Collaborative Research: The Proper Scale for Environmental Markets with Application to Nitrogen Trading in the Neuse River Basin

合作研究：环境市场的适当规模及其在纽斯河流域氮交易中的应用

• 批准号: 0909056
• 负责人: Gregory Characklis
• 金额: $ 23.88万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2013-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0909056&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Proper; Scale; Environmental

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). One of the most striking developments in public policy over the last several decades is the widespread acceptance of the use of markets to achieve environmental regulation goals. Environmental markets now span air and water pollution, fishing quotas, endangered species habitat, wetlands, and streams. In a market for water pollution, for example, a regulator specifies the total amount of emissions, but the individual emissions by various sources are determined by trading in the market. Each environmental market is defined by a particular spatial scale, that is, the size of the geographic region over which trades are allowed to take place. In practice, there is substantial variation in spatial scale. The sulfur dioxide market encompasses the continental U.S., yet markets for water pollution are often constrained to relatively local watersheds. Despite this observed variation, little research has examined whether the scale of a given market is environmentally and economically optimal. Determining the optimal scale of a pollution emissions market necessitates the simultaneous analysis of economic costs of firms complying with pollution reduction; spatial pattern of pollution and corresponding damages to ecosystems and human populations; and the behavior of humans in the marketplace, particularly the ability to manipulate prices. This collaborative research project will integrate all three of these factors and determine the optimal spatial scale for nitrogen pollution trading in North Carolina's Neuse River basin. A theoretical economic model that combines compliance costs and human behavior will determine the spatial pattern of emissions of nitrogen from wastewater treatment plants. This model will be coupled with a hydrological and biogeochemical model that maps emissions into a spatial distribution of water quality. A series of economic laboratory experiments will be conducted to test the predictions of the economics model. The experiments also will analyze the degree to which feedback about compliance costs and the spatial distribution of water quality mitigates price manipulation. Using these elements, the investigators will analyze various spatial scales and select the one that yields the greatest net benefits to society. The most immediate impact of this study is the market design for the Neuse river basin. This will inform the future debate over North Carolina water quality regulation. The general principles will be directly applicable to similar local water quality regulations, such as the market for nitrogen trading in the Long Island Sound. The study project will impact water quality regulation more broadly. It will provide a framework to compare the current water quality regulation as specified by the Clean Water Act to an alternative framework based on the optimal spatial scale. The project also will influence the design of more general environmental regulation as its methodology provides a template for analyzing the optimal spatial scale of many other environmental markets. This project is supported by the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.

该奖项根据 2009 年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法 111-5）提供资金。过去几十年来公共政策最引人注目的发展之一是人们普遍接受利用市场来实现环境监管目标。环境市场现在涵盖空气和水污染、捕鱼配额、濒危物种栖息地、湿地和溪流。例如，在水污染市场中，监管机构规定了排放总量，但各个来源的单独排放量则由市场交易确定。每个环境市场都是由特定的空间尺度定义的，即允许进行交易的地理区域的大小。实际上，空间尺度存在很大的变化。二氧化硫市场涵盖美国大陆，但水污染市场往往局限于相对局部的流域。尽管观察到了这种差异，但很少有研究检验特定市场的规模是否在环境和经济上是最佳的。确定污染排放市场的最优规模需要同时分析企业遵守污染减排的经济成本；污染的空间格局以及对生态系统和人类的相应损害；以及人类在市场上的行为，特别是操纵价格的能力。该合作研究项目将整合所有这三个因素，并确定北卡罗来纳州纽斯河流域氮污染交易的最佳空间规模。结合合规成本和人类行为的理论经济模型将确定废水处理厂氮排放的空间格局。该模型将与水文和生物地球化学模型相结合，将排放量映射到水质的空间分布。将进行一系列经济实验室实验来检验经济模型的预测。实验还将分析有关合规成本和水质空间分布的反馈在多大程度上减轻了价格操纵。利用这些元素，研究人员将分析各种空间尺度，并选择能为社会带来最大净效益的空间尺度。这项研究最直接的影响是纽斯河流域的市场设计。这将为未来关于北卡罗来纳州水质监管的辩论提供信息。一般原则将直接适用于类似的当地水质法规，例如长岛海峡的氮交易市场。该研究项目将更广泛地影响水质监管。它将提供一个框架，将《清洁水法》规定的当前水质监管与基于最佳空间尺度的替代框架进行比较。该项目还将影响更一般的环境监管的设计，因为其方法为分析许多其他环境市场的最佳空间规模提供了模板。该项目得到了 NSF 自然与人类耦合系统动力学 (CNH) 计划的支持。