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Digging into Environmental Productivity: Is It All about Technology?

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  • Filippo Belloc
  • Edilio Valentini

Abstract

We propose a mixture model approach to decompose environmental productivity into a managerial and a technological dimension, and to identify locally optimal technologies. For a large sample of plants covered by the EU Emission Trading System, we find that the average output gains, emissions being equal, that plants could reach by adopting the locally optimal technology and the best managerial practices available in the sector are 162% and 53% respectively, with significant cross-plant and cross-sector differentials. This data driven decomposition delivers important policy insights, as it helps predicting larger reductions in emission intensity from exible policies than from one-size-fits-all technology-based standards

Suggested Citation

  • Filippo Belloc & Edilio Valentini, 2021. "Digging into Environmental Productivity: Is It All about Technology?," Department of Economics University of Siena 857, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    • Handle: RePEc:usi:wpaper:857
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental productivity; Emission intensity; Environmental technology; Environmental management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation

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