Non-price Policies Research Articles

An Analysis of the IMF’s International Carbon Price Floor

Abstract The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proposed an International Carbon Price Floor (ICPF) arrangement among six major emitting economies (the US, EU, UK, Canada, China, and India) to scale up global climate mitigation action. Our quantitative analysis of the IMF’s ICPFs indicates that, compared to the committed policies of National Determined Contributions (NDCs), differentiated price floors are non-binding for developed countries – and therefore have a limited impact on their climate actions. However, for developing countries (e.g. China and India), the ICPFs effectively translate into substantial increases in carbon prices. Essentially, the ICPFs place additional responsibilities of emission reductions and economic costs fully on China and India. Given this gap between the participation incentives of developed and developing economies, we believe that the ICPF arrangement, in its current form, is unlikely to be adopted by major economies. To address this, we recommend that the IMF devote efforts to: (1) estimating the price equivalents of non-price policy instruments, as well as re-calibrating the desirable floors for broadly defined carbon prices; and (2) considering options to redistribute the economic benefits between developed and developing countries by increasing the availability of climate mitigation funds and low-carbon technologies to developing countries.

Analysis of the Structure of the Pork Trade Market in the Traditional Market in Manggarai Area, East Nusa Tenggara Province

This research was conducted based on the consideration that meat is a commodity that is always needed by the community to meet their nutritional needs. This study aims to determine the influence between pork price variables and determine the market structure of the traditional pork trade industry in Manggarai district. This research took place from January to March 2024 at the Inpres Market and Puni Market. This study was quantitative descriptive and interviewed 49 respondents and continued with elasticity tests, market share, Herfindahl-Hirsrchman Index and Relative Deviation Intercepts. The results of the study show that the structure of the pork trade market in the traditional market of Ruteng City, Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province is included in the monopolistic competition market. Every pork trading business in Ruteng City produces similar goods but has differences in several aspects, namely service, performance and other factors. The policy taken by pork traders in the traditional market of Ruteng City is a non-price policy. These non-price policies include promotion policies, product policies, service policies and family policies. The results of the research on the estimation of the structure of the pork trade market can be concluded that the structure of the pork trade market is classified as a monopolistic competition market because every pork trading business in the city produces similar goods but has differences in several aspects, namely service, performance and other factors.

Effects of government policies reform on environmental sustainability: An integrated approach of PMP and system dynamics simulation model

The government's supportive policies in the agricultural sector may provide some goals intended by policymakers; however, they may have environmental, social, and sometimes economic inefficiencies. Therefore, policy analysis not only needs to examine the effectiveness of these policies from the point of view of economic components but also, in a more comprehensive view, should assess the impact of these policies on other aspects like sustainability. In this study, an integrated Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) and System Dynamics (SD) model was developed to investigate the effects of the agricultural policy reform on the cultivation pattern and water resources sustainability in the Doroodzan Dam basin in Fars Province, southern Iran, where managing water resources is a seriously challenging due to population growth and periodic drought. The initial investigation involved analyzing how price policies (guaranteed price and world price of crops) and non-price policies (removal of subsidy payments to agricultural inputs and improvement of irrigation efficiency) impacted the cropping pattern. The results of the study showed that the most significant decrease in cropland area occurs due to the removal of agricultural input subsidies. Although this crop pattern can lead to environmental sustainability, it is not considered from the point of view of food self-sufficiency. Based on the results, applying world prices increase cropping area for crops like rice, which is a water-intensive crop. Another point was the high priority of onions, fodder corn, and beans while they are not subjected to governmental pricing intervention. This may indicate the extent of public policies' impact on agriculture. Although under some policy scenarios changes in the gross margin or cropping area do not sound significant, the water-saving nature of these policies is more compelling. Finally, the impact of altering cropping patterns along with climate change and population growth on water indices was assessed using SD modeling. Thus, reforming the government's policies in the agricultural sector may help reduce the water shortage index in the basin. The policy of removing subsidies for the agricultural inputs led to the attainment of the lowest water shortage index.

Carbon pricing or non-pricing for developing countries? A dual-track strategy for decarbonization in China

ABSTRACT Unlike the decarbonization trajectories adopted by developed countries, some research suggests that non-pricing policies should be prioritized over pricing policies to mitigate carbon emissions in developing economies. This paper enriches the current literature on carbon pricing by empirically linking China’s carbon pricing and non-pricing policies, using a difference-in-differences approach. The results indicate the effectiveness of the carbon pricing strategy. Furthermore, by introducing an interaction effect model, we find that a higher carbon price will significantly increase the carbon emission abatement effects. In conclusion, the findings highlight the necessity of carbon pricing instruments for decarbonization in developing countries.

Why Emissions Pricing Can’t Do It Alone

This article explores whether emissions pricing is sufficient to achieve the low-emissions transition in Aotearoa New Zealand. It draws on a critical review of the international literature on emissions pricing, policy interactions and political economy to make three broad arguments. First, that emissions pricing alone cannot be expected to induce the necessary levels of behaviour change and technological transition in the urgent time frame required. Second, non-pricing policies can deliver emissions reductions, even within the context of emissions trading under a volume cap. Third, even if emissions pricing could induce sufficient change, there are political economy constraints on reaching the adequate price in a feasible and equitable way. Consequently, we argue that the weight of evidence lies with utilising emissions pricing as part of a policy mix.

The Effect of Non-Price Policies on Household Tobacco Consumption Among the Filipino Youth in City of Manila

Tobacco consumption, including cigarette smoking, has a significant and increasing global public health burden. Despite recent declines in incidence, its adverse effects on human health increases the risk of several cancers. This study explained the non-price strategies that directly influence smokers' intake and initiation and the problem of long-term tobacco exposure by second-hand smokers and those affected by the media or their environment. Higher cigarette taxes and tighter regulations and enforcements, restricting who can purchase tobacco products, are prevention examples that equate to the cessation process. The research contributed to the area of study regarding the optimal control on tobacco use since it examined the findings of the performed survey to understand the influence of non-price strategies such as graphic health warnings on the young smoking intention. To substantiate the relationship between non-price policies and tobacco usage, it explores the purposively selected participants for the study, Filipino male or female youth smokers and non-smokers with an age qualification between 15 and 30 years old. The study illustrates that to promulgate awareness regarding the risks of vicious substance intake, the government must implement substantial compliance and aversion through specific indicators from this research model. Keywords: Youth, tobacco consumption, cessation, risk aversion, illness, health warnings, tobacco policies, smoking

Inter-fuel substitution and decomposition analysis of energy intensity: Empirical evidence from Iran

Iran economy has high energy intensity and CO2 emission compared to other peer countries. This study adopts the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI-I) method to decompose the total energy intensity changes Δ(E/GDP) of the Iranian economy by considering inter-fuel substitution impacts of the economic sectors over the period of 2004–2017. Results show that the total energy intensity of Iran's economy increased by 43.59 barrels of oil equivalent to IRR 1000 (Iranian Rial at a constant price in 2011). Furthermore, results indicate that while inter-sector structural change, per capita GDP impact, and sectoral energy intensity impact lead to an increase in total energy intensity, household energy intensity impact leads to a decrease in total energy intensity during the research period. Extended findings from decomposition analysis demonstrate that household, services, and agriculture sectors have decreasing impact, while industry, power plant and transportation sectors have increasing impact on Δ(E⁄GDP). In addition, removing the consumption of kerosene in household sector and reducing its share in most economic sectors has caused decline, whereas high consumption of fuel oil, gasoline and gasoil compared to other energy carriers, has led to an increase in total energy intensity. As such, it is concluded that substituting various types of fuels in economic sectors couldn't reduce energy intensity. Besides, serious revisions are needed in the energy policies and energy efficiency programs. It is recommended that non-price policies along with price-based energy policies be implemented to reduce energy intensity and CO2 emission.

Impact of price and non-price policies on household cigarette consumption and nutrient intake in smoking-tolerant Indonesia

ObjectiveTo examine the impact of cigarette price and smoking environment on allocation of household expenditure and its implication on nutrition consumption.DesignA cross-sectional study was conducted using the 2014 National Socioeconomic...

Do Regulations on Smoking Limit Cigarette Demand? An Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

Enacting Ordinance No LXXIV 2002, Pakistan has developed crucial anti-tobacco policies in the last two decades. We, therefore, examine in this paper effects of both price (cigarette taxation) and non-price (public regulations on cigarette smoking) anti-tobacco policies on cigarette demand. To accomplish this objective, we examine the short and long run dynamics of cigarette demand in Pakistan using auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimator covering the period 1981-2018 (annual observations). The study compares price elasticity estimated with and without regulations on cigarette smoking. The result obtained shows that when price increases by 10%, cigarette consumption decreases by 5% in the short run while it decreases by 6.9% in the long run. This finding confirms that cigarette demand model, in Pakistan, is in-elastic. More interestingly, the study finds that non-price regulations on smoking and cigarette demand have negative and statistically significant association. This finding confirms that non-price regulations influences the long-term dynamics of cigarette smoking in Pakistan. Furthermore, we obtain low price elasticity with non-price regulations and high price elasticity without non-price regulations while estimating cigarette demand equation. This empirical result is an evident of the fact that estimated cigarette price elasticity without incorporating non-price regulations into the demand model, are upward biased. The study therefore, concludes that smoking regulation policy based on overstated cigarette price elasticity would produce ambiguous outcomes. Hence, relying only on cigarette taxation (price policy) to regulate cigarette smoking would not produce desirable outcome. In addition, university education is positively and significantly associated with cigarette consumption. This finding show that our university education do not properly convey anti-smoking message to students. To reduce cigarette smoking, Pakistan will have to implement stronger, more comprehensive and better enforced non-price regulations along with taxes on cigarettes.

The effects of price and non-price policies on cigarette consumption in South Africa.

INTRODUCTIONThe health consequences of smoking are serious and have been frequently detailed. A reduction in tobacco-related mortality hinges upon the ability to reduce tobacco usage. There is overwhelming evidence that higher cigarette prices reduce the demand for cigarettes, but little is known about the combined effect of price and non-price policies. This paper seeks to extend the analysis of price elasticities by estimating the combined effect of changes in price and non-price legislations in South Africa.METHODSAnnual time-series data from 1961 to 2016 are used, with a policy index constructed to capture the instances of non-price tobacco legislation. We estimate the combined impact of changes in tobacco control policy on cigarette consumption using a vector error correction model (VECM) and a two-stage least squares (2SLS) model.RESULTSThe estimated long-run own-price elasticities lie between -0.55 and -0.72, while the income elasticities lie between 0.39 and 0.49. The coefficients of the changing tobacco control policies and the changing market structure show that they contribute to a modest reduction in cigarette consumption. The short-run deviations from the steady state are presented using the error correction term (ECT).CONCLUSIONSCigarette demand is responsive to cigarette prices and non-pricing policies but failure to control for non-pricing policies overstates the price effect. This suggests that both cigarette prices and non-pricing legislation are effective in reducing cigarette consumption.

Consumer responses to gasoline price and non-price policies

Gasoline consumption in emerging economies have been rising rapidly due to economic growth and increasing urbanization rate in recent years. However, the development has brought about new socio-economic and environmental challenges leading governments to adopt various policies to control the trend. Although the impacts of price changes on gasoline consumption are well-researched in the literature, studies on different policies in a specific country is limited. In this paper, we investigate the impact of three distinct policies (price reform, rationing, and fuel-efficiency) on consumer responses in Iran. We estimate price, income, and efficiency elasticities across household characteristics, income groups, and provinces using the AIDS model and the household expenditures data for the period 2005–2016. The results show that the average price elasticity is -76, however, it varies across household characteristics, time, and space. The price responses are greater in provinces neighbouring the countries with high price differentials and welfare losses of price reform are more sever for lower income families. The estimated elasticities under different policy regimes show that energy price reform has led to significantly higher elasticities, while rationing has led to decreased elasticities. The more stringent efficiency regulation and increasing imports of fuel-efficient cars have also increased elasticities.

Drought Status, Price, and the Effectiveness of Water Use Restrictions in Pennsylvania

During droughts, governments and water suppliers typically implement non-price policies to encourage water conservation. The state of Pennsylvania requests voluntary reductions in residential water use during moderate droughts and imposes mandatory restrictions during drought emergencies. This study utilizes data on household water consumption to measure the effectiveness of the water use restrictions in Pennsylvania during the moderate drought years 2015-2017. Results suggest that voluntary water use restrictions have smaller than desired effects and that the effects are larger the higher the marginal price of water, perhaps reflecting a trade-off between non-monetary benefits and the welfare loss from reducing water usage. The effectiveness of voluntary water use restrictions also is found to increase with the length of the drought.

The impact of tobacco control policies on smoking initiation in eleven European countries

We investigate the effect of tobacco control policies on smoking initiation in eleven European countries. Based on individual data about age of onset of smoking, we use hazard rate models to study smoking initiation. Thus, we are able to take into account observed and unobserved personal characteristics as well as the effect of the introduction of a variety of tobacco control policies including price and and non-price policies, i.e., bans on tobacco advertisements, smoke-free air regulation, health warnings on packages of cigarettes, and treatment programs to help smokers quit smoking. We find that higher tobacco prices have a negative effect on the initiation into smoking for males but not for females. We find no effect of non-price tobacco control policies on smoking initiation.

The Impacts of Water Pricing and Non-Pricing Policies on Sustainable Water Resources Management: A Case of Ghorveh Plain at Kurdistan Province, Iran

As with other regions of Iran, due to excessive extraction of groundwater for intense agricultural activity, Ghorveh plain, a water-scarce irrigation district in the west of Iran, has faced a serious water crisis during the last decade. The present study investigates the impacts of two scenario policies, namely, non-price policy (as a supply-oriented policy) and water pricing policies (as a demand-oriented policy) on agricultural sector of Ghorveh Plain, using positive mathematical programming (PMP). The model was calibrated by using farm-level data for the crop years in 2016–2017. Our findings indicate that applying water supply constraint policy will change the land use and cropping pattern to the crops with higher water productivity. The increase of water resource constraints can lead to the increase of water economic return which indicates a rising value of water resources shortage, warning the producers of the agriculture sector to allocate water to the crops with higher economic value under the water resources shortage conditions. In addition, the findings underline that in a situation where the price of irrigation water is low due to the low elasticity of water demand in the agriculture sector, formulating the economic instruments such as rising water prices does not solely suffice to achieve sustainable water resource management. However, mixed scenarios emphasized that the water distribution policies should be aligned with the increases in water cost.

Is Water Pricing Policy Adequate to Reduce Water Demand for Drought Mitigation in Korea?

Korea experienced an unexpected drought in the southern Seoul metropolitan area from 2015 to 2017. After that, the Korean government has been drafting various policies to mitigate the effects of drought. However, these are primarily long-term drought policies, such as reservoir expansion. A comprehensive water demand reduction policy, which considers both short-term and long-term droughts, is also required. To confirm the effectiveness of the water pricing policy in Korea, we estimated the water demand reduction volume during droughts by assuming the drought and water pricing policy. We used two models for simulation: the severe drought area prediction (SDAP) model and the SD (system dynamics) model. The results showed the water demand reduction by price would not be significantly effective in Korea. We indicated that the effectiveness of policies could differ in each situation so that appropriate policies are needed for each country. This discussion could provide policy implications for other countries being at risk of droughts as well as the Korean government. Furthermore, we discussed non-price water policies that could be implemented in combination with the pricing policy in cases where the water pricing policy does not effectively reduce water demand.

How Much Is Too Much? Estimating Effective Price-Hikes to Affect Smoking Behavior in Vietnam.

Raising the price of cigarettes is one of the most effective strategies to reduce cigarette smoking. The Vietnamese government is working toward the tobacco control goal of a 10% reduction in smoking prevalence by 2020. However, cigarette prices in Vietnam have not increased in the last two decades. The aim of this study was to estimate what cigarette prices would make smokers attempt to quit smoking, and to identify predictors of the price to quit and the intention to quit. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 822 male current smokers in Da Nang, Vietnam. A structured questionnaire was adapted from the International Tobacco Control project survey. Bayesian quantile regression was applied to predict factors associated with expected cigarette price. Fifty-six percent of smokers suggested a price to quit. Their median suggested price to quit per pack, 62 000 VND (2.8 USD), was 2.8 times higher than the actual current price, 22 000 VND (1.01 USD). Suggesting a lower price to quit was significantly associated with awareness of warning labels and smoke-free policies. In contrast, being a heavy smoker was significantly associated with a higher suggested price to quit across all quantiles. There may be sufficient room to increase cigarette prices in Vietnam. The price to quit is associated with various factors, including non-pricing policies. Evidence suggests that a steep increase in cigarette prices, setting a high minimum tax, and introducing a large specific tax, which are policy-induced price increases that can raise prices substantially in Vietnam, are preferable strategies. In addition to increasing price and taxes, the government should also strengthen non-pricing policies.

At the roots of China's striking performance in textile exports: A comparison with its main Asian competitors

This paper analyzes the determinants of China's striking performance in textile exports in the time period 2001–2016. We integrate the analysis by Lall and Albaladejo (World Development, 2004), based only on China and its main Asian competitors' market share dynamics, by estimating an extended version of a traditional export function, derived from the imperfect substitute model, including a proxy of non-price competitiveness. The key long-run elasticities for each Asian exporter are thus computed and discussed in a panel-data framework, and the different export performances are examined taking into account the interaction between the estimated parameters and the growth rates of relative prices, foreign demand and product quality. Lastly, we decompose the textile export growth differences between China and its rivals into the three main channels of trade competition, i.e. price, quantity and quality. Our findings show that China is crowding out most of its rivals with a competitive strategy based on a mix of low and decreasing relative prices and non-price policies aiming at stimulating export volumes. However, certain weaknesses in the Chinese trade prospects emerge when quality improvement is considered.

Research on Strategic Transformation of Marketing Organic and Herbal Products with Respect to Chennai City

Organic and herbal products marketing and their production of all-natural health food is not new phenomenal process. But during recent year's interest in the buying and selling organic and herbal products, industry has increased incredible growth and transformations. Organically grown health food has created a solid niche for itself it's a knowledge of people knowing anonymously. Indeed with the growth of organic products, among the utility of stakeholders an increased concern over the effects of organic and herbal crucially began to make a serious bid for control of the various industry particularly in field of marketing. Indian brands like Dabur India, Himalaya, Herbalife, Patanjali, Eco Farms, Khadhi and 24 Mantra organic etc., are using MLM (Multi Level Marketing) techniques and strategies for marketing and distributing the products. Organic and herbal marketing is growing rapidly and consumers are willing to pay for organic products. Companies that integrate organic strategies into product development, operational process and marketing activities find new opportunities for competitive advantages. Organic products are more preferred by our people in the market today because of natural ingredients. In contrast it has drawn attention of more and more consumers and retailers even to sell the products from street to stations and from supermarkets to online stores with different enclaves. As a result, the work is focused on the analysis of competitive dynamics (inter-firm rivalry, pricing and non-price policies, barriers to entry, regulatory conditions, etc.) within the sector, and draws lessons for competition policy and to overcome the new strategic transformation model of the small scale organic and herbal products in Chennai City.

Overview of Wind Power Industry Value Chain Using Diamond Model: A Case Study from China

Sustainable energy development has gained worldwide attention, in part thanks to the wind power industry value chain that focuses on overall value creation and innovation, especially in China. This paper aims to construct a wind power industry value chain model and comprehensively analyze factors that have significant influences on it using a modified diamond model, which has remained nebulous. Focused on the value-adding effect of constructed value chains, we offer key ideas from different angles. A factor condition lays the foundation of the value chain, and shows that China is experiencing energy structure adjustment in which wind power will play a key role; its resource potential is huge, but with mismatched distribution. Demand conditions reveal an increasing demand for wind but serious wind rejection as well; this is where the value-adding probability exists. Related and support departments collaborate to determine the overall value creation process. Firm strategy, structure, and rivalry are terms that describe possible value-adding subjects considering the wind industry as a whole. Government and opportunity provide robust prices and non-price policies to support value integration, and Technology is an effective factor in cost reduction and value creation as a high value-adding sector. Furthermore, a comparison of wind power industry value chains in China and Japan is conducted. Our findings underscore that a gap exists between actual performance and the expected wind power industry value chain, and corresponding measurements to promote the performance are discussed, including encouraging diversified business models, enhancing R&D and independent innovation, professional cultivation, effectively reducing wind rejection rate, and the full range of government support.

Advances in the Economic Analysis of Residential Water Use: An Introduction

The aim of this Special Issue is to gather evidence on the impact of price policies (PP) and non-price policies (NPP) in shaping residential water use in a context of increased water scarcity. Indeed, a large body of the empirical economic literature on residential water demand has been devoted to measuring the impact of PP (water price increases, use of block rate pricing or peak pricing, etc.). The consensus is that the residential water demand is inelastic with respect to water price, but not perfectly. Given the low water price elasticity, pricing schemes may not always be effective tools for modifying household water behaviors. This is puzzling since increasing the water price is still viewed by public authorities as the most direct economic tool for inducing water conservation behaviors. Additional evidence regarding the use of PP in shaping residential water use is then required. More recently, it has been argued that residential consumers may react to NPP, such as water conservation programs, education campaigns, or smart metering. NPP are based on the idea that residential water users can implement strategies that will result in water savings via changing their individual behaviors. Feedback information based on smart water metering is an example of approach used by some water utilities. There are still large gaps in the knowledge on the residential water demand, and in particular on the impact of PP and NPP on residential water use, household water affordability and water service performance. These topics are addressed in this Special Issue “Advances in the Economic Analysis of Residential Water Use”.