outputs: The case of U.S. electric power plants," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 99-112.
    8. Abad, Arnaud & Briec, Walter, 2019. "On the axiomatic of pollution-generating technologies: Non-parametric production analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(1), pages 377-390.
    9. Victoria Wojcik & Harald Dyckhoff & Sebastian Gutgesell, 2017. "The desirable input of undesirable factors in data envelopment analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 259(1), pages 461-484, December.
    10. Atkinson, Scott E. & Tsionas, Mike G., 2021. "Generalized estimation of productivity with multiple bad outputs: The importance of materials balance constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(3), pages 1165-1186.
    11. Juan Du & Yongrui Duan & Jinghua Xu, 2019. "The infeasible problem of Malmquist–Luenberger index and its application on China’s environmental total factor productivity," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 278(1), pages 235-253, July.
    12. Leleu, Hervé, 2013. "Shadow pricing of undesirable outputs in nonparametric analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 231(2), pages 474-480.
    13. Dakpo, Hervé K & Jeanneaux, Philippe & Latruffe, Laure, 2014. "Inclusion of undesirable outputs in production technology modeling: The case of greenhouse gas emissions in French meat sheep farming," Working Papers 207806, Institut National de la recherche Agronomique (INRA), Departement Sciences Sociales, Agriculture et Alimentation, Espace et Environnement (SAE2).
    14. Cherchye, Laurens & Rock, Bram De & Walheer, Barnabé, 2015. "Multi-output efficiency with good and bad outputs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(3), pages 872-881.
    15. Ke Wang & Yujiao Xian & Chia-Yen Lee & Yi-Ming Wei & Zhimin Huang, 2019. "On selecting directions for directional distance functions in a non-parametric framework: a review," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 278(1), pages 43-76, July.
    16. Hampf, Benjamin & Rødseth, Kenneth Løvold, 2015. "Carbon dioxide emission standards for U.S. power plants: An efficiency analysis perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 140-153.
    17. Surender Kumar & Rakesh Kumar Jain, 2021. "Cost of CO2 emission mitigation and its decomposition: evidence from coal-fired thermal power sector in India," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 693-717, August.
    18. Jie Wu & Xiang Lu & Dong Guo & Liang Liang, 2017. "Slacks-Based Efficiency Measurements with Undesirable Outputs in Data Envelopment Analysis," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(04), pages 1005-1021, July.
    19. Wang, Ke & Wei, Yi-Ming & Huang, Zhimin, 2016. "Potential gains from carbon emissions trading in China: A DEA based estimation on abatement cost savings," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 48-59.
    20. Benjamin Hampf, 2018. "Measuring inefficiency in the presence of bad outputs: Does the disposability assumption matter?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 101-127, February.

    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:eee:ejores:v:248:y:2016:i:2:p:715-724. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    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.